Many more trains coming and leaving Tupper this summer

by Dan McClelland

Trains in and out of Tupper Lake will be much more commonplace this summer, with a solid schedule announced this week by the Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society (ARPS).

ARPS is the Remsen-based not-for-profit volunteer train organization that will be running the trains this summer. The train company has been running trains and excursions out of Utica, Remsen and Thendara stations for over a decade.

Every Sunday, beginning July 16 and running through the Columbus Day weekend a train will arrive from Thendara (Old Forge) at about 11:30 a.m. The return trip south will leave the Tupper Lake station at 4p.m. each Sunday.

Those train times will offer passengers a four and one half hour opportunity to explore the community, including visits to the business districts, the Wild Center, the Adirondack Observatory, take in a Riverpigs game and other local offerings.

On those Sundays there will also be a train departing the Tupper station at 12:30p.m. for a short ride to Sabattis and back, pulling into the local station about 2:45 p.m.

This afternoon excursion will be the first train to ever officially depart Tupper, ARPS officials said this week. When New York Central was running passenger trains through Tupper Lake prior to the mid-1960s, its service permitted passengers to board or exit trains that were running through the Junction here but no trains ever started here.

The third type of train service that will begin this summer on the Adirondack Railroad will be full-day round trips from Utica to Tupper Lake and back. ARPS leaders plan to operate six of what are being called “High Peaks Limited” trains on Saturdays in late July, August, September and early October.

Members of the ARPS board of directors have worked very hard in recent years to convince the decision-makers of Albany to extend summer train service from Big Moose to Tupper Lake. It resulted in a $32 million restoration of the line by the railroad division of the New York State Department of Transportation. It materialized in a compromise advanced by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who proposed extending the train operation to Tupper Lake and tearing up the tracks between here and Lake Placid for a new four-season hiking and biking trail.

The Tupper Lake Junction will soon be the busy terminus of both tourism operations.

Ably representing this area on the ARPS board are Jim Ellis of Tupper Lake, Al Dunham of Saranac Lake, Steve Potter from Long Lake and Bob Hest from Owl’s Head.

The final piece of the rehabilitation of the railroad is work that needs to be done at the Tupper Lake station yard, including a new platform that will be situated between twin tracks in front of the station, a large Y to turn the trains around and the construction of a large train repair garage between the tracks and Washington Street several hundred yards past the station.

Originally that work was planned last summer but when bids were let in early 2022 they came in way over cost estimates.

A re-bidding earlier this year produced a similar result and so the construction around the station was postponed again.

There was one benefit to the delays, however. With no construction planned around the station this summer, it has permitted ARPS to run more trains to and from here that it hadn’t counted on being able to do.

“We are very excited about partnering with the Tupper Lake business community to deliver memorable experiences for visitors and residents, combining the unique opportunity to see parts of the Adirondacks visible only from a vintage railcar with the offerings of many businesses and attractions in Tupper Lake,” Jim Ellis said this week.

His colleagues, Bob Hest, Al Dunham and Steve Potter echoed his sentiment, noting the new passenger train operation will bring hundreds and hundreds of new visitors to Tupper Lake, beginning this summer- both by rail and by car to board a train here.

Another exciting piece of tourism news this week is ARPS announcement that the rail bike operation will be returning to the Tupper station, beginning Saturday, May 27.

The rail bikes which cruised south to the Gull Pond intersection of the railroad three times each weekend day last summer proved wildly popular with both visitors and residents last summer.

The excursions on the easily-pedalled bikes will begin at 9a.m., noon and 3p.m. day from the local station.

Directing the operation this summer will again be ARPS Joe Van Ells.

The rail bike tours are expected to run weekends through Columbus Day.