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UntitledUnder all that pavement there is a trolley lin4 A 1910 trolley in Wappingers Falls By Nathan Dykeman Journal staff writer If you can remember when you could ride a trolley from Poughkeep- sie to Wappingers Falls and that ride cost 15 cents, you have to be a senior citizen. Trolley and incline railway buff Charles "Chuck" Benjamin points out that the Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls Railway Co.'s trolley service went out of business 50 years ago, on Oct. 9, 1928, way back in pre -depression times. "The main reason for abandoning the lines (this line and one to the south side of Poughkeepsie) was that the state highway department wanted the right-of-way to widen Route 9, and also to relocate it up Caspercreek Hill. Benjamin said the company need- ed some cash, and with this it pur- chased buses which ran to the Wappingers Falls area for many years after 1928. "Everybody but the rail fans were happy," he said. The trolley line to Wappingers had run for about 34 years when it was discarded in favor of buses, Ben- jamin said. In 1894 when the late James W. Hinkley obtained the original fran- chise, the intention was to build all the way down to New Hamburg in the Town of Poughkeepsie so residents of Wappingers Falls would have transportation to the New York Cen- tral railroad station there. This plan was abandoned and the line never went any farther than the Town of Poughkeepsie side of the Wappingers Creek in Wappingers Falls. In 1894, the line ended at the foot of West Main Street near the bridge across the creek. In later years, the track was extended down into a cul - See trolley page 24D Poughkeepsie trolley, 1926 SundOctober 8 1978 a 24D—Poughkeepsie Journal Y� , � t h a t p vement re under al ..trolley lines are service in 1928 e th two de -sac beside the Wappingers Creek a short distance from the bridge. From a look at the some old trolley schedules which Benjamin has col- lected, it could be determined that the trolleys provided excellent ser- vice from Poughkeepsie to Wapp- ingers Falls and back again.. A schedule from the 1920s—Ben- jamin thinks it was about 1926—shows that service began at 7 a. m. in Poughkeepsie on Sundays, somewhat earlier than this during the week, and continued until midnight. In addition, the Wappingers Falls cars ran every 40 minutes to an hour, and more frequently on weekends. At the same time as the line to Wappingers Falls was abandoned, tracks also were removed on the south side line, which went out Montgomery Street and Hooker Avenue as far as Grand Avenue. The Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls Railway Co. continued to run on three other lines in the city for seven more years until 1935. Buses con- tinued to run until 1954 for the com- pany which started as a horse car company more than 100 years ago. The abandonment of the cars runn- ing to Wappingers Falls and the south side of Poughkeepsie was not the first such move in that direction. Two years before, in 1926, tracks had been removed on Grand Avenue bet- ween Main Street and Hooker Avenue. Benjamin said, "An interesting thing that happened was that because of all the street repaving on Market Street at the time, the com- pany tore out the rails between Main and Church Street a couple months earlier than final abandonment." The effect of this, he said, was to went out cut the whole trolley system in half, because the southsidQ and Wapp- ingers Falls trolleys could not get back to the car barn located where Diesing's Auto Supply Co. now is on Main Street. Benjamin can think of of few spots on the route to Wappingers Falls from Poughkeepsie where there are traces of the once flourishing transportation line. One is along the Wappingers Rural Cemetery on what is now West Main Street and Route 9-D. A wide spot there is the most obvious part of the trolley line right-of-way. And, at the south end of that area can be seen where the rail line came back into the street. The rails are still under the street in Wappingers Falls, Ben- jamin said. When the line to Wappingers Falls trolleys used on that line were only four years old. They were to see much more ser- vice before they were scrapped. They first were sold to Eau Claire, Wis., Benjamin said, and they ran in that From page ID community for five years. That li was abandoned in 1933 and they we sold again, this time to the compa3 called the Third Avenue Railway C in New York City. After that sa; they did service in the Bronx un 1948.