The story of the Catskill Mountain Railroad is one of historical preservation, local tourism, grassroots railroading and political intrigue.  What a combination!

Take a look at this movie before we discuss it…  You’ll see what I mean.

Here is what it is like to ride the CMRR as an engineer.

A brief history of the railroad by ChatGPT AI (edited):

In the 1860s, a train brought tourists, timber, farm goods, and bluestone to the resorts in the Catskills to the Catskill Mountains. 

But in 1932, passenger service gradually declined due to the rise of the automobile.

• By 1954, all passenger service had ended.
• The line deteriorated over the decades and was largely abandoned.
• 1983, the Catskill Mountain Railroad, Inc. was founded as a nonprofit volunteer-run heritage railway.
• Its goal: preserve and operate a portion of the old U&D right-of-way under a lease with Ulster County, which had acquired the rail corridor from Penn Central.
• The railroad operated tourist trains, including scenic rides, holiday-themed trains, and railbike excursions.
• It became a favorite for tourists and train enthusiasts visiting the Hudson Valley.

But then.In the 2010s, CMRR faced legal battles with Ulster County, which had competing interests to convert parts of the corridor into a rail trail for biking and hiking.

Today, the Catskill Mountain Railroad operates mainly in Kingston, with popular events like The Polar Express Train Ride, the Pumpkin Express, and Fall foliage excursions.

It continues to be a community-driven effort, run largely by volunteers dedicated to preserving railroad history.

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The relationship with the county is contentious and, at the time of this writing, 2025, its viability is very much in doubt. Here is a newspaper  account of the issues: https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/catskills/article/catskill-mountain-railroad-state-grant-20240104.php

If I were still teaching management and organizational dynamics, I might have chosen this as a case study on the challenges an enterprise faces in aligning with its environment. But—pun intended—it would need too many tracks to cover here on a website.  But perhaps we might start a thread and explore it in the comments field below.