April 2000 Newsletter

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Phillipsburg Railroad Historians, Inc.
292 Chambers Street, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865

APRIL 2000 NEWSLETTER VOL. X #4

Entertainment this month features Tony Chando on
the Vintage Slides of the area.

HAPPY SPRING to everyone. We've endured all that winter has thrown at us and here we are at the start of an exciting and promising season at Phillipsburg. We didn't even have to cancel a membership meeting as the ulgy weather ran completely around our plans. Our monthly membership meeting is set for Wednesday April 26 at 7:30pm at the ALPHA UNITED PRESBYTERAIN CHURCH. Refreshments will be served as usual and a slide show or video presentation will follow the business portion of the meeting. We have had three work parties since our last meeting, two for the purpose of tie retrieval and one for the resumption of Centerville & Southwestern reconstruction. We now have nearly 200 ties to bring to the museum grounds for track construction. A big thank you goes to Jim Anderson for his dedication in seeing this project through. Also thanks go to Bob Marinelli for his help and for making the connections at Warren Lumber for transportation of our materials back to the museum. This task should be accomplished by the time you read this. Our gratitude goes out to Jim Dyer, John Bonner, Steve and Matt Winter, and Dan Snyder for their assistance with this project. I would also like to mention Bob Kirkpatrick, and Pete Terp for their work at the museum. Our work parties continue on the first and third Saturday of the month and begin between 8 and 9 AM. I need to add that I am somewhat disturbed at the occasional poor turnouts for these work sessions. I understand the demands of family life all too well, but is it not possible to give at least one Saturday each month for 4 hours for the sake and betterment of PRRH? The burden falls on the same faithful people. This is your club and we need you to help us move forward. The second work party team is working each Tuesday starting about 4:00 PM and working till dusk. We are rebuilding the C&S for late Spring opening. The first session was attended by Jack Quinn, Bob Kirkpatrick, Glenn Terminelli, Jim Anderson, and Paul Carpenito. In club news, we are expecting the enginehouse kit to arrive by early May. We are attempting to arrange the movement and transfer of the Anthracite owned boxcar to the museum track as soon as all parties are in agreement. We are hoping for tie movement to take place on April 8. The town should begin the cleaning out of the coal pockets soon and a gate is to be installed at the bottom of the ramp to help keep the trespassers in check. Our new delegates to URHS meetings are Jack Quinn with Ed Meyers as the alternate. The tentative date set for the public meeting on the State Transportation Museum is Monday night April 17 at the library of town hall. You are encouraged to attend and see what this is shaping up to be. Your Directors are proud and pleased to announce the PRRH fantrip to Baltimore set to happen on Sunday May 21 leaving from P-Burg Town Hall parking lot. You will travel in a deluxe motor coach to Baltimore where a stop at the B&O Museum will be first on our itinerary. This will be followed by a light rail fantrip over the Baltimore Metro from Camden Yards to Hunt Valley, which includes street running and then high speed private right of way. This portion of the trip will show you several old passenger stations once used by the Pennsylvania Railroad as this was part of their Northern Central line. Upon return to Camden Yards, a possible shop tour will cap off this segment. Our final stop of this exciting day will be a visit to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. They will eagerly await us and accommodate our interest even past their normal closing time if necessary. On our return journey, we will stop for dinner at a buffet resturant, which will be on individual settletment. You will not want to miss this opportunity to spend a day with your fellow members and their families. Seating is limited to 47 passengers and initial interest has been high. Book your seat either at the meeting or by order form which is being sent to you, in order to avoid disappointment. The next date to remember is April 29, our annual banquet dinner. This event will be held at RYAN'S, just a few steps from the museum on South Main Street. The price is 22.00 per person and entertainment will be provided after you fill your belly with good food. Sunday September 10 is the date of our first PRRH picnic open to members and their families. It will be held at HUGH MOORE CANAL PARK in Easton. We will soon be selling raffle tickets with lots of worthwhile prizes to be won. Stay tuned for further details. I hope to see all of you at the meeting and by the way, attendance at the membership meeting has improved since we moved. Is that a silent vote of approval?

PC/ab/sdw