Berkshire Scenic Begins Summer Season Memorial Weekend
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — With several blasts of the train whistle, the Hoosac Valley Service's Budd Car 6126 moved along the backways of the city at a dignified 10 mph.
The ride from North Adams to Adams on Friday night was a precursor of the scenic rail line's first full summer season in North County — and a sneak peak for North Adams Chamber of Commerce members.
Jay Green, the nonprofit organization's rail director, acknowledged that some were dubious about the "scenic" part of the railroad in this very industrial area. But he promised the ride would be eye-opening.
"I challenge you to tell me after the ride that you didn't learn something or see something you didn't know before," he said.
So for an nearly an hour, Green held forth on the history of the region — its trains, its famed personalities, it's industrial heritage — as the rail car bumped alongside the slow moving Hoosic River.
See the schedule here
The majority of the ride was indeed scenic with trees, fields and river. But it also displayed the region's industrial history that sparked the growth of the rail line and the massive Hoosic Tunnel project that made North Adams the "Western Gateway."
Starting this Memorial Day weekend, the Hoosac Valley Service begins runs four times a day on Saturdays, Sundays and certain holidays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
It will be the first time the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum has been able to run a summer operation since losing access in 2012 to the Berkshire line in South County. The nonprofit, all-volunteer organization had hoped to open the Hoosac line two years ago but delays in the state's acquisition of the tracks only allowed a few special runs last year.
Still, those few runs attracted crowds that the museum is hoping will continue through this summer.
"We anticipate a good, solid turn out," said Green. "We haven't had a lot advertising funds to be able advertise as much we'd like so we going to start out deliberate, slow and just try to learn the ebb and flow of what works."
That includes a "cabaret" train on select Friday nights with Samantha Talora and Ron Ramsay, fall foliage excursions and a Christmas train.
The run takes almost an hour to go the four miles on the old Pittsfield-North Adams line to Adams and back. The train leaves from Crowley Avenue, a long unused street that runs behind the Brien Center. Two cars are set up there as a museum, gift shop and ticket booth. Signage, fencing and electricity for public facilities are in the works.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for children.
The Budd car stops at the old Adams train station, now restored as the headquarters of Burke Construction, but the hope is that the state will continue with plans to reinstall tracks on the last mile to Hoosac Street. Adams officials have made it clear that they want the final mile in the state's next transportation plan. The scenic rail had a ridership of some 100,000 and pumped an estimated $4 million into the local economy during its South County run.
The rail line would parallel the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail extension for 6/10ths of that mile and end at the new Adams Train Station — a former car wash refurbished as a welcome center and a pavilion.
Until then, one of the town's economic development groups is offering a shuttle from Burke Construction to Park Street. William Kolis of the Adams Anthony Center said the van, leased from BerkshireRides, will take interested tourists downtown for a historic tour and return them in time to catch the train back.
The 1890 Park Street Fire House will be a stopping off point for information and facilities. Kolis bought the building several years ago and it is now being used as the nonprofit Adams Anthony Center.
"We want to show off nine or so sites on the National Historic Register," he said. "Not the least of which is the firehouse."
The rail line is the first phase of what officials in both city and town hope will be popular attractions that will bring in tourists. In North Adams, that's playing out at Western Gateway Heritage State Park with plans for an extreme model railroad museum and, in the future, a pedestrian underpass between the park and scenic rail line and a new history and rail museum.
"We don't anticipate sold-out trains to start," Green said. But noting the crowds at the pilot runs last year, "we hope that enthusiasm carries over and with an advertised predictable schedule, we hope to be able to attract plenty of people."
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