PHOENICIA, NY - Authors Wes Coates and John Ham will present a 90-minute presentation on their new collaboration titled“A Century Ago, Electric Trains Roamed the Hudson, Mohawk, & Susquehanna Valleys” on Sunday, October 18, beginning at 1 p.m. at the Empire State Railway Museum, 70 Lower High Street, Phoenicia.
The book tells the stories of the Albany Hudson Fast Line, the United Traction Company, which crisscrossed Albany and Troy; Schenectady Railways, Hudson Valley Railway, Fonda, Johnstown, and Gloversville Railroad, and the Southern New York Railway, which covered Oneonta, Cooperstown, and the Mohawk Valley.
Electric railroading has interested Coates from an early age, when he heard stories from family members familiar with early electric lines, including the Laurel Line and two “interurbans” in Scranton, PA. His grandfather worked as a motorman for the Scranton Traction Company.
In the years since, Coates has amassed a broad collection of electric railway and trolly photos and memorabilia and has traveled abroad to ride aboard electric trains in New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa.
Coates began his railroad career in 1972, working in train service on the Erie Lackawanna Railroad during his summer vacations. He eventually qualified as a conductor and went on to a career in railroading in a range of positions, including dispatcher, train master, assistant superintendent, superintendent and culminating as general manager of the Amtrak Empire Corridor.
Since retiring from Amtrak, Coates has been a railroad consultant. From 2016 to 2020, Coates served as general manager of the Delaware & Ulster Railroad based in Arkville, NY. During this time, he became good friends with John Ham, which led to this collaboration.
John Ham has authored numerous railroad history books, with many focusing on the railroads of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys and the Catskill Mountains. All are extensively illustrated with captivating and rarely seen photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Empire State Railway Museum's mission is to preserve the history of the Catskill Mountain and surrounding railroads and their impact on our culture, society, economy, and communities through education, interpretation, restoration, and preservation of not only railroad records, photographs, equipment, cars, and locomotives, but also that of the personal histories and recollections of those involved with and affected by the railroads.
