Working on our 'Great Steel Fleet'

Over the past year, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum has been investing a large amount of work into our seven ex-New York Central Budd-built all stainless steel passenger cars from the 1941 re-equipping of the "Empire State Express." These coaches were acquired from Metro-North Railroad in 1987, having served more than forty years in long-distance and commuter passenger service. Our volunteers have been working hard on refurbishing our coaches. From replacing window glazing to interior repairs, the effort has been large and very successful, but there is still much to do.

Here we see one of the coaches which has been brought inside of the museum's restoration shop for some interior work including replacement of some of the wall panels. To do this work, the car's seats had to be removed and the old failing wall panels removed. At the same time, the car will be outfitted with electric heat to replace its original steam heating system which is no longer supportable. The flourescent lighting was added during a 1970s rebuild to help "modernize" the cars after they were reassigned to New York suburban commuter service.

The original heating elements are being removed, however, the original stainless covers will be replaced to hide the new electric baseboard heat. Here we see the east side of the car where the radiator covers are being removed to allow access to the original heating elements and allow the failing wall material to be removed to be replaced.

Additionally, upholstery repairs are on the slate as well. Here we see volunteer, Don Wawrzyniak, hard at work on some new seat covers. In house upholstery work is something new to the R&GVRRM. We thank Don for taking this on, and welcome anyone interested in helping us with this facet of the restoration. With five coaches to work on and lots of work to do for all skill levels and capabilities, the museum could use your help if you would like to volunteer with us to help restore our 'Great Steel Fleet'!

Charging up!

Stored on the museum's new passenger car siding on the west side of the LA&L tracks, the Rochester & Gensee Valley Railroad Museum's new GE 110-tonner #8 and GE 45-tonner #1950 are far away from any of the museum's electrical infrastructure, but Rochester's winter has been unrelenting on everything including locomotive starting batteries. Therefore, it was time to break-out one of the museum's generators to provide power for a portable locomotive battery charger and get charging to insure the engine's batteries stay charged and don't freeze. In the case of the 110-tonner, the generator seen here may be older than the locomotive. Photos by Chris Hauf

New engines arrive!

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum was very fortunate to receive the donation of two new locomotives which previously served Rochester Gas & Electric's Russell Station in Charlotte, NY. With the plant closed, RG&E was very generous to donate the locomotives to the R&GVRRM where the join RG&E #1941 which once served RG&E's BeeBee Station generating plant in downtown Rochester. It took new fewer than four railroads to deliver the engines to the museum in Rush. Here we see delivery day by the ALCOS of the Livonia, Avon & Lakville Railroad shown here roaring past the engines post delivery on the R&GVRRM's new passenger car siding.


With a north facing switch, the LA&L decided to take the locomotives south past the R&GVRRM on December 3 and deliver them as part of a northbound freight on December 4. Here we see the engines passing the new Barilla Pasta plant just north of Avon.


The switch for the R&GVRRM's new siding is located approximately 2000 feet north of the museum's Industry depot. Here we see #1950 and #8 being shoved into the siding by the ALCO Centuries of the LA&L.


With the LA&L headed north, here we are looking south at the new locomotives on the siding along with the museums two ex-New York Central flat cars which are being used for rail and track material storage for the continued construction of the siding project.