Shop floor paying dividends already...

With the install of a portion of our restoration shop's concrete floor fall late last fall and with it fully cured now, the floor has already started to pay off dividends in terms of productivity.   Our backhoe has already been serviced, and now we are starting to work on some of our other support equipment.   First in is one of our '84 Chevy pickups.   It came to us with a pretty chewed up flywheel ring gear, and we finally decided it was time to fix the problem so the truck would start reliably again.   Last Saturday, January 29, down came the transmission so we could pull the flywheel for replacement.    It was so nice to be able to work out of the dirt and be able to roll jacks with ease.

We are planning to reinstall the transmission during our Tuesday, February 1, 2011, afternoon/evening work session.   Once this truck is out, our other truck will come in for starter work as well.   Once that truck is complete, we will bringing in our Trojan loader for brake work.  

We always welcome new hands to help continue the progress.   We will soon be kicking off our Pour the Floor annual fundraising campaign to raise the additional funds we need to complete the floor in the rest of the shop in 2011.   With the dividends we are already seeing from the pieces we have, a full floor will certainly have a huge payoff for us in terms of capability and productivity.   Please stop back soon for more details on how you can help us...

From the archives... Auditing the Erie's Rochester station - 1/24/1927

The Erie Railroad had a station in downtown Rochester.   Located on the south side of Court Street on the west side of the Genesee River, the station was the end of the line for the Erie's Rochester Division which passes by the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rush.    Long gone having been torn down many years back, one can only wonder about the details of the daily operation of the Erie's downtown station.    Well...  Here is a snapshot in time of the station; an audit form from January 24, 1927 showing its employees with their wages, its scope & equipment and its revenue.
  The Erie station had ten employees, at least two of which were women.   We find that Mr. C.J. Gilbert was the ticket agent at the time.   He made $198.00 per month.   There were 3 ticket clerks, one telegraph & information clerk, one station baggage agent, one day baggage man, one night baggage man, one baggage agent's helper, and one janitress.
  We find that the office was 20'x20' with 9250 square feet of passenger platforms.  The depot was equipped with three two-wheel and five four-wheel baggage carts along with a Fairbanks Standard #23 platform scale.
  Monthly revenue was $8582.00 while the station handled 600 bags and 2100 parcels "under check" while serving a population of 330,000.
   Finally we note that at this time, the Erie's Rochester station not only served the Erie, but also included the interurban lines: the Rochester & Syracuse RR and the Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo RR.
   A very interesting snapshot in time of one of Rochester's several railroad stations.

January membership meeting - 1.20.2011 @ 7PM

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum/Rochester Chapter NRHS are pleased to announce that they will hold their general membership meeting this Thursday, January 20th at the 40&8 Club. The meeting will feature the program Railroads of Livingston County with Douglas Morgan.

Visitors are always welcome! You do not need to be a member to attend. The meeting starts at 7PM with some time to socialize and peruse the Museum's book store. You can also check out our railroad library co-located at the 40&8 Club. A short business meeting will take place between 7:30PM and 8PM with the show starting around 8:15PM. The meeting is held at the 40&8 Club which is located at 933 University Avenue(Across from the Gleason Works between Culver Road and Goodman Street) in the City of Rochester.

We hope those in the greater Rochester area will come out to see this great program.

Latest newsletter available - January 2011

Interested in learning more about what is going on at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum?   Please read the January 2011 issue of our newsletter, The Semaphore, online in PDF.    If you would like to read more, please check out our online newsletter archive.  We have nine previous years currently available.

Progress on the evening of 1.11.11

It just so happened that 1.11.11 fell on the R&GVRRM's Tuesday work session.   Even with cold temps and the start of a snow storm later in the evening which would eventually pile up nearly a foot of snow, much progress was had around the museum's restoration building.    Here are a few photos to show that progress...

Ballast has been added to track #8 at the south end of the shop to make a level surface to walk across.  In the background, the museum's backhoe has seen its preventative maintenance completed.

 On the east side of track #8, the large work bench has been moved back into the shop on to the new concrete floor, and is ready for projects from around the shop.

Inside ex-New York Central coach #2567, the car's baggage racks are being sanded and prepped for painting.   As built in 1941, the racks were not painted.  They were plated metal.   For our work, we are going to keep them painted for now since they would need to be removed from the car to be properly stripped and replated.   That is a lot of work although sanding them is no small job given all of the racks in the car.

Close-ups of the racks as they are being prepped.  In the image on the left, you can see the wear from years of bags being put up on to the rack.   Even the plating is worn in some spots where you can see the copper under the nickel-like finish.

More progress on the restoration of the southeast cove lighting was also accomplished with the aluminum trim strips getting cleaned and polished. 

Across the shop, volunteer, Rob Burz, chisels away the edge of a concrete electrical box to prepare for some additional electrical improvements to the shop prior to the installation of the concrete floor in this area later in 2011.

New shop floor in service...

The R&GVRRM has had a rock solid start to 2011!   After having to wait out all of December for the new shop floor to cure, the floor is now in service.  The first project in the shop is the museum's Case backhoe in for some routine maintenance and repairs.   After the backhoe, the Trojan loader and the museum's ex-military pickup trucks will see shop time to get repaired and ready for the spring and summer.  The new floor certainly makes it much easier to work on our all of our equipment, and we would welcome more hands to help make the equipment repairs and maintenance happen.

We are in need of people willing and capable to working on our heavy equipment and our railroad equipment.   From engine/transmission repair to metal fabrication to those trained in heavy equipment or locomotive operation, the museum needs people capable of all of them.   Interested?   Please stop out during one of our regularly scheduled work sessions or drop us an email to learn more.    And we welcome people who can contribute weekly, monthly or every so often.   We understand life is busy, and appreciate everyone who is willing to lend us a hand when they can.

Thanks!

From the archives... Safety Wherever!

Safety has been something that railroads have tried to keep in the forefront for many years.    They have used many different methods to try to convey good safety practices which are typically spelled out by the railroads' rulebooks.   Here we have a few examples of New York Central Railroad safety posters from the 1950s from the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's collection.

We at the R&GVRRM certainly plan to

MAKE 2011 - - - ACCIDENT FREE