Out on the main...

On the west side of Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's Industry depot is the former Erie Railroad Rochester Division which is now operated by the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad. Here we see a northbound LA&L road train approaching the museum and passing the depot.

Polishing the apple... LV 211

Painted over sixteen years ago, our Lehigh Valley "Hammerhead" RS3m is looking a little faded as it sits on display in Industry yard. The museum invested in a durable paint job, so let's see what a little elbow grease can do...


Not a bad start, already she's looking better. After a fair amount of elbow grease by museum volunteer Chris Hauf, the #211 is looking much shinier with a lot of more of the engine to go. Amazing what a little wax can do!


Looks even better, now! With the "Hammerhead" short hood and long hood complete, #211 is looking really good. You can see the difference in the picture since the frame paint had yet to be buffed out.

Construction around the museum

Loading up...a different way... With more excavation still to take place northeast of the museum's restoration building, more dirt is moved using the museum's Trojan front loader and one of the museum's ex-US Military 6x6 dump trucks.


Steady at the controls... Museum volunteer, Scott Gleason, has steady control of the Trojan loader as he loads another bucket full of dirt into the dump truck.

A new tool... The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum was recently offered the opportunity to purchase a new-to-us flat bed boom truck for a very reasonable price to aid in projects around the museum. The museum made the purchase, and here we see the truck just after delivery being moved. Several donations to the museum made this purchase possible. Can you help us be ready for future opportunities with a donation today?

Loading up our flatcar

Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum Track Foreman, Luther Brefo, moves a rail in place after loading on to the museum's ex-New York Central Pullman PS-4 flat car #506102. The material being loaded is the rail which will be used for the new siding the museum is building west of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad. Instead of trucking it down, the museum is shipping the rail by rail! Our new siding will allow us to safely store our set of stainless steel passenger cars, which we are preparing for future planned excursions. Stay tuned!

Our Despatch Shops Exhibit

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum works very hard to offer unique exhibits for its visitors to see. In this case, you are inside of Merchants Despatch Transportation (MDT) ice bunker refrigerator car #14053 which features an exhibit highlighting the history of East Rochester Despatch Car Shops where MDT was headquartered and which built most of MDT's car fleet. Ironically, #14053 was not East Rochester built, but built by Pacific Car & Foundry.

A first during the June Chapter meeting

For the June Rochester Chapter NRHS membership meeting held at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, Fairbanks-Morse H12-44 #1843 was called to service to pull a first-ever trip using two of the museum's ex-New York Central 'Empire State Express' passenger cars! in "revenue service" hauling meeting participants on the museum's demonstration railroad. Here we see #1843 up the line at MP 0.8. The meeting special waits to depart Industry yard with #1843 in the lead followed by the "Alonzo B. Cornell," one of the two "Empire State Express" railway post office cars followed by NYC 2571, one of the six ESE coaches the museum owns. When we purchased these cars in 1987, our museum demonstration railroad did not even exist yet! Since then, they have resided on the Ontario Midland Railroad in Sodus, New York. In 2008, we moved the coaches to our museum at Industry, where we will base them for future excusions.

Chris Hauf works on the Bucyrus Erie crane

Our vintage construction equipment needs a lot of attention to keep it running. Fortunately, we have dedicated volunteers who enjoy working on our old "tired iron." After draining many gallons of varnish-like gasoline and several hours of preparation work the upper motor on our Bucyrus Erie 22B Truck Crane hummed to life. The lower drive motor was also run after some tinkering with the fuel system.

RGE 1941 spots NYC flatcar on track 8

June 3 saw the first movement through the restoration shop building on Track 8. It was also RG&E 1941’s first time operating with both prime movers in many years. Many volunteers contributed their efforts to make this happen! The locomotive is nearing the end of a multi-year restoration, and should return to service within the next year.