Greetings to all PRRH members and friends. I certainly hope you are all enjoying some quality time outdoors on your patios and in your gardens. Right. The weatherman said the other day that it rained 20 out of 31 days in May. So who's counting anymore. It never goes more than 24 hours without rain. And all the money we spend on pools and chemicals to keep green water away. Right. I'm writing this newsletter to you right now and I have to stop to go shut all the windows quickly because it's pouring again. And the weatherman says today we are still short on the water table. Right.

The last beautiful weekend we had was Sunday May 18 when two busloads of PRRH riders enjoyed a cloudless blue sky day on the Hudson River of New York State. Visiting the high perch rest stop known as Anthony's Nose, we were in time to witness the passage of a northbound CSX freight train rumbling across the Iona Island trestle far below us. Climbing aboard a Metro North modern commuter train, we glided up the Hudson to Cold Spring where we enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Depot Restaurant in the patio under the cool shade, all the while watching four passenger trains whisking by on the adjacent tracks. After a little time for shopping, our buses brought us up to Newburgh, where we enjoyed a two hour cruise on the beautiful Hudson River on the warm and sunny deck of the Pride Of The Hudson vessel. Several CSX freights and a handful of passenger trains of Metro-North and Amtrak glided by within camera range. Upon return to the dock, our buses took us to Poughkeepsie, where we again boarded Metro-North for a trip downriver passing the famous Bannerman's Island castle which we saw the opposite side of from the boat. At Peekskill, our buses took us, 102 in number, to a bountiful buffet dinner, capping off a fine day's outing and the finish to a highly successful trip concept which resulted in a $1600.00 profit for PRRH. Our thanks go out to Meg for her tireless efforts in securing a smooth and fun-filled adventure.

Our June Father's Day field trip was a repeat success also and we will share its events in next month's news.

MARCH / APRIL WORK HOUR REPORT by John Ward.
Things are picking up again this spring. On-site hours for March totaled 26, the same as the off-site hours, 26, consisting of administrative and book work. This gives us a March compilation of 52 hours. April on-site hours multiplied to 132 and 1/2, in addition to 27 administrative and book work hours, yielding 159 and 1/2 total April hours. ( Site work concerned the engine house, Museum and grounds, and included fork lift, track work, cleaning and landscaping.

Maryann Ignatz of Steve's Cafe, at 766 South Main St. is looking for more historic postcard and picture material to add to her growing and excellent collage of material she has already put together. She needs emblem patches of the DL&W and Pennsylvania railroad. Stop in and visit her most significant collection and be amazed at what has turned up.

Our CNJ caboose, already vandalized by fire, has been broken into at least twice since the fire incident. I have conferred with John Boner and a decision was made to board up the doors in effect sealing off access until the car can be moved indoors for continued restoration and safekeeping. PRRH has grant funding to fence off our grounds, but its installation is being deferred until all heavy hauling is complete as we continue the engine house track and floor project. Our museum grounds continues to be plagued by random trespassing, especially by ATV's and bikes, and your president has personally witnessed police cars on Town property across the museum ignore dirt races in progress. It will be absolutely necessary to address this issue if we are ever able to attain some sense of security at the Museum. New no-trespassing signs have been posted.

Trackwork continues in force with 40 feet of north track now extending from the engine house door. A sizeable Tuesday work session force has been moving dirt for tamping and are preparing to spike down the newly laid section. A work detail group from the Warren County Corrections agency has completed a cleaning and defoliating job on the property near the Stockton Street underpass ridding the embankment of years of garbage, debris and overgrowth. It looks better than it has been for many years.

CENTERVILLE & SOUTHWESTERN NEWS
• PRRH would like to thank member Keith Muldowney for his thoughtfulness in donating an authentic Becker electric motor used in one of the early locomotives at Roseland.
• Pauline Becker has donated an absolutely stunning album of photographs of train operations at the Becker railroad at Roseland. This incredible work will be available to view at our Open House events, next of which will be July 13.
• Charlie Bowlby has begun the re-painting of the ticket office, spending the last several work sessions scrubbing, scraping, washing, and chasing the bees away.
• Meg and I have made the long-time sought out connection with the railroadiana collector that originally located the die stamp for the C&S at "Centerville". We could not use the impression to punch tickets since we did not have the proper machine to make it fit into. Last week, we traveled some distance to make a connection with Jim Raffa, who located us a ticket validating machine. Listen for the bang now when you go to buy your C&S ticket. It has returned to its rightful home.
• C&S friend Dan Espy is working on creating a comprehensive video that will cover Centerville & Southwestern, its history from inception, to the present day. In an act of unending generosity, Pauline Becker has donated much archival movie footage, which has been reworked for use in the updated product. We have received many requests for a video on the C&S over the past several years, so I can tell you that we are going to someday reach that goal.

We would like to remind you of our coming Open House on Sunday July 13. A colorful set of events are being planned for this event. Please bring the family and tell your friends. We will operate 10am to 4pm.

You may have read in some of the railfan publications of the nightmare some preservation groups have experienced regarding liability insurance coverage. The trickle down effects of the 9-11 tragedy have resulted in the loss of many carriers' coverage due to the crushing losses sustained by many insurance companies, themselves dependent on investments that dictate their profit and loss. Some tourist lines have scaled back or even dropped their operations as a result. The tidal wave has reached our shores too here at Phillipsburg and our policy premium has tripled overnight. Our good financial policy has allowed us to sustain this cost, but we will seek ways to make some new income to help offset its price. We have used the opportunity to obtain better and more complete coverage that addresses our needs to a better extent.

PRRH welcomes new member Jeffrey Woronowicz of Port Murray and his kind donation and also Ron Adam as a member. You may remember that Ron became our hero when he rushed to the fire department to call in the alarm for our burning caboose. As a gesture of our appreciation, an honorary membership was given Ron, paid half by Rocky Rockafellow and half by the club.

I hope you are enjoying the clarity of my new printer as we have retired the old one since the poor old gal has been working for 5 years. Guess I got my moneys worth out of it, but it was producing some smearing and I couldn't take it anymore. The new Canon printer is a bit more complicated, but I think you will agree that the end results are far clearer. ....Or maybe I need new eyes or something....

Finally, the membership meeting of PRRH will be held on Wednesday night June 25 at 7:30pm at the Alpha United Presbyterian Church. Refreshments will be provided by Bob and Evelyn Bennington and Tom Marzuoli. Quality entertainment will follow the business portion of the meeting.

See you real soon.

PRRH CALENDAR OF EVENTS
June 25 Wednesday night 7:30pm membership meeting
July 13 Sunday Open House at Museum 10am to 4pm.

PC/sdw

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