From the archives... Diesel-Electric Locomotive School - On Wheels

 For this post, we pull another edition of ALCO-GE News from the archives.   This time we look at the November 1952 edition that highlights their classroom on wheels, the ALCO-GE Instruction Car.    This movable classroom allowed them to bring instruction right to the roundhouse or backshop.  

With space to train forty people at a time, the car could accommodate one hundred and twenty students per day over three shifts.    Courses in operation, terminal maintenance and heavy maintenance were offered.   The air conditioned car had separate classrooms for electrical and mechanical training.  It included cutaway and working models of major locomotive components including the diesel engine, turbosupercharger, control stand, governor, bearings, and more.   The R&GVRRM has two cutaway diesels on display at the New York Museum of Transportation including an ALCO 244 and an EMD 567.
 
This is a very neat car.   Does anyone have any info about its usage and disposition?   Please contact us or make a post on our Wall on our R&GVRRM Facebook page.  Thanks and look for more issues of ALCO-GE News coming in the future.

February membership meeting - 2.17.2011 @ 7PM

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum/Rochester Chapter NRHS are pleased to announce that they will hold their general membership meeting on Thursday, February 17th at the 40&8 Club. The meeting will feature a program on the San Louis Valley & Rio Grande and Cumbres & Toltec with Ted Miller.

Visitors are 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 new larger 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. More information is available on our website, http://www.rgvrrm.org/.

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

Back on the road...

With its new flywheel installed to remedy the broken starter ring gear teeth, the R&GVRRM's plow pickup is back on the road.   And none too soon!   While most of us were fixed at the possibility of temperatures in the 40s next week, we missed the snow predicted for and delivered on Saturday AM during our weekend work session.   The good news is that the truck received a good workout clearing this recent snow away from the museum's property.   Here are some images of the truck in action along with an additional improvement on our plow.

 

Running & ready to plow...

 

New plow runners...

 Plowing...   Nice to have this truck back in service.
Now back into the shop to get our other truck repaired and in service.

We welcome your help if you are interested?

Looking back... Delivery of Car #168 from Iowa - 11.7.1996

Here is a new video from our Looking back... series of YouTube videos showcasing some of the events from the past that have made our museum what it is today.    For this video, we watch the delivery by low boy trailer of the New York Museum of Transportation's ex-Philadelphia & Western 'Strafford' car #168 on November 7, 1996.   The car was trucked by Silk Road Transport of Arkport, NY from Keokuk, Iowa to the R&GVRRM in Rush, NY.   With no grade level rail at the NYMT, the interurban car was delivered to the R&GVRRM where it was offloaded on track #4 in our Industry yard.    Approximately one week later, #161 was delivered and offloaded in the same manner.    These cars now operate every weekend during our joint museum operating season from mid-May to the end of October.

We hope you enjoy Looking back... with us, and we hope to have more videos coming soon.

Latest newsletter available - February 2011

Interested in learning more about what is going on at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum?   Please read the February 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.