Catskill Mountain Railway

While the railroad served its purpose of bringing passengers closer to the mountain top resorts, it still left them with an arduous hour-long stage trip up the face of the Catskill Escarpment (also known as the Wall of Manitou).

In 1885 a branch was built in Cairo, New York, with the intent to carry bluestone, hay and fruit, and was run year round.

These narrow gauge railroads brought passengers much closer to their final destinations, saving them the difficult stage trip CMRR patrons had.

By 1898, raw material mined on the Cairo branch for the Catskill Shale brick company comprised, by tonnage, 95% of the freight carried.

Catskill provided a connection to the New York Central's West Shore Railroad trains from Albany to Weehawken, New Jersey.