Hal Raven, train maven, now operates one of his own

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

Hal Raven, 43, has loved trains all his life. Now he owns one. Not just a train, a railway. In May he launched the Saratoga Corinth & Hudson Railway offering scenic train rides on a 90-minute, 14-mile round-trip ride between Corinth and Greenfield Center, passing landmarks and marshes along the way. Where the train crosses roads, people get out of their vehicles and watch and wave.

Mr. Raven leases use of the track from its owner the Town of Corinth.

The train accommodates up to 130 passengers on ”first class,” coach and open air cars. The open air is by far the most popular, he said. It’s a converted flat car, with picnic tables and easy chairs, lined by fenced wooden railings.

Mr. Raven said they’re off to a fast start. He said their 4-5 weekly trips this summer averaged around 110-120 passengers.

The train will continue to run on weekends through December, with several special events planned.

Tickets are $10 kids, $25 adults, and boxed lunches can be added.

Box lunches; food partnerships

Mr. Raven said he partners with Corinth eateries The Barn, Amore Pizzeria and Rocco’s. Simply Food by Maura does the box lunches.

Mr. Raven’s daughter, Kara, 13, is an entrepreneur in her own right. She walks the train selling varieties of coffee.

She pulls in around $20 in tips per ride, Mr. Raven said proudly.

He said the train has spin-off benefits for Corinth. “You have 130 people driving around town, looking for other things to do, grabbing lunch.”

Autumn specialty rides will include a “pumpkin picker” — riders will pick pumpkins at one end, and decorate them on the ride back — and another that includes a four-hour layover at Fossil Stone Vineyard, along the route.

Mr. Raven said they have a charter coming up with 300 Girl Scouts, so many that they’ll necessitate two full trips.

Also they plan Christmas trains.

Mr. Raven also teased a cigar and whiskey ride, using another “executive car.” The ride will use only part of the car. The rest needs restoration that Mr. Raven said will take years and over $100,000.

Childhood passion; lifelong career

For Mr. Raven, the train is a labor of love, and an obsession.

“My dad got me started with model trains when I was a kid,” said the 1997 Queensbury grad. “I used to go to all the Upstate train shows and have my model railroad layout.”

His professional railroad career started at age 18 on the Battenkill Railroad.

“Most of my career has been with the with Pan Am railways,” Mr. Raven said.

Pan Am was founded in 1981 by Timothy Mellon as Guilford Transportation Industries to operate small northeastern railroads like the Boston & Maine and the Maine Central. Earlier this year it was purchased by rail giant CSX Corporation.

“I was division superintendent for 10+ years. I was in charge of training locomotive engineers,” Mr. Raven said. “In my final years there, I was just a locomotive engineer. I just recently left there to focus full-time on running our train operations here.”

“I took the leap finally and ripped the Band-aid off,” joked Mr. Raven, who also has a consulting business, Raven Rail.

He also operates a tour boat company on Saratoga Lake, Adirondack Cruise & Charter Co., in its sixth year.

Mr. Raven has been fascinated by this Corinth area rail line since childhood. He said he’d come watch “the D&H trains coming down from the mines [in the Adirondacks] in the early 1990s.”

“I always had this idea in my head, I was like, it’d be great passenger operation. And it would really be great to see this line saved,” he said.

Maintained railway at own expense

Mr. Raven said the plan came together slowly over the past four years.

He said after the Saratoga North Creek Railroad went bankrupt and the railway sat dormant, he tended it, “to keep it from getting overgrown and keep it passable and keep the beaver dams at bay.”

“I was doing it all at my own expense to keep the line from deteriorating,” he said.

“I knew we would never get running if somebody wasn’t taking care of it…To rebuild the railroad, it costs about a million dollars a mile,” he said.

“Four years of maintenance ended up paying off because we had a fully functional railway,” he said.

Mr. Raven said some people wanted to convert it into a bike trail, but he believes it’s important to “keep it up and running and educate people on the railroad and keep this infrastructure for any potential future business.”

He said the Warren County side of the line “had the rail bikes going and some limited use in some spots, but is becoming very overgrown.”

Meanwhile, says Mr. Raven, “I started to acquire pieces of equipment, locomotives, cars,” until he eventually signed a two-year lease with the town of Corinth.

It was a group effort to get the line into shape. “It’s myself, my family and some of my closest friends that have all contributed to get this up and going,” he said.

Some are old railroad buddies Mr. Raven has known since his Battenkill days.

ALCO locomotive, from Schenectady

Their crown jewel is a green and yellow locomotive built by ALCO in Schnectady in 1947. “We’re trying to get her placed on the National Register of Historic Places,” Mr. Raven said.

“Schenectady was the city that lights and hauls the world. So it’s super cool that this engine is here,” he said.

Mr. Raven said the 6-cylinder inline diesel engine takes just 12 gallons of diesel fuel to make the trip.

Mr. Raven said he owns a railroad shop building near Greenwich in Center Falls.

They own six other rail cars, plus another engine, “an ALCO S2, and that’s over on the Battenkill railroad actually hauling freight as we speak,” he said.

To find cars, “you have to look around, and then you have to get them here. And sometimes it’s easier to truck them, sometimes it’s easier to send it by rail.”

Mr. Raven said they have a flat car coming from New Hampshire that will be converted into another open air car

The “coach” class car is a standard, retro-feeling passenger car.

“First class,” has assigned seating at tables, complete with glass water bottles.

While Mr. Raven walks the train, regaling passengers with stories, he’s joined by Assistant Conductor Corey Ward.

Mr. Ward, a 19-year-old Siena College sophomore from Ballston Lake, is just as excited as Mr. Raven.

“It has been a dream come true,” he says. “Getting to share my love of trains with all the people who ride there — couldn’t be anything better.”

He plans to keep working. “It’s so handy because the railroad, as we go into the fall season, only runs on the weekends. I’ll have enough time to work on college and schoolwork during the week and then on the weekends work the railroad.”

The station in Corinth is at 9 Railroad Place. For more information, the website is: https://corinthtrain.com

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