This month's meeting will be held as usual at 7:30 P.M. on May 26th at Phillipsburg Town Hall in the basement, weather permitting. Entertainment will be provided after the break.

NEWS:
The engine house project continues in the bidding stage after some modifications were needed. The new plans call for the full 100 foot building. A fusion of UEZ grant monies and a cooperative agreement between PRRH and FRIENDS will allow for the immediate construction of the structure which will house a Public Service trolley for restoration by the North Jersey Electric Railroaders for a period of approximately five years. This measure was agreed to by PRRH members at their April meeting. The arrangement will allow for the simultaneous maintenance of full size cars and adequate servicing of C&S rolling stock. One quarter of the building will be reserved for the trolley project.

Stump grinding and retaining wall continues as we move towards our opening for Riverfest in early June.

By the way, we will need volunteers for Riverfest weekend.

In the C&S department, the two box cars have been painted thanks to Bob Marinelli and Jim Kern at Bob's home and await lettering.

Window work is in progress on the GE diesel courtesy of Bob Kirkpatrick.

On Sunday May 16th, the second home railroad layout tour was held and was enjoyed by all. Both layouts are very unusual O-Scale layouts and show many years of hard work. Ron Luckock's layout is based on Phillipsburg, showing great detail of the town in the 1950's with also a Lionel layout beneath the O-Scale. In the back yard is a replica of a tower in Phillipsburg, also with the Lehigh Valley station at West Portal, NJ. Ron also has an outside G-Scale garden layout. Norm Cole's layout is based on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Norm's collection has many one of a kind and many hand built cars. Both layouts have over 1000 feet of running track. Thanks again to Norm Cole and Ron Luckock for having us over and were very impressed with the show.

The NJ State Finance Committee has approved the half million dollars for the Master Plan, another step towards realizing the dream.

Work Parties will be as called. If you have time, any weekday, evening or weekend call Pete Terp at 908.213.1722 with your interests and abilities. Many projects need to be done, PLEASE VOLUNTEER.

The following volunteers have contributed 143 hours during the last two months: Jim Anderson, Alan Bellis, Bob Kirkpatrick, Derek Long, Jim Mack, Bob Marinelli, Bill McKelvey, Jim Stetler, Glenn Terminelli, Pete Terp, Matt Winter, Steve Winter.

There are still members who have not paid their 1999 dues.

J.S.

Copyright © 1999 PRRH, Inc. All rights reserved.