A few years ago I visited the New York Museum of Transportation south of Rochester, NY (it's somewhat affiliated with the Rochester & Genessee Valley RR Museum). At the time, they were planning to begin stringing trolley wire so that they could operate a pair of ex-Red Arrow suburban cars from Philadelphia. They had a few poles in the ground, but no wire at the time. Does anyone know how work is going on their electrification project?

Frank Hicks

frank@gats.com

Nice web page and some interesting stuff in their Journal


http://www.nymtmuseum.org/nymtjournal.asp
lamontdc@adelphia.net

Frank,

As for electrification at the NYMT, this is a joint project between the NYMT and its partner, the Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum. The R&GV RR Museum is owned and operated by the Rochester Chapter NRHS while the NYMT is a completely separate entity. The two museums are located at either end of a jointly constructed, 2-mile standard gauge demonstration railroad. While separate, we cooperate with each other on many things including our Sunday operations for the general public and other infrastructure projects like electrification. It is a great partnership!

I am the current President of the Rochester Chapter NRHS, but I am also a member of the NYMT so I will give you a small update here and allow their leadership to add as they see fit.

Last year through a lot of hard work by both museums, we were able to complete wiring about 1500 feet of track and held a successful two day event using NYMT's ex-P&W car #168 (see pic below) where we let the public come out and ride a trolley under wire for the first time in Rochester since the Rochester Subway ceased operations in 1956. The event was very successful and we hope to have something again in the not so distant future, however, no dates have been set since we are working very diligently on getting more of our infrastructure beyond poles and wire in place to support the trolley operations.

Please keep your eyes on the NYMT website for updated operations info as it becomes available.

Thank you for the interest. It is very exciting for us to add electric operations to our menu of attractions which already lists track car and diesel locomotive operations (the diesels are owned by the R&GV RR Museum). Someday, the R&GV RR Museum also hopes to add steam to the mix as we have two 0-4-0's (one fired and one fireless) undergoing evaluation for operational restoration right now.

Until later,
Chris Hauf



New York Museum of Transportation

crhauf@frontiernet.net

> Frank,

> As for electrification at the NYMT, this is
> a joint project between the NYMT and its
> partner, the Rochester & Genesee Valley
> RR Museum. The R&GV RR Museum is owned
> and operated by the Rochester Chapter NRHS
> while the NYMT is a completely separate
> entity. The two museums are located at
> either end of a jointly constructed, 2-mile
> standard gauge demonstration railroad. While
> separate, we cooperate with each other on
> many things including our Sunday operations
> for the general public and other
> infrastructure projects like
> electrification. It is a great partnership!

> I am the current President of the Rochester
> Chapter NRHS, but I am also a member of the
> NYMT so I will give you a small update here
> and allow their leadership to add as they
> see fit.

> Last year through a lot of hard work by both
> museums, we were able to complete wiring
> about 1500 feet of track and held a
> successful two day event using NYMT's
> ex-P&W car #168 (see pic below) where we
> let the public come out and ride a trolley
> under wire for the first time in Rochester
> since the Rochester Subway ceased operations
> in 1956. The event was very successful and
> we hope to have something again in the not
> so distant future, however, no dates have
> been set since we are working very
> diligently on getting more of our
> infrastructure beyond poles and wire in
> place to support the trolley operations.

> Please keep your eyes on the NYMT website
> for updated operations info as it becomes
> available.

> Thank you for the interest. It is very
> exciting for us to add electric operations
> to our menu of attractions which already
> lists track car and diesel locomotive
> operations (the diesels are owned by the
> R&GV RR Museum). Someday, the R&GV
> RR Museum also hopes to add steam to the mix
> as we have two 0-4-0's (one fired and one
> fireless) undergoing evaluation for
> operational restoration right now.

> Until later,
> Chris Hauf

Chris:

Thanks for the post. The info that you are thinking of restoring an 0-4-0 was interesting and something I did not know about. BTW, where do you get your power for the electic operation? From a local utility? Supply you own (generator or whatever)? Or...?

Les Beckman (HVRM)

midlandblb@cs.com

Les,

Our initial power source and a still possible source as a back-up was a large, trailer-mounted diesel gen set owned by the R&GV RR Museum, however, we are in the process of converting over to commercial power from a local utility. That is the "infrastructure" improvements I alluded to in my first post. Given the many hoops which must be jumped through to get proper approvals and the work needed to get our little substation built, we have left ourselves the time to do the job right this year. Thus, trolley ops will not commence again until we are up and running with commercial power.

The good news is that we have a lot of very good people working on the project and things are looking very positive right now.

Thanks for the interest!

Until later,
Chris

> Chris:

> Thanks for the post. The info that you are
> thinking of restoring an 0-4-0 was
> interesting and something I did not know
> about. BTW, where do you get your power for
> the electic operation? From a local utility?
> Supply you own (generator or whatever)?
> Or...?

> Les Beckman (HVRM)


Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum
crhauf@frontiernet.net