Tuesday work sessions...

For many years, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum has held volunteer work sessions on Tuesdays along with Saturdays. Originally held only on Tuesday evenings, the work sessions now last from the morning all the way into the evening with some crews working during the day and others coming in the evening after work.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 was no different than any other Tuesday although the volunteers were starting to take advantage of some of the nicer Spring weather. With some grading to take care of near Switch #6 where the lead to the museum's restoration building yard diverges from the main, the volunteers had the museum's Huber-Warco grader working along with the museum's Case backhoe. As the grading was taking place, the museum's new GE 110-tonner was building air in preparation for a test run later in the evening. The 110-tonner had been delivered to the museum a few months earlier and stored on the museum's new siding west of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville tracks. It had only been moved over to the museum's railroad the weekend before after the museum's Industry yard lead was temporarily rebuilt. So please check out a few more pictures and a video of the evening's work.

We are always welcoming new people to come and join us to help volunteer around the museum so please stop on out some Tuesday or on a Saturday when we also volunteer. Photos by Chris Hauf





Museum volunteers Mike Dow and Dan Waterstraat work aboard the grader. A lot of learning at the museum is hands on and Mike was getting to learn a little about how to run the Huber.

Progress is always fun!

The museum's Case backhoe scoops up extra dirt left after a pass from the grader.

Dan starts another pass with the Huber as R&GV #8 builds up air.

The Huber is the largest of the museum's 3 operable road graders.

R&GV #8 waits to depart Track 6.

Eden Station at Gardenscape 2009


Welcome to "Eden Station," a display garden put together by Rochester landscaper, R.J. Schickler Inc., at the recent Gardenscape garden show from March 12-15, 2009. The landscape designers from R.J. Schickler approached the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum to see if the museum would be willing to partner with them to create a railroad themed garden for the 2009 show. They needed help to perfect their design and needed items to make their railroad themed garden authentic. The R&GVRRM agreed to help and in the end, loaned R.J. Schickler several pieces of the museum's maintenance-of-way equipment, its ex-New York Central crossingman's shanty, its REA baggage cart and other small items from around the museum. Once transported from the R&GVRRM to the Dome Center in Henrietta, NY, the crew from R.J. Schickler did their magic to create "Eden Station" starting with a bare floor on Monday morning and ending two and a half days later at noon on Wednesday with a complete garden. Over the course of the show, volunteers from the R&GVRRM manned the garden to help explain the items on display and to publicize the museum's upcoming operating season. The Museum would like to thank R.J. Schickler Inc. for this great opportunity and partnership. So sit back and enjoy a few more photos of "Eden Station" since it now only exists in photographs. The show is over and the concrete floor is again bare. Photos by Chris Hauf





Reconnecting the Interchange


Track Superintendent Luther Brefo and volunteers Mike Roqué and Jessica Stallone line up the rails to reconnect the museum's railroad interchange to the Livonia, Avon, & Lakeville Railroad mainline. This continues the ongoing reconfiguration of several Industry Yard tracks that will allow us greater flexibility in operations and display. Photo by Jeremy Tuke