Otis Elevating Railway

The Otis Elevating Railway was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge cable funicular railroad leading to the Catskill Mountain House in Palenville, New York.

Faced with increased competition from the Hotel Kaaterskill (served by the Kaaterskill Railroad), Catskill Mountain House owner Charles Beach hired the Otis Elevator Company to build a cable funicular railroad straight up the Great Wall of Manitou.

Opening on August 7, 1892, the line measured 7,000 ft (2,134 m) long with a rise of 1,630 ft (497 m), a maximum grade of 34%, and an average grade of 12%.

In April, 1899, the Otis Elevating Railway was sold for $10,000 in a foreclosure proceeding.

[2] In August 1899, the owners of the Otis Elevating Railway announced plans to build an electric railroad from Saugerties, New York to the town of Catskill.

Steam was supplied by two Manning Patent vertical tubular boilers.

The Otis Junction station (pictured right after the 1904 reconstruction) connected the Otis to the Catskill Mountain Railway, a 15-mile (24 km) railroad between Catskill Landing and Palenville, New York.

Soon after the railroad was scrapped, the coaches were shipped to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they served the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway.