Chester on Track draws thousands of visitors

hester sister and brother Judy and Paul Young and the Gateway Regional High School band.
Reminder Publishing photos by Amy Porter

CHESTER — Over the course of a beautiful spring day, 3,000 visitors enjoyed the many old and new sights and sounds in the historic factory village of Chester during Chester on Track.

From Revolutionary War live musket fire in the parade on Main Street, to an hours-old lamb at the Mapledell Farm petting zoo in the Emery Street ball field, to sitting inside Bernie’s Dining Depot, the 1940s Pullman coach now on exhibit at the Chester Railway Station, and taking a tour at the Granite Works & Sawmill, the town was on full display.

Chester brother and sister Paul and Judy Young marched in the parade in their Revolutionary War costumes, which Paul Young said he has been doing since 9/11 in 2001, with his sister joining him a few years later. Paul Young said he made his entire suit, except the pants, by hand. They participate every year in Chester on Track and in the Memorial Day parade in the town where they have lived all their lives.

The parade marshal was Craig Boyer, a former Conrail employee. “We like to honor ex-railroad guys,” said David Pierce, president of the Chester Foundation. Also featured in the parade were area fire departments, the State Police and Hampden County Sheriff’s Department’s mounted unit on a handsome and huge pair of Clydesdales. The Gateway Regional marching band performed, and Chester Taekwondo marched along with antique cars and tractors and a line of Corvettes from a club in Connecticut.

Pierce said many of the visitors to the historic railway station came to see Bernie’s Dining Depot car. People were able to bring lunch purchased at the Blue Caboose kitchen parked in front of it and sit down in the former restaurant, where they exchanged tales of its famous prime rib dinners.

Judy and Paul Young took a lunch break there. Also visiting was the car’s former owner, Barbara Bernashe, who donated the car to the museum.

Over at the Chester Granite and Polishing Works across the street, Western Mass Hilltown Hikers President Elizabeth Massa and board members were giving tours of the granite saw, the largest antique shot saw in the state at 12 feet in diameter. One of their visitors was 100-year-old Leonard Alexander, the house welder for the stone mill and the last to weld the teeth on the 12-foot saw blade.

For the Mapledell Farm traveling petting zoo, the newborn lamb was a surprise. The farm had loaded the animals the evening before, and when they went to check on everyone in the morning, they found their sheep, Victoria, had delivered a baby, which they aptly named Chester.