The Rondout & Oswego's Beautiful Passenger Cars

The Rondout & Oswego Railroad is the Catskill railroad that no one remembers.

Second only to the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad, an unsuccessful business venture that lasted but two years of the 1840s before its minimal impact was wiped from the landscape, the Rondout & Oswego is the Catskills' oldest railroad, and one could say it's also their longest operating: portions of the R&O still operate today as very successful tourist railroads.

Yet it's also a railroad whose name was literally erased from existence. The R&O was chartered in 1866 although it did not begin to operate in earnest until 1870, and after going bankrupt a few times and in short succession, it was reorganized into the Ulster & Delaware Railroad in 1875 - the name it would carry for the rest of its existence. Because the U&D only operated under its R&O moniker for the very first of its infant years, modern scholars are quick to overlook the R&O - particularly those fans mostly interested in the later New York Central era. (The New York Central System took over the railroad in the 1930s.) Yet the U&D's R&O roots arguably herald the most artful and exquisite rolling stock to ever trace rails in the Catskills.

Information on the Rondout & Oswego's early passenger cars is not complete. But they were exquisite.

R&O baggage car, Delaware Public Archives.

The only clear photograph of an R&O passenger car is of one of its baggage cars. And what the photo shows is a profusion of gold gilt and multi-color lettering, gothic-framed windows, and an exterior shining beneath layers of lacquer. Just take a look at the scrollwork on the corners of the car and the doorposts! If the railroad bothered to order baggage cars so sumptuously appointed, one can only imagine the beauty of its coaches, of which no equivalent photos have yet surfaced.

In truth, the gorgeous baggage car is ordinary for its era. Passenger cars during the R&O era of 1869-1875 were rolling works of art; it was, by some regard, the very zenith of passenger car exterior design in the United States. Some would say "it only went downhill from there," with the Eastlake trends that took hold in the 1880s and 90s and dominated the passenger car market with their simpler exteriors for the rest of wooden passenger car building. To supply its carriages, the Rondout & Oswego turned to well-known railcar manufacturer Jackson & Sharp in Wilmington, Delaware.

On May 9th, 1871, the Bloomville Mirror reported, "A new and elegant passenger car has been placed upon the Rondout and Oswego Railroad."

No photos of this car, I presume to be a coach, exist, but it probably looked something like this:

Delaware Public Archives.

Or, if the railroad wanted to splurge a little extra, like this:

Delaware Public Archives.

Both these pictures are of representative coaches also built the same year, 1871, by Jackson & Sharp. It's likely the R&O coaches looked like either one of them, differing only with the name on the letterboard. The grayscale hue of these sample cars is not necessarily indicative of how the Rondout & Oswego cars were painted. We know from the baggage car photo that the baggage cars were light-colored, probably "straw" (a tannish yellow) or orange, but the unphotographed coaches could have been likewise light, or a number of dark hues, like deep Brunswick green or some variation of "lake" (very deep brownish). In the 1870s, it was not yet common to match the paint schemes of cars in a train.

(Discussion: from the photo of its baggage car, it is clear the R&O paid good money for it. Photos of R&O locomotives also seem to show that the railroad opted for the high "passenger finish" for its engines, as pointed out to me by John Ott, paying the premium for such features as natural varnished cabs and brass steam dome wrappers, things which at the time were considered extra features. Based on this logic, it is reasonable to propose that the coaches ordered by the road were likely higher end as well, but unfortunately the best we can make on this topic is an educated guess.)

In any case, by March 1872, the railroad had seven passenger cars, as reported in a tax claim against the railroad. This is a large number for a small railroad and likely included the two or three baggage cars.

On July 4th, 1870, the railroad ran two special excursions to Phoenicia and back (fare - $1). Passengers riding these trains, seeing the Esopus Valley from the window of a railroad passenger car for the first time, would have been riding in these charismatic palaces of wood.

If they glanced away from the passing scenery and took a gander at the interior of their accommodations, they would have seen something like this:

1871 Jackson & Sharp passenger car interior, Delaware Public Archives.

The walls are finished in rich woods, the seats are upholstered in plush, and the ceiling is covered in what is called a "headliner" - white canvas painted in colorful ornamented designs. Such painted headliners were standard in the 1870s and would have been a feature of the Rondout & Oswego coaches. From the ceilings hang intricate lamps - likely polished brass or nickel-plated.

Passenger car design was certainly at its most ornamental in the 1870s, from the sheer detail of the exterior decoration to the ornamented headliners on the interior. As the decade changed to the 1880s, ceilings became stenciled with simpler, less ostentatious patterns instead, and exterior decoration morphed into more basic geometric linework instead of the shaded floral designs seen on the R&O baggage car.

At the same time, technology improved. Cars became larger, longer, and smoother-riding, and safer as well. Such changes took place on the Rondout & Oswego - or the Ulster & Delaware as it became - as well as anywhere. The later Pullmans of the 1890s and early 1900s, the time of the U&D's greatest wealth, may have been more refined in their simple elegance by today's standards, but for pure artfulness, nothing beats those early, dandy, gilded cars of the Rondout & Oswego.