TWILIGHT RIDE: NYMT Car 161 arrives at Midway Station as visitors prepare to transfer from trolley to train during last year’s twilight event. Join usJuly 12 for “Trains at Twilight” for special evening train rides! DAVID SCHEIDERICH PHOTO

INSIDEMeeting Minutes . . . . . . 2

Museum News . . . . . . . . 3

Should We Scrap It? . . . 5

Annual Picnic . . . . . . . . . 6

2014 Schedule. . . . . . . . 7

Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but your muse-um is making great progress on many proj-ects that will benefit our organization forthe long-term. After many years of plan-ning and fundraising, we are well on ourway towards the completion of our inspec-tion pit inside the Restoration Building.This new addition will allow us to makeinspections and repairs to critical compo-nents beneath out equipment without hav-ing to crawl under them.We’re also moving forward on the

rebuilding and reconstruction of an open-air rider flatcar, which we will be puttinginto service for the 2015 season.Completion of this car will allow us toexpand our visitor capacity and allowoccasional end-to-end diesel operation.A new display of signal equipment and

technology is being put together inside our

former PRR Railway Post Office car. Lookfor this new exhibit to debut in the 2015season as well.Finally, your board took steps towards

the preservation of the Pullman Pine Fallsby applying a “cocoon” to the body at theend of June. This is similar to the treatmentapplied to our Lackawanna m.u. car a cou-ple of years ago. We need your help indetermining the future of these cars so theycan be enjoyed for years to come by futuregenerations (see page 5).Don’t miss our Annual Museum Picnic

on August 16, followed by Diesel Day onAugust 17! We need your help to makeboth events a success. Have ideas? I’d liketo hear from you by phone (716) 474-2833or by email at mdow@rochester.rr.com.

—Mike Dow,Museum President

Forward Progress

JULY 2014VOL. 57 No. 11

NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCHESTER & GENESEE VALLEY RAILROAD MUSEUM

ROCHESTER & G ENESEE VALLEY RA I LROAD MUSEUM • ROCHESTER, N EW YORK

NEXT MEETING:

July 17Meeting at Industry Depot:Ride your museum railroad!

2 • JULY 2014 • THE SEMAPHORE

The official publication of the Rochester & Genesee Valley

Railroad Museum

Volume 57, No. 11

EDITOROtto M. Vondrak

ovondrak@yahoo.com

PRINTING AND MAILINGDave Peet

Don Wawrzyniak

©2014 Rochester & Genesee ValleyRailroad Museum. The Semaphore is pub-lished monthly by the Rochester & GeneseeValley Railroad Museum. It is mailed free toall members. Non-member subscriptions are$12.00 and run from January 1 to December31. Meetings are held the third Thursday ofeach month, and the Board of Trustees meetsthe first Thursday of each month. Any itemsrelated to the activities of the Rochester &Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, andregional railroad history and current eventsare gladly accepted.

www.rgvrrm.orgMUSEUM OFFICERS

PRESIDENTMike Dow

(716) 474-2833

VICE PRESIDENTJoe Nugent

TREASURERDave Peet

RECORDING SECRETARYJoel R. Shaw

CORRESPONDING SEC’YDon Wawrzyniak

TRUSTEESBob Burz

Peter GoresJim Johnson

David ScheiderichOtto M. VondrakMark Wilczek

TRAIN BULLETINNEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

PLAN AHEAD: Next Meeting:

August 21at Industry Depot, Rush, NY

JOIN THE MUSEUM TODAYAnnual Dues: $25.00

Rochester & Genesee Valley RR MuseumP.O. Box 23326

Rochester, NY 14692-3326

Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad MuseumMembership Meeting Minutes

June 19, 2014

The June Museum Membership Meeting was calledto order at Industry Depot, on Rush-Scottsville Roadin Rush, New York, at 7:01 p.m. by museumPresident Mike Dow.

Announcements/Correspondence: Otto Vondrakannounced that a special press event will be held onFriday, June 27, to promote awareness and launchthe campaign to restore Rochester Subway Car 60.Sunday, June 29, will be the special “SubwaySunday” event for the public.

Guests:Welcome Vanessa Loftus and her son, CarenPita, Phil Schaeffer and his son Tom, Sue Swantonfrom the Rush library, Susan Mee Rush TownHistorian, and others.

Membership: Sam Rosenberg announced that therewere two family memberships; Adam Johnson andfamily as well as Lorraine Gough and family. Bothcandidated were voted in unanimously.

Museum Library Report: Jim Ziobro reported thaton Saturday, June 21, at 10:30 A.M., there would bea library work session at the storage location atUncle Bob's Storage on University Avenue. This isthe first step towards rationalizing our collection.

Operations: None.

Preservation: Joe Nugent reported that the LehighValley caboose project continues with the last of the

steel repair work. The next step will be finding con-tractor quotes for sand blasting and priming theexterior. Joe also announced that our 40-foot steelflatcar will be delivered this week. This piece ofequipment will be used to increase the capacity ofour Sunday train operations. This car was originallybuilt for use at the Watervliet Arsenal before it waspurchased for use by the Lowville & Beaver RiverRailroad. Dave Shields announced the formation of acrew to tackle the project of reinstalling electricalcables on our Empire State Express passengercoaches so that we may return them to service soon.

Trips: Dave Shields talked about our very successfulArcade & Attica daytrip. We sold 52 out of 56 tick-ets. Dave is starting work on promoting our October18 Lakeville Avon & Livonia fall foliage train trips;many volunteers will be needed for this activity.

New Business: Mike Dow announced that RichFischpera was forced to resign from serving on theBoard of Trustees because of a new policy passed byNYMT. Rich will continue as a volunteer at R&GVand as Operations Superintendent. There is a need fora new candidate to fill the vacancy on the board. TheBoard will appoint a temporary member to this posi-tion.

Program: Riding our museum railroad!

Rich Fischpera made a MOTION to adjourn, sec-onded by Otto Vondrak. The MOTION passed unani-mously. Meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,—Joel R. Shaw, Trustee and Recording Secretary

UPCOMING MUSEUM PROGRAMSMONTHLY MEETINGS

On July 17, and August 21, 2014,meet-ings move to Industry Depot! You areinvited to join us (and bring a friend) totake a ride on the museum railroad wehave all worked so hard to build and main-tain together. After a brief business meet-ing at 7:00pm, train rides start at 7:30pm.ALL ABOARD!

Can you help us?We are looking forhelp with the Program Chair position.Please contact Mike Dow if you are inter-ested in helping to schedule fun andinformative presentations for our monthlymuseum meetings!

—R&GV Program Committee

ROCHESTER SUBWAYCAR 60 IN THE NEWS

On Friday, June 27, the New YorkMuseum of Transportation and the R&GVRailroad Museum hosted a special pressevent to raise awareness for the restorationof Rochester Subway Car 60. The date waschosen as the closest to the end of serviceon the Rochester Subway, which was June30, 1956. Soon after that date, RochesterTransit Corp. donated Car 60 to our organ-ization. We lent it to other groups until itwas returned to us in 1998. Subject to anaggressive tear down and inspection by

museum volunteers, the project has beenplaced on hold until a formal plan andfundraising can be established. Realizingwe can’t do it alone, we turned to the pub-lic to help.Press response was favorable, including

a radio interview on WXXI-FM, televisioncoverage on WHAM 13 and TimeWarner’sYNN News. A photographer and writerfrom the Democrat & Chroniclemade surewe were front page news on Monday, June30. We were also mentioned on the popu-lar web site RochesterSubway.com. All ofthis led up to our “Subway Sunday” event,where we brought small groups up to ourrestoration shop to tour Car 60 and lendtheir support to the project. The future ofthis project will be determined by a com-mittee to decide on the best course ofaction: Conservation (do nothing, assem-ble all parts in one location, cocoon thecarbody), Restoration (a cosmetic restora-tion only to allow visitors to tour the car),or Operation (a full return to operationover our museum railroad). Only then willfundraising begin and will work resume onthe only survivor of the Subway fleet.

—Otto M. VondrakCar 60 Exploratory Committee

LIBRARY WORK SESSIONAND BOOK SALE

On June 21 we held our first work sessionat the storage site to help identify materialsthat would no longer be retained in themuseum’s Library Collection. The majori-ty of these items are common “mass-mar-ket” books, tapes, and DVDs, along withpopular railroad enthusiast publicationslike Trains, Railfan, Model Railroader, andRailroad Model Craftsman. The team con-sisted of Dave Luca, Ken Gardner, OttoVondrak, Florence Wright, and Jim Ziobro.About 90% of the boxed material was sort-ed through and identified. More than adozen boxes have been marked forremoval. If you are available to help, or ifyou have any questions, please contact meby email at rgvrr.ziobro@yahoo.com.

—Jim Ziobro, Library Committee

BOARD VACANCY AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The Board of Trustees reluctantly acceptedthe resignation of board member RichFischpera at the end of June. The decisionwas not his, however, as the NYMTrecently passed a resolution that preventsanyone who is an RGV board member to

WWW.RGVRRM.ORG • THE SEMAPHORE • J U LY 2014 • 3

ROCHESTER & GENESEE VALLEY RAILROAD MUSEUMV I S I T O U R W E B S I T E : W W W. R G V R R M . O R G

MUSEUM CONTACT INFO

MUSEUM PRESIDENTMike Dow

(716) 474-2833 mdow@rochester.rr.com

MUSEUM MANGLERMark Wilczek

(585) 721-1377 mwilczek@rochester.rr.com

MOTIVE POWER SUPERINTENDENTJoe Nugent

(585) 944-1047 joe.r.nugent@gmail.com

OPERATIONS SUPERINTENDENTRich Fischpera

(585) 865-4283 rfischpera53@rochester.rr.com

MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMANSam Rosenberg

ALCO251@frontiernet.net

ABOVE: She may not look like much now, but this is a very important step in the construction of ourthird track car trailer to haul additional museum visitors over our museum railroad. Thanks to JoelShaw, Norm Shaddick, and Rand Warner for there contributions. PHOTO BY JOEL R. SHAW

4 • JULY 2014 • THE SEMAPHORE

also sit on the NYMT board (despite thispractice having been in place for manyyears previous). NYMT cites a “conflict ofinterest” between the two boards as the pri-mary reason for passing this resolution.The RGV Board of Trustees has gone onthe record with our displeasure at theserecent developments, and asked theNYMT board to reconsider their position.A reaffirming vote was passed by NYMT,and Rich Fischpera was forced to resignfrom our board. Despite our objections, werespect the sovereign authority of theNYMT board, and will abide by its wishes.Unfortunately, we are tasked with filling

this vacancy once again. We are seekingcandidates for appointment, any RGVmember in good standing is eligible to be

nominated. Please contact president Mike Dow at (716) 474-2833 ormdow@rochester.rr.com with your nom-inations.

THIRD TRACK CAR TRAILERPROJECT UPDATE

Progress has been made on the design andconstruction of a third track car trailerdesigned to increase our visitor capacity. Anew steel frame has been fabricated,moved inside, and "red lead" primed for aprotective undercoating. The project teamis expecting some of the major wood com-ponents to be done very shortly. Projectmanager Joel R. Shaw created theAutoCAD drawings for the frame and thewood components. Rand Warner and

Norm Shaddick have also been instrumen-tal in the ongoing progress on this veryimportant expansion project. The goal is tohave this new trailer in service before theend of the 2014 operating season.

—Joel R. Shaw, Project Manager

OPEN-AIR RIDER FLATCARPROJECT UPDATE

Jared Rosenberg (son of membershipchairman Sam Rosenberg) and projectmanager Rob Burz evaluated a prototypefor a passenger seating to be constructedfor the open air rider flatcar (ex-L&BR 23,see June 2014 issue of THE SEMAPHORE).Construction of the seating portion isJared’s Eagle Scout community serviceproject. Jared and I had completed a proto-

The New York Museum of Transportation and theR&GV Railroad Museum hosted a special pressday to raise awareness for the restoration ofRochester Subway Car 60. ABOVE: Dave Shieldslooks on as the cameraman from WHAM 13interviews Nick Otto, son of volunteer Jim Otto,about his feelings towards the restoration ofRochester Subway Car 60. ABOVE RIGHT:Volunteer Otto Vondrak gets mic’d up in prepa-ration for taped interviews with Time WarnerYNN and WHAM 13. RIGHT: Volunteer HaroldRussell is interviewed by YNN’s Seth Voorheesabout his recollections of riding streetcars andthe subway in Rochester. JOE NUGENT PHOTOS

WWW.RGVRRM.ORG • THE SEMAPHORE • J U LY 2014 • 5

type bench and Rob made a temporarydeck and railings so that we could checkthe clearances and also seating ergonom-ics. We made a couple of modifications tothe design based upon the test fitting and atthis point we are in the process of building

the remaining three benches. The benchdesign is adapted from a similar designthat is used by the Hoosier Valley RailroadMuseum. With Jared’s contribution, thisproject is scheduled for completion prior tothe 2015 operating season.

—Sam Rosenberg

TRACK DEPT. SUPERINTENDENTYour Board of Trustees is looking for acandidate to oversee all track projects onour museum railroad, including joint proj-ects with the NYMT. Please contact presi-dent Mike Dow at (716) 474-2833 ormdow@rochester.rr.com for details.

PRESERVATION COMMITTEESYour Board of Trustees is looking for can-didates to lead a committee to determinethe future of our Lackawanna m.u. coachand the PRR Pullman Pine Falls. Please

contact president Mike Dow at (716) 474-2833 or mdow@rochester.rr.com fordetails. We need your help to determinenext steps for this important pieces of ourmuseum collection.

RGVRRM BOARD MEETINGThe next Board of Trustees meeting will beThursday, August 7, 2014. To get an itemadded to the agenda, please contact presi-dent Mike Dow at (716) 474-2833 ormdow@rochester.rr.com. Remember thatany members are welcome to attend, but toaddress the board, you must be on thatmeeting’s agenda.

VISIT US ONLINE AT... WWW.RGVRRM.ORG

FACEBOOK.COM/RGVRRMYOUTUBE.COM/RGVRRM

ABOVE: Jared Rosenberg, son of membership chairman Sam Rosenberg, demonstrated a test fittingof benches he is constructing that will be used on our new open-air rider flatcar. Jared is construct-ing these benches for the museum as contributions toward his Eagle Scout service project. LEFT: Project manager Rob Burz checks over the full-size mock-up with Jared. Completion of theflatcar will increase our visitor capacity tremendously for the 2015 season. SAM ROSENBERG PHOTOS

6 • JULY 2014 • THE SEMAPHORE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2014We’re clearing out hundreds of books,magazines, tapes, and DVDs from ourlibrary collection! Lanterns and otherpieces of railroad hardware too! Helpus find new homes for these treasures!

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Join us for our Annual Museum Members’ Picnic!Enjoy hots, hamburgs, cold pop and beer!Bring your favorite dish or dessert to pass.

2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.$5.00 DONATION PER PERSON

MEMBERS-ONLY TRAIN RIDES AT 4:00 P.M.

Are you missing out on important email messages? Joining is easy, plus it gives you more control over how youcommunicate with others. There are new email lists for Members, Volunteers, and Operations! Need to getsigned up? Not sure where you belong? For more information, or to be added to any list, please contact “list-master” Otto Vondrak by email at ovondrak@yahoo.com. Thank you!

Get connected to our private mailing list

WWW.RGVRRM.ORG • THE SEMAPHORE • J U LY 2014 • 7

MATERIALS SUBMISSIONS:We welcome your contributions to The Semaphore! Any materials related to the activities of the Rochester& Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, as well as the history of Rochester’s railroads are welcome for publication in THE SEMAPHORE. Allwritten materials should be submitted as Microsoft Word or plain text documents, and all photographs as high-resolution JPEG files.Materials and inquiries should be emailed to the Editor at ovondrak@yahoo.com or call (585) 820-2341.

NYMT-R&GV JOINT OPERATING SCHEDULE FOR 2014

July 2014Friday 4 - Fourth of July - NO TRAINSSunday 6 – Trolley and Track CarsSaturday 12 – “Trains at Twilight” – Trolley and DieselSunday 13- Trolley and Track CarsSunday 20 – “Baseball Day” - Trolley and DieselSunday 27 – Trolley and Track Cars

August 2014Sunday 3 – Trolley and DieselSunday 10 – Trolley and Track CarsSunday 17 – “Diesel Day” – Trolley/Extended Diesel Rides Sunday 24 – Trolley and Track CarsSunday 31 – Trolley and Diesel

September 2014Monday 1 - Labor Day - NO TRAINSSunday 7 – Trolley and Track CarsSunday 14 – “Fall Foliage w/Fire Trucks” – Trolley and DieselSunday 21 – “Fall Foliage” – Trolley and DieselSunday 28 – “Fall Foliage” – Trolley and Diesel

October 2014Sunday 5 – “Fall Foliage” – Trolley and DieselSunday 12 – “Fall Foliage” – Trolley and DieselMonday 13 – Columbus Day - NO TRAINSSaturday 18 – Fall Foliage Excursions on LA&LSunday 19 – “Fall Foliage” – Trolley and DieselSaturday 25 — “Halloween Express” — Trolley and DieselSunday 26 – “Fall Foliage - Last Day” – Trolley and Diesel

Have you told your friends yet?Schedules, events, fares, exhibits, details,and more, all in one easy to use web site!

Tell your friends to please visit...

RochesterTrainRides.coma joint project of New York Museum of Transportation

and the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum

(No, we’re not kidding. Are youtired of seeing everything in ourcollection rust away to nothing?We need your help. Ask how you

can get involved.)

This Month’s Meeting:

July 177:00 PM at Industry Depot282 Rush-Scottsville Rd., Rush, NY

Next Month’s Meeting:

August 217:00 PM at Industry Depot282 Rush-Scottsville Rd., Rush, NY

Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/rgvrrm

The entertainment for our June museum meeting was a ride over the railroad all the way up to NYMT’s Switch 21. Please join us on July 17 and August21 for your opportunities to enjoy our museum railroad! Visit www.rgvrrm.org for details. OTTO M. VONDRAK PHOTO