October 2001 Newsletter

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

OCTOBER 2001 NEWSLETTER VOL. XI #10

Entertainment this month features:
Bill McKelvey

The October membership meeting of PRRH will be held on Wednesday October 24, 2001 at the Alpha United Presbyterian Church at 7:30pm.Refreshments will be served and entertainment by Bill McKelvey will follow the business portion of the meeting. Bill will provide an interesting show with some expanded current events highlights.

It's no wonder that a small miracle was necessary to produce this month's newsletter as your author's computer decided to crash only the day before this was made. Just last month, I told you Alan's computer wouldn't communicate with me and now this? I am convinced that computer designers add temperament to their product's innards. Oh, and the little gremlin erased half of my memory and all of my addresses. Enough complaining.

We had a wonderful time at our September Open House. The weather was able to hold off the day despite a coastal storm that brought inclement weather to our east. We had about 125 visitors with 79 riding the Centerville and Southwestern. Frank Eichenlaub brought his motor car and gave rides free of charge along the museum north running track. The North Jersey Electric Railroaders had their trolley, PS 2651, available to see and have added a fare box which the kids found to be a fun hit as they dropped coins in and watched them go through. Who says kids need complex video games. Earle Brotzman brought his excellent circus railroad for all to enjoy. We were able to provide rest room facilities due to the generosity of some of our members. Bill Pensyl had a colorful plant sale and kindly donated a portion of his sales to PRRH. Thanks go out to Bill and Glen Summit Nursery for their generosity on this gesture and also for providing a beautiful White Oak tree to PRRH at a fraction of its retail cost. Also contributing to the tree were Bill Pensyl, Pete Terp, Jim Mack, Matt and Steve Winter, the Carpenitos, Jack Quinn, Ed Meyers, Tom Marzuoli, and Bob and Evelyn Bennington. This tree was the centerpiece in a ceremony held at 1:00 in honor of former Mayor of Phillipsburg, Tom Corcoran, who passed away this year. Tom's family was present to help honor the man who was a true supporter of our cause. Mrs. Corcoran indicated her gratefulness to us and told us of her husband's fondness for our organization. After the ceremony, the Corcoran clan were given a spirited ride aboard the C&S. Perhaps Tom was in the caboose giving his approval. The shade tree is planted near the C&S ticket office and will grow to provide shade to waiting passengers.

Our newest members, Bob and Sheryl Daumer, brought their beautiful Mack fire truck, the 1936 Northampton beauty in white, to liven up our grounds. We are proud to have you both as members. The gift shop was a big surprise to some of our patrons as they were greeted by glass upright display cases on the left with artifacts formerly hidden in our collection now on prominent display. To their right, they found two showcases with new merchandise ranging from fresh books of local significance to musical railroad CD's and hats and shirts. Our expanding video stock is also apparent. Once again, a dedicated group of volunteers staffed this event to perfection. Thanks go out to Louie Badolato, Ed Beers, Bob and Evelyn Bennington, Steve and Matt Winter, Bob Hooper, Earle Brotzman, Bill Pensyl, Glenn Terminelli, Paul and Meg Carpenito, Charley Bowlby, Jim Mack, Jack Quinn, Pete Terp and Ron Adam and the local young railroaders of the neighborhood. We received coverage in the form of a front page picture of the 1503 with Bob at the throttle in Tuesday's Express Times. The Free Press was also in attendance. I wish also to thank Rick Glosser and Ed Beers for grooming the grounds in anticipation of our event. We have put the C&S away for the long winter, but work parties will continue on Tuesdays.

Our volunteer work force is now working on our next critical project, to extend full size track eastward to the enginehouse. We have begun measuring out the lay of the land and are collecting and moving rail hardware in anticipation of a track blitz to occur one of these weekends soon. This project has been long in coming and we are going to ask some of you to help out with this goal to get it completed by winter. Sharon Winter will now assist us by contacting some of you that might be willing to lend a hand in our efforts to facilitate construction.

PRRH's picnic last month was a success, and the weather was great for food, games, and train watching. Many thanks go out to Ed Meyers, Bill Pensyl, Glenn Terminelli, and Meg Carpenito for their efforts at keeping everyone fed and entertained. Also many thanks to all of you who brought food to this event, ensuring its success.

Food for the October meeting is being paid for by Bob and Evelyn Bennington, and by Louie Badolato.

Finally, for those of you that did not make last month's meeting, a moment of silence was observed for the living and dead victims of the September 11 tragedies in New York and Washington, and in the skies over PennsyIvania. The mindless and cunning terror inflicted upon this country will change the way we think and live, possibly forever, and the effects will trickle down to all of us. That moment of silence was also observed in memory of one of our senior PRRH members, Bob Kirkpatrick, who passed away on September 7 at age 80. Bob was a long time employee of Western Electric-Bell Labs, where he worked for 46 years. Bob was a familiar figure at Directors' and membership meetings, and was always active in club affairs. His engineering skills were frequently called upon and he freely gave of his time for the betterment of the group. Never afraid to climb a freight car or pole at the museum, Bob's cheerful wittiness and polite and quiet ways will be missed by this author and, certainly, by many of us. We will deeply miss you, Bob.

We hope to see all of you at the meeting.

~ Paul Carpenito ~

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