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The New York Museum of Transportation

HEADEND


Volume 33, Number 2 March-April 2019


Newly arrived roofing materials were stored briefly near the NYMT office. Within a week of this April 13, 2019 photo, everything seen here was up on the roof and protecting the milking parlor from any more leakage. Photo by C. Lowe

NEW ROOF FOR MILKING PARLOR

A VAST IMPROVEMENT

Result of Second Largest Grant in
Museum History

Elmer W. Davis, Inc., one of Rochester’s premier roofing companies, has completed work on applying a new roof to NYMT’s milking parlor. This area is important since the model train room, bathrooms, exhibits, historic vehicles and archives are located here.

The State dairy farm NYMT has occupied since 1973 was built in 1965, making the facility 54 years old. About ten years ago, leakage inside the milking parlor was noticeable; by about five years ago it was becoming intolerable.

Interior gutters were installed to lessen the effect of the leakage, and the museum was finally forced to close the model train layout for the winters of 2018 and 2019. In fact, the closure of NYMT for the winter of 2018 was forced by the closure of the model train room because of damaging leakage.

Some time ago, the Board of Trustees made a request of our landlord, the Town of Rush, to repair the roof. This resulted in an application with State Senator Rich Funke’s office for a State grant to repair the roof. Happily, a grant for some $80,000 was made in 2018. The early onset of winter weather prevented the work from being done in 2018 but it most fortunately has now been all but completed. Volunteer effort can now be directed to cleanup and restoration inside the milking parlor.


SHOP REPORT

Philadelphia and Western 161 and 168 — Jim Johnson, with the help of Bob Achilles, performed the annual motor inspections on both cars in April. Jay Consadine cleaned the windows on both cars in April.

Northern Texas Traction 409 — On April 25, Don Quant and Gary Lamphron trimmed the bottom of the entrance door to the popular “Spaghetti Warehouse” car. This prevents it from sticking as it has done in the past.

Rochester Lockport and Buffalo RR 206 — The trucks for this car were shifted from track 21 to storage track 24. Rich Fischpera, Rick Holahan and Charlie Lowe guided this project. See a photo of the completed project below.

Right-of-Way — On March 8, Bartlett Tree Experts removed four dead Scot pine trees which threatened the overhead at Midway. The crews trimmed one other tree and removed a gangly cottonwood tree as well. More work will need to be done in the future but the highest-risk trees are now lying on the ground and cannot damage the overhead. In both 2016 and 2018, as well as other years in the past, trees fell on the overhead causing extensive damage and a delay in trolley operations.

Track — Final spiking on storage track 24 was performed in March.

Trolley Barn — Jay Consadine has started his project to paint the wooden north end of the trolley barn by sanding down the rough T-111 siding. Contact Jay or Doug Anderson if you can lend a hand with this project.

Trolley and Track Car Crew — During March and April, crew members sat for annual written rules examinations and made re-familiarization runs on various equipment as needed.

Board — On March 19, 2019, the Board granted approval for two projects. One of these is a project to paint the north end of the trolley barn. Jay Consadine is in charge, and Doug Anderson is Jay’s Board liaison. The other is to add crushed stone to NYMT’s main entrance driveway. Jim Dierks is in charge. The train agreement with RGV for April 27 was also approved. On April 16, 2019, the Board elected Jim Wiesner as a museum Trustee. The Board also allotted $175 for the purchase of new track bolts, nuts and washers for railroad maintenance work.


2019 SPECIAL EVENTS AT NYMT

NYMT’s Special Events are of great importance to the museum. Please consider lending a hand by volunteering your time to the 2019 Special Events, listed below:

Sunday, May 19: Trolley Rides Begin
Sunday, June 16: Father’s Day Special

Saturday, July 13: Trolleys at Twilight
August 2, 3 and 4: Monroe County Fair
Sunday, August 4: Railroad Day
Sunday, September 15: Antique Fire Trucks
Sundays, Sept. 15 to Oct. 27: Fall Foliage
Saturday, October 19: Halloween Trolley Express
Sat. & Sun., Dec. 7, 8, 14 & 15: Holly Trolley

ROCHESTER STREETCARS......................... No. 94 in a series

Rochester Transit Corp. 040
Author's Collection

© Charles R. Lowe

In April 1941, when our photo above was made, Rochester Transit Corp. set aside three cars for preservation. These were horsecar 55 (now at Rochester Museum and Science Center), sand car 0243 (now at NYMT), and now-scrapped Peter Witt car 1246. Car 0243 from 1892-93 was to represent the "alpha" of electric streetcars in Rochester while 1246 from 1916 was to represent the "omega" end of the roster.

The trouble was that no one seemed to recall that there were older electric cars on the 1941 roster than 0243. A group of 100 cars made by Gilbert in 1890-91 had been purchased to replace Rochester horsecar operations in 1890. Car 040, long since reduced to sand car duty, was one of the several surviving Gilbert cars. Three others (20-22) had been purchased in 1889 for commencement of electric car service on Rochester Electric Railway along Lake Avenue, Rochester's first electric line. Thus, a total of 102 Gilbert cars of 1889-1891 seem to have been in service in Rochester.

About half of the Gilbert cars were rebuilt into double-truck cars in the 300-series in the early 1900s. Others were scrapped in the early 1900s. At least one, the private car A, was sold (for service in Ithaca). Nevertheless, several Gilbert cars survived in work service right to the end of surface streetcar operations. These included 040, 041 and 0160.

Car 0243 may have been saved since it looked older than the three Gilbert cars. The deck roof on 0243 was an old style of roof whereas the railroad-roofs sported by the Gilbert cars were a touch more modern. Likewise, the Maguire Columbian truck under 0243 was a bit simpler looking than the Peckham truck seen under 040. At this late date we simply cannot know why 0243 was chosen as the "alpha" car, but we can be happy at least it did survive.


On a cold and snowy April 27, 2019, some twenty-five delegates to a meeting of rail-oriented museums at RGV assembled for a group photo at Midway just before boarding car 161 for the trip to NYMT. Bob Achilles is overseeing the proceedings in the warmth of 161. Photo by C. Lowe

Photo by C. Lowe

In this April 21, 2019 view of the north end of NYMT’s Main Exhibition Hall (also known as NYMT’s hay barn for its former use), storage track 24 can be seen at right. The newly placed trucks for Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo 206 are seen in the foreground on this track. The trucks for car 206 came from Chicago Transit Authority 4000-series rapid transit cars, and had been under Lake Shore Electric Railway car 150 during the 1980s when that car was on display at Station Center in Pittsburgh.

In recent years, LSE 150 became part of the collection at Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, located south of Pittsburgh in Washington, Pa. PTM is a broad-gauge museum so these standard-gauge trucks were of little use to PTM.

Rochester and Genesee Valley RR Museum obtained car 206 in the mid-1990s, and immediately began a search for appropriate trucks. Eventually, RGV obtained these trucks for RL&B 206. In 2008, RGV donated RL&B 206 and its trucks to NYMT. Two 40 horsepower traction motors are available for this car; they previously served as the broom motors for car C-147, once owned by RGV but now scrapped.

The next track behind track 24 is track 23. It leads into the barn where TC-1, tower car 020 and New Jersey Transit PCC car 7 are stored. Behind this are tracks 21 and 22 which also lead into the barn.

Sitting on track 21 can be seen line car 2 and, underneath, flat car 03. In this way, line car 2 serves as a protective roof for flat car 03. Line car 2 sits on 1901 trucks from a Lake Shore Electric Railway (Cleveland–Toledo, 1901–1938) work flat trailer car.

For about seventy years, these trucks were under the parlor car “Toledo” when it was a cottage at Sage’s Grove near Sandusky, along the LSE and Lake Erie, and later at Trolleyville, U.S.A. near Cleveland. When Trolleyville’s assets were auctioned in 2009, the “Toledo” became part of the collection of Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.

With its broad-gauged track, these trucks became surplus to PTM’s needs and eventually they were traded to NYMT so that line car 2 could rest on operable but motorless trucks. Line car 2, also provided to NYMT by PTM, was once Philadelphia snow sweeper C-125, almost identical to NYMT’s Philadelphia snow sweeper C-130.




HEADEND


Volume 33, Number 2 March_April 2019


HEADEND is a publication of New York Museum of Transportation, © 2019. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
www.nymtmuseum.org (585) 533-1113

Headend

Editor Charles R. Lowe
Associate Editor James E. Dierks
Printer Bob Miner
On-Line Publication Bob Sass

Board of Trustees

President and Trustee Charles R. Lowe
First Vice President and Trustee Carlos Mercado
Second Vice President and Trustee Jack Tripp
Third Vice President and Trustee Nancy Uffindell
Secretary and Trustee Jim Dierks
Treasurer and Trustee Bob Achilles
Trustee Doug Anderson
Trustee Jim Wiesner
Board Member Bob Sass

Department Leaders

Archivist Jim Dierks
Chief Engineer Charlie Lowe
Chief Lineman Charlie Lowe
Chief Track Car Operator Rich Fischpera
Exhibits Manager Jim Dierks
Event Manager Nancy Uffindell
Facilities Manager Dave Coon
Gift Shop Manager Doug Anderson
Group Tour Manager Jim Dierks
Historic Car and Building Manager Charlie Lowe
Marketing Manager Jim Dierks
Master Mechanic Strafford Cars Charlie Lowe
Master Mechanic Track Cars Rich Fischpera
Model Railroad Manager Bob Nesbit
Membership Manager Bob Sass
New Volunteer Manager Carlos Mercado
Officer of the Day Manager Jim Dierks
Substation Manager Bob Sass
Track Maintenance Manager Rich Fischpera
Trainmaster Charlie Lowe
Water Quality Manager Jim Wiesner

EDITORIAL COMMENT

NYMT’s special events are vital for the museum, but they require extra volunteers to make happen. Perhaps you will consider volunteering your time and energy to at least one of these events during 2019. The events are listed elsewhere in this issue of H EADEND . Let Nancy Uffindell know at info@nymtmuseum.org you would like to lend a hand.

Charles R. Lowe, Editor



ALL ABOUT US

The New York Museum of Transportation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. We are managed and operated entirely by volunteers, and the welcome mat is always out for anyone wishing to join our work. Open for visitors all year on Sundays only, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., we also welcome group visits during the week by appointment.

We are located at 6393 East River Road in the Town of Rush, and our mailing address is P.O. Box 136, West Henrietta, NY 14586. www.nymtmuseum.org is the place to find us on the internet and learn much more about us. Also, you can visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NYMTmuseum.

Want to contact us? Call us at (585) 533-1113 or send us an email at info@nymtmuseum.org. And, remember to tell your friends!

Consider becoming a member www.nymtmuseum.org/Membership.php .