Celebrate living railroad history at Chester on Track May 17

CHESTER — David Pierce, president of the Chester Foundation and the Chester Railway Station Museum said this year, as the U.S. begins to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Chester on Track on May 17 is a good place to come to learn about firsts in Massachusetts. The Western Railroad, which opened in 1841, was an attempt to reach the Erie Canal to Albany to New York trade route, from which Boston had been formerly cut off.

“Our railroad project was the first over a mountain; the first built through wilderness by a large number of immigrants, the first place they used push engines. These are significant firsts — at 150 miles, it was the longest and highest when they built it in 1841,” Pierce said, including the first cluster of stone arch railroad bridges built in America. The Keystone Arches as they are known and the timber-frame station in Chester are National Historic Landmarks.

This year’s Chester on Track begins with a massive parade at 10 a.m. down Main St., with Frank Kelly as Marshall and The Berkshire Shriners and ending at the fairground and ballfield on Emery Street

Along Main Street and on River Front Drive will be the Jacob Ladder Business Association’s Home Show, with several local services and businesses, and ‘one-lung’ steam & gas engine demos. Hamilton Memorial Library will be hosting a book and bake sale, as well as an open house that includes the Chester mineral collection, donated by Dr. Lucas, the discoverer of emery in Chester. Chester Historical Commission will give tours at the Old Jail and Chester History Museum from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will have calendars and T-shirts for sale.

Also, along Main Street, A Reason To Pause art gallery will be open, the Southern Hilltown Adult Education Center will have a sidewalk plant sale, Pease Store will have Chester on Track mugs and hats and Blue Skye Wellness will have natural insect repellants and new class sign-ups.

The Chester Fire Department’s Duck Race will launch at 2 p.m. on River Front Drive.

This year, some of the activities formerly on Main Street will be moved to Emery Park, which is being transformed through a community improvement project spearheaded by Pierce and Selectman Craig Gauthier. Exhibits and events at Emery Park include the craft fair, formerly on Main Street; a bounce house, a petting zoo — new this year; donkey rides, garden tractor pulls, classic cars and tractors on display post-parade.

Kids can be entertained at the park by Maggie the Railroad Clown, formerly of Ringling Bros. Circus. Scouting America will host an archery booth, the Chester Cub Scouts food booth will be there and Smokey the Bear. All afternoon, Linda Burns and Just Us, with members of The Pioneer Valley Fiddlers, will perform in a music venue at Emery Park.

Also at Emery Park, Hamilton Memorial Library will sponsor “All Aboard” with Laurel Lenski of Intrinsic Movement, for a train-themed family program at 1 p.m, where kids of all ages and their grown-ups are invited to creative movement challenges, dance and play together for this forty five minute program. Many hands will be needed, for everyone’s favorite, the big parachute.

The Railroad Station Museum’s outdoor stage will host a second venue for live music, beginning at 11 a.m. with Mark Franklin, followed by Peter Curro and Friends, D Rod and the Uprising. Musical acts can be accessed remotely on the Chester Station webcam.

Chester Station’s own Blue Caboose will open at 8 a.m. for breakfast and have a hearty railroad man’s menu throughout the day, where you can eat ‘hobo style’ in an antique wooden boxcar. Visitors can also climb through the sleeping quarters of the 1919 Caboose Camper, which is rented out year-round to raise money for the Railway Station.

The Station will host a train show, antique woodworking, Revolutionary War reenactors, Wild & Scenic Westfield River, Chester Theatre with costume activities for kids, G Scale Live Steam and a CCC Camp exhibit. A ham radio base camp will be on hand to contact enthusiasts around the globe and will hold Morse code demos.

Also at the Station, the Chester Postmaster will cancel commemorative envelopes or your own mail, with a special postal cancellation for one day only. The design, available on T-shirts at the Station, will celebrate the little-known, first use of helper locomotives or pusher engines to climb the grade over the Berkshires, beginning in 1841.

Just across from the Station, guests can visit the amazing Chester Granite Co. 12 ft. dia. circular saw, where “granite was sliced like cheese,” Pierce said. Work is continually being done on the site of the Granite Saw, now owned by the Western Mass. Hilltown Hikers, and is visible and easily accessed from the Railway Station at one end, and across the street from Emery Park at the other end.

Visitor parking is plentiful at Emery Park, which is only 600 feet from the Railway Station.

Call 413-354-7878 or email Dave@chesterrailwaystation.net for more information. This event was funded in part by a Massachusetts Local Cultural Council grant.

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