Restoration at Mooers Junction Railroad Depot

MOOERS JUNCTION | A crowd filled the Mooers Free Library recently for a historical presentation on their town's storied railroad history. The roar of iron and steam was big industry at the turn of the 19th Century. In 1891, trains leaving Rouses Point totaled 107 daily, 27 passenger trains and 80 freight trains, according to historic documents. Clinton County Historical Association Trustee Dick Soper shared new bits of railroad history from a photo album and notebook they received posthumously from a rail aficionado. Photos, memorabilia and railroad articles that date to the late 1800s. Soper, who worked for many years at Bombardier (now Alstom) building rail cars, focused his presentation on the Mooers Junction Depot, which has been fully restored over the past 15-plus years. He was invited and introduced by Town of Mooers Historian Vicki Brassard. Clinton County Historian Helen Nerska helped put the program together. After the Northern Railroad opened in 1851, the line connected commerce from the St. Lawrence River through many towns at the top of New York State. It carried Great Lakes products to Rouses Point, delivering people and freight across Lake Champlain, and then south to Boston and New York. It also impelled major growth in the timber, mining and agricultural industries throughout the Northern Tier. What remains of the ghost track line and depot stations today are called the Rutland after the Rutland Railroad, the final operator when the line closed in 1961. Mooers Junction became a major intersection for connecting west and east trains via the Rutland and north and south on the Delaware & Hudson, Soper said. The junction had two great wyes: arched, triangular line arrangements east and west the station that allowed trains to reverse direction and otherwise safely pass from one line to another in two directions. A turntable once served the Mooer Junction, he said, and Brassard is actively searching to locate its remnants. Soper shared diagrams of the complex line and signal systems that connected trains from the passenger station to a freight building behind it. Railroad infrastructure and community resources to support rail commerce were vast in the early years, to include a hotel, a milk factory, a yard for corralling cattle awaiting shipment, a coal yard, a hop pole yard, a butter factory, a roller skating rink and a customs office in addition to the Depot, which had a telegraph communications office. Soper's maps indicate the depot had 25 accompanying structures and buildings at the height of operations. Several major railroad innovations were made here in the North Country, Soper said, showing how a dangerous link-and-pin coupler was used on early trains and required manual operation. On July 1, 1886, all freight cars in New York were refit with an automatic car coupling, he said, pointing to news reports declaring: "the man-slaying coupling pin is to be abolished." A new automatic car decoupler was designed by Mr. D.L. Hays of Mooers Forks, Soper shared. Railroad company fliers proclaimed Hays "struck oil" with his invention, which he patented. Rail executives found the device "exactly meets the demand of the railroad service," and "gained favor with railroad managers and operators for its simple design and durability. It allowed the link-and-pin to connect and disconnect automatically either at a stand or in motion." The very first refrigerated car ever built and designed was made up here, Soper said. "They had a wood box car they lined on the inside with tin, they put ice around the outside edge, and then filled it up with milk and milk products. They would head over, not just to Boston, but to New Hampshire and Vermont," Soper said in his presentation. Chris Trombley, who restored the Mooers Junction Depot over the past 15 years with longtime friend, the late Larry Marnes, said that the first refrigerated car was built in Malone. Soper also described how the antiquated railroad fixtures worked, including the highball used to signal trains to stop. Not every depot had passengers looking to board a scheduled run, he said. "Passenger trains were on a set schedule," Soper said. "If the highball was facing out it meant that the train did not have to stop, and it would go full speed." Vicki Brassard and husband Gibby Brassard have purchased the D&H Freight building and related property behind the restored Mooers Junction station with plans to restore it, he said, sharing current photos of the building as it sits behind the station today. "It looks like a very sturdy-built building," he said. "I'm guessing its almost the same size as the Mooers Junction station." Renovations to the Mooers Junction Depot are extraordinary, he said, like the property was wrapped some 60 years ago and preserved. The telegraph receiver in the Mooers Junction restoration has an original "sounder," he said, pointing to a wedge-shaped box behind the relay equipment. "When you're listening to the message coming in with a series of dot dot dots, it makes that sound louder," Soper said. "I understand also it sometimes had a tobacco tin in the back of it to make it louder, so in case you were outside you could hear a telegram coming in." The revenue side encompassed the ticket window, telegraph orders and radio communications and the semaphore, a signal with blades that could be raised or lowered: horizontal meant stop or danger; vertical meant clear or proceed; diagonal indicated caution in approach. At night, a lamp used behind colored lenses provided the same information. A vintage semaphore has been reinstalled at the Mooers Junction Depot. Using photos, Soper defined historic operations and detailed restoration of the depot and the caboose parked on a length of rail just outside the front door. Railroad history is a key segment of local history, he said, and the historical association welcomes local contributions. If you find objects that you have, share them with photographs, Soper said. "We can always get a digital copy to a museum." A recorded version of an earlier presentation by Soper on the Mooers Junction station is available on the Home Town Cable YouTube page: CCHA Mooers Railroad.

Signup for our newsletter

Restoration at Mooers Junction Railroad Depot

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS