Memories of Old Put

ERIC GROSS Author Joe Schiavone stands outside the former Lake Mahopac railroad station on the Old Putnam Division which now serves as home of the Mahopac American Legion Post off Buckshollow Road. Life on the Old Put—a railroad line that transported passengers and freight from the Bronx to Brewster before becoming defunct in the 1970s—is captured in photos and verse by the area’s only railroad aficionado who has just completed his second book.

More of the Old Put is a follow-up to Joe Schiavone’s first book The Old Put that was a complete sell-out following two printings.

Schiavone, 69, a retired educator and resident of Mahopac, uses historic railroad photographs as the basis for his volume, as well as detailed anecdotes and recollections of former railroad employees.

Schiavone’s first book was such a hit that other lovers of the railroad, including scores of residents from throughout Putnam, Westchester, and Dutchess counties who have attended one or more of his nearly 200 seminars in the past two years, encouraged him to make More of the Old Put become a reality.

Schiavone receives dozens of calls each week from appreciative readers who thank him for bringing back memories of grandparents and days of yesteryear when “things were much simpler. Putnam County was a gentler community back in the 1940s and 1950s.”

Schiavone said what amazes him more than anything is that people who regularly use the Putnam Bike Trail that winds from Baldwin Place to Carmel, with the link to Southeast currently under construction, are unaware that they are “biking or walking on a railroad bed.”

The book features a photo of an eight-year-old Schiavone at the old Yorktown train station—a photo discovered on an online auction 60 years later.

The railroad bug bit the author when he was only three and his dad took him to see old steam locomotives near the family’s home in Granite Springs. “I was thrilled,” said Schiavone, who added: “By the time I entered elementary school, the railroad employees had given me rides in the caboose, and for my ninth birthday the big day had come. I was able to cross the tracks and got my first ride in the steam locomotive itself.”

In 1951, steam locomotives departed the Putnam countryside, and any desire for the young man to begin a career with the railroad waned. Instead, Schiavone dedicated himself to learning and drawing about history. At one time, Schiavone thought about an art career. However, he decided to dedicate his life to teaching, and, in 1997, retired after 33 years in the classroom in the Carmel School District.

Schiavone wears his familiar engineers cap around town, where he is affectionately called the “railroad guy.”

His seminars are attended by those ranging in age from the mid-40s to the 80s—people who Schiavone said are not only interested in the history of the railroad but others who actually made the “laborious trip that took over two hours each way to Grand Central. Imagine riding from Brewster to Carmel to Grand Central four and one-half hours daily. That caused the demise of the Old Put.”

Schiavone will be lecturing at the Patterson Library on Nov. 18 and at the Mahopac Library on Nov. 24. Both programs start at 7pm.

The book, published by Merit Printing and Publishing in Peekskill, is available at the Danbury Railroad Museum, the Yorktown Museum, the Somers Historical Society at the Elephant Hotel, or by contacting Schiavone at 628-5098.

Schiavone continues to love his ride on the Old Put because of the smiles and pats on the back he receives from many of its former passengers as well as those interested in the history of Putnam County and vicinity.

Are plans in the works for a volume three? Schiavone just smiled and sad, “All aboard!”