Phillipsburg Railroad Historians, Inc.
PO Box 5104, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865
www.prrh.org

JANUARY 2004 NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIV NUMBER 1

      As I sat milling over the January newsletter annual report to you last year regarding our accomplishments in 2002, I thought I was reading an act I couldn't possibly top to review the year 2003. I walked away from the computer and gave it some thought, ......... a few days worth of thought. Then I read over the monthly newsletters slowly and collected my thoughts as I went over everything we did this past year. Gradually, a warm feeling came over me. After all, this task of leading a group of 80 men and women can sometimes become a whirlwind of events. There are deadlines to meet every month, reports to file, people to meet, meetings to organize, and the list goes on. Perhaps you might remember the kaleidoscopes we used to play with when we were kids, a blending of colors to create a constant viewscape to fancy the viewer's eye and imagination. Put together the members' talents and couple them to the events we organize and carry out, and you have a beautiful tapestry we have collectively woven as a group. This comes from the fact that we are all a bit different from one another, and we see things in a different manner. We are born to this organization not of wealth, but of talent and the ability to nurture harmony from within. This blend is worth for more in personal satisfaction than anybody's dollars could buy. I just need to look at most of your faces at events such as meetings, Open Houses, work parties, and field trips. I see a curtain of personal satisfaction, happiness to work together at sharing thoughts and donuts, and the pension to push onward into the unknown. When you really think about it, we have lived and thrived with the unknown always looming over our heads, and that, my fellow members, is where we have found our strength.

      It goes without saying that we occasionally suffer setbacks. In early May, we were faced with the caboose fire set by three local juveniles. Significant interior damage was sustained by our century-old artifact, nuking three years of hard volunteer work moot. The two youths that were responsible for the blaze have been sentenced to fines and restitution, along with mandatory participation in county remediative activities. It is unfortunate that the work put into the car could be erased in such short order, yet the punitive measures dealt by our justice system really let them off easy because of their ages. At the same time, we had to deal with a 300% hike in our liability insurance, the results of a search to sufficiently cover our Centerville & Southwestern train ride. There was no fire insurance available within our means to insure the caboose and other rolling stock.

      We lost two very great men this past year. On April 2, Henry Becker passed away in Florida. It was such a shock to all those who were lucky enough to be around that fateful September day when the Beckers paid us a surprise visit in order to experience the thirtieth anniversary of the closing of the C&S. With Henry's passing went the legend of the man who successfully bridged the generation gap of family fun and solidarity. PRPH was dealt another shock at the death of Director Ed Meyers on July 26, a victim of a failing heart. Our love for Ed's unfailing devotion to this organization is remembered in many happy club affairs with food and beverages. His opinions in Directorship were greatly revered at meetings that involved decision making. Ed's impact on the group will be sorely missed. Replacing Ed's position as Director is Bill Pensyl, who already has the experience to amply cover the appointment. Our food station at membership meetings has been assumed by Torn Scharpf, and the tradition of a summer picnic will be handled by Ed's son-in-law, Pete Terp. This summer's picnic will be held in honor of Ed Meyers. Details will follow when the date is finalized.

      Our oral history program continued with the introduction of the Norm Cole Sr./ Tony Gallagher videotape which was presented at our November meeting. Pete Blaess also produced a descriptive tape outlining our museum stabilization needs, which was presented to the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust Fund Committee along with an application for a $12,500 grant to replace our roof and side walls, reeling from years of hard weather. A decision has not been made at press time. We did realize a $100.00 award from the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission as the second part of a grant spread out over a fiscal year. This enables us to better deal with our growing expenses associated with the operations of the club. As an organization solely dependent on dues and donations, we welcome all efforts to assist us with our bottom line. We continue to carefully monitor our expenditures and are keenly aware of how fast a member's dues can disappear into the black hole of costs.

      We continued our track work project and the north track out of the engine house runs out the doors on both ends enabling a daylight look at both the Public Service trolley 2651, and the Chestnut Ridge Mack Railbus when we bring them out for an Open House. We have been delighted in the fruitful relationship we have with the North Jersey Electric Railroad Historical Society and with the Lehigh Valley Chapter National Railway Historical Society, especially with the working cooperation all parties have experienced during the year and at Open Houses. We are all one voice in the quest to preserve what vestiges of equipment not yet reduced to rubble. We had resumed the track work from the completed west end and started the switch work needed to create a junction of the two display tracks as they again split into the two engine house doors. Darkness and cold stopped the project in October, but will resume when conditions improve in the spring. There may be some track work in the coming weeks if conditions allow.

      We realized electric service at the engine house when Harry Wyant Electric provided a generous donation of labor to establish service. The electric company installed the pole and line without cost to us. So we started off in a good way and will continue improvements during 2004.

      Our Centerville & Southwestern RR enjoyed another year of popular support. A generous donation of memorabilia from Pauline Becker gave us a jump start in our efforts to memorialize the Becker legend. We acquired most of the sundry items that Becker had kept, and Pauline saw fit to reward us in a most kind way to display this merchandise for our museum visitors to view. And visitors came from near and far. I spoke with people from New York, Michigan, and Connecticut to name a few. We have maintained a tradition to operate the train during the Olde Towne Festival and for the Pumpkin Fest. Record numbers of tickets were given for these events indicating that the local people know where and when to find us. We repainted the ticket office in a tasteful rendition of what photographs showed it to look like during its time in Roseland. In addition to carrying passengers, the C&S was used in two stints in work train service. Most remembered was a work session during which the ballast hopper was used to move two discarded telephone poles. We will continue to work toward extending the C&S mainline west onto the adjacent lot now leased to Friends by New Jersey Transit. We have a new offer of assistance by Friends in obtaining an easement to make this happen. I will begin negotiations with the Town of Phillipsburg, Friends, and NJT to ascertain what restrictions can be overcome to reach this attainable goal.

      Commensurate with the hope of obtaining the grant for stabilizing the museum building, several generous donations at hand will help us do a facelift to the interior of the building. Our dedicated volunteer staff worked hard and long in the heat, alleviating the building of years of collected hardware, items useless to our needs. The useful space in the building is now three times what had been available, opening up new possibilities for our future in providing quality media displays for our guests hungry for new avenues in knowledge. With the arrival of six glass cases, we now have the foundation for establishing displays far beyond anything we have put together to date. In the works for this spring are plans to construct a meeting room/library display room at the rear of the building to further utilize our new-found available space and minimize our outside expenses. We completed a new rear sliding exit door and platform designed to be added to. This has improved the air flow and kept the inside temperature bearable, even on hot days.

      Luck was with us during our Open Houses as we enjoyed fine weather at all three outings. On May 4, we displayed Earle Brotzman's circus layout, operated two motor cars, displayed a cruiser bus, set up Ed Kaspriske's diesel horn truck, enjoyed a visit from the Carbon Model Railroad Society, and established a new "Centerville" station stop. On July 13, we opened again to the sound of a motor car, The Carbon Model Railroad Layout, Earle's circus wagons and layout, and Glenn Terminelli's restored farm tractor. Later in July, the grounds were open for Olde Towne Festival to the tune of 209 C&S passengers, a new record for us. September 21 was Centerville & Southwestern Heritage Day. A special added attraction was Bob and Sheryl Daumer's arrival with a restored 1933 Mack Museum stake bed truck atop their antique Mack cab and trailer. A once in a lifetime scene was the side by side posing of the Mack truck visitor with the Mack Railbus. Glenn's tractor paid us at visit to enhance an already memorable day. Pumpkin Festival Saturday proved again to be a heavy ridership day with 179 tickets given. Our luck ran out on Santa Sunday December 14 as a nasty snow and ice storm knocked out our holiday train ride. Although planned and advertised, treacherous driving and walking conditions, along with the promise of more snow put the axe to our plans.

      We experienced a wonderful banquet at Ryan's Parkside Restaurant on Saturday night April 5. Thirty four persons attended this delicious event. I know I say it every year, but I cannot stress enough the value of a sit-down meal with our Mayor and Council members, as it gives them a sense of where we stand and what makes the organization tick. The goodwill generated from this event is so evident from the cordiality of all who sit and share a great meal and some talk.

      Meg was brave and asked the Directors to let her run another Hudson Valley trip as she had a mile long list of folks that were turned away last year after we got zapped over the telephone by more people than we ever dreamed we could attract. On May 18, we filled two buses again and whisked off to a place so pretty you can never get tired of Iooking at. Bus, train, feet, and boat were the means of conveyance for a gorgeous day. We rode Metro North, had a good lunch at a train station, and took in a relaxing boat ride along the Hudson and through the cliffs that line the river, watching freight and passenger train activity. We got to walk through historic Poughkeepsie Station, and enjoyed a buffet dinner enroute home. We realized a fine profit and everyone seemed to have a heck of a good time.

      Our Fathers Day annual fieldtrip brought us out to the East Broad Top RR and the Rockhill Trolley Museum, where we crammed a day of visiting facilities which also included Mount Union and Lewistown. We received a special tour of the historic shop buildings, much beyond the half hour limit, also free to explore the grounds and buildings to our hearts' content. The picnic lunch served under the pavilion was incredibly good and was followed by a spirited ride aboard an authentic Septa Brill Bullet car which Gearhard Solomon piloted. Mr. Solomon arranged a photo meet along the line and gave us a kings welcome. The morning began with a photo chase of an East Broad Top steam-powered train which we later boarded for a pleasant trip through the countryside.

      We took our displays and merchandise to Mother Seton in March where we successfully attracted the curious with our narrative videos, especially fueling the memories of quite a few middle-aged parents that remembered riding the Becker property by train. We did our first Dieruff/Allentown table in September and passed out literature to many new faces.

      The Phillipsburg Railroad Historians made lots of new friends during 2003. We are grateful for the media advertising we received in the Express-Times, the Morning Call, WEST radio, and the local publications in Warren County that have supported us by sending reporters and photographers to cover our events. I am most grateful to my fellow Directors, the membership body, and Reverend Jim at the Alpha United Presbyterian Church. I also appreciate the many gifts and artifacts given us so willingly, and promise all of you that these items will take their place one day when the museum gets its turn to take center stage in this community. Our core group of volunteers would have it no other way. They put in 1940 hours of sweat.

JANUARY NEWS

      The January 2004 membership meeting will be held on Wednesday night, January 28 at 7:30pm at the Alpha United Presbyterian Church. Refreshments will be served courtesy of John Ward and Budd Sauselein and quality entertainment will follow the business portion of the meeting.

NOVEMBER 2003 work hours report by John Ward
      The chilly and wet November weather saw our monthly on-site volunteer work hours drop to 6, while off-site hours remained at 32 for a November total of 38 hours worked. The running annual work-hours for 2003 was 1940.25.

      PRRH and North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society have entered into an agreement allowing for the arrival of a former New Jersey Transit electric line car to be transported to and stored at our site in Phillipsburg. The car's trucks and electrical undercarriage will be used for the retrofitting and completion of Public Service car 2651, a long-time goal of the North Jersey group. An extension of track is being built to allow its storage adjacent to the work site area. The remains of the work car will be removed upon completion of the cannibalization. The 2651 will continue to be an attraction at our Open Houses, and will eventually be able to operate under power. Both the 2651 and the Chestnut Ridge Railbus will be moved outside during a planned application of crushed stone to the engine house floor the last weekend in March and first weekend in April. I seriously need all of you that can help with shovels and moving various items from the inside while we accomplish this project during this major PRRH work party session.

      The two juveniles directly responsible for the May arson fire to our CNJ caboose have been ordered to pay PRRH $1000.00 and $500.00 respectively and mandated to attend various punitive and remediative measures in the hopes they will be rehabilitated. The monies are to be funneled through the Warren County courts.

      The Board of Directors have established Open House dates to be May 2, July 11, and September 12. We will do a picnic in August and plan a field trip in mid June.

      PRRH extends a measure of appreciation to Dave Beck for putting together and donating three wreaths for use on our Santa train. Unfortunately, the good weather went south and we cancelled the event, but the wreaths went home to PRRH members. They were beautiful Dave, and I thank you for your continued kindness to your group.

      We gave Reverend Jim our annual thank you message with a check for $300.00 as a sincere thank you for giving us a warm place to meet. That money came from all of you who placed your dollars in the coffee can. Ed Meyers is looking down in approval.

      Quite frankly, I am overwhelmed at the outpouring of donations that seemed to amass during the final months of 2003. Pete Terp gave us some excellent bookcases from his brother Don's home. Mrs. Walter Mock sent along a $100.00 donation with her membership and C. Davis Palmer did the exact same thing. Thanks to all of you for helping the club.

      I am looking forward to seeing you all soon. Just follow the smell of the coffee trail .........

~ Paul M. Carpenito ~

PHILLIPSBURG RAILROAD HISTORIANS CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Wednesday January 28 --------------------- Membership Meeting 7:30pm.
Wednesday February 25 ------------------- Membership Meeting 7:30pm.
Sunday March 7 ------------------------------- Mother Seton/Clark Train Show.
Information on meeting cancellation due to inclement weather. 610-826-2580

PC/sdw

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