Rail bikes roll from depot Friday

by Dan McClelland

The first rail bikes rolled south out of the Tupper Lake train station Friday at 10a.m. and the first 40 or so riders were as excited as kids at a candy store.

All ready to greet the first rail riders was Jakob Rothfuss, the very youthful director of rail bike operations with the Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society (ARPS), which is running Adirondack Railbike Adventures from the Tupper Lake depot to the Gull Pond intersection of the rail line.

The new bike service has also been dubbed “The Raquette Rambler.”

Working with Jakob Friday morning were three of his rail bike guides: Joe Banells, Elishia Dale and Matty Leichty. Mr. Dale worked as a rail bike guide a half dozen years ago with Rail Explorers, when it was based in Saranac Lake.

ARPS Board member and secretary Bob Hest of Owl’s Head was in Tupper Lake that morning for the launching of the new business, as was ARPS Executive Director Justin Gonyo. Bob has been point man for the leasing of the local station by the rail company and the new rail bike operation now run out of it.

The first six people to arrive that morning were checking out the new rides in front of the station. They were Jim Meenam and his wife, Joy, Zach and Mindy Fredenburg of Saranac Lake and Mickey Todd and of Homer, Alaska and who also owns property in Colton. With Mickey was his wife, Wendy.

Zach grew up in Tupper Lake, the son of Jane Fredenburg St. Louis of Tupper Lake, and is an instructor of auto mechanics at BOCES. Asked about how his Tupper Lake students behave in class, the teacher said they were very respectful of authority and he enjoys teaching them, as he does all his students in his classes.

Zach and Mindy had the honor of piloting the first bike in the 10a.m. adventure.

“It was a blast,” Zach said of their trip last week. He said there is a slight incline in the tracks on the way down and the pedaling was a little tougher than he thought it would be. “But on the way back to the station it was all down hill.” He called it a great trip.

Another couple from Brooklyn were also excited about the ride they would take that morning. They were Allen Nyysola and Debbie Rubowitz. The couple said they came to the tri-lakes a half a dozen years ago to ride the heavier bikes of the Adirondack Explorers.

Allen said his brother was a big railroad buff, so they came here to try out the new rail bikes.

He said they were fans of the Lumberjack Inn, where they dined on earlier visits and he looked forward to its eventual re-opening.

We told them our next door neighbors on River Road, Christian and Regina Bramberger, were also big fans of the Lumberjack, and they too looked forward to the re-opening.

Mickey wondered about the amount of snow the Adirondacks was seeing and asked was it enough to promote snowmobiling on the corridor. We explained the snowfall has been relatively light in recent years, and when not enough arrives to fully cover the railroad tracks, snowmobilers from Old Forge and other points south have trouble getting here. In heavy snow years the snowmobile trade is brisk here. He said Alaska hasn’t seen the snowfalls in recent years that it was traditionally known for.

He also asked about Big Tupper and the prospects for its reopening, and we gave him the short version of that story.

A big contingent on the first ride were the Fitzgerald and Alverez families, who sent along the photo in front of the company’s banner at the station. They came 13 members strong from one month old Maeve Flanagan Alverez to senior members Lyn and Oscar Alverez.

The family has a deep connection here. Lyn’s parents, Leo and Joan Fitzgerald honeymooned here many decades ago and about 1975 they purchased a house on Raquette River Drive. The place is now owned by Lyn’s brother Paul, who is a buddy with neighbor Lyndon Johnson.

After the trip, Lyn called their trip “great exercise in beautiful scenery...a unique adventure recommended” for the whole family.

She admitted it was a little more exercise than she expected, but she said the family members were pumped up and fortified by the vitamins in the tomato juice of their Bloody Marys.

As the guests prepared to board their two-seater or four-seater bikes, Jakob Rothfuss ran up and down the tracks in front of the station, making sure everything was in order. Before the convoy headed south, he held up vehicles for a minute or two at the rail crossing so the bikes could cross.

When the new rail bike fleet is complete here there will be ten four-seaters and five two-seaters to accommodate as many as 50 riders per trip, according to Executive Director Gonyo.

The rail bike excursions will be scheduled Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through mid-October at 10a.m, 1p.m. and 3p.m. each day. To get tickets go to the web site adirondackscenicrailbikes.com.

The rail bike operation start comes 130 years after Dr. Webb’s Malone and Mohawk Railroad arrived at the Tupper station for the first time on July 16, 1892. See related story this week.