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NJ TRANSPORTATION HERITAGE CENTER NEWS & UPDATE
(A periodic publication of Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center) Apr. 21, 2001
The Senate has voted to designate Phillipsburg the location for the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center with a satellite location at Netcong Station.
On Thursday, March 29th the Heritage Center legislation was passed by the New Jersey Senate. The vote was 28 Yeas, 3 Nays, and 9 Abstentions. The breakdown was as follows (the name of each Senator is followed by their party affiliation and the number of their district): The following voted Yes: John H. Adler (D-6); Diane B. Allen (R-7); Byron M. Baer (D-37); Martha W. Bark (R-8); John O. Bennett (R-12); Gerald Cardinale (R-39); Andrew R. Ciesla (R-10); Richard J. Codey (D-27); Leonard T. Connors, Jr. (R-9); Donald T. DiFrancesco (R-22); Garry J. Furnari (D-36); John A. Girgenti (D-35); William L. Gormley (R-2); Sharpe James (D-29); Walter J. Kavanaugh (R-16); Louis F. Kosco (R-38); Raymond J. Lesniak (D-20); Robert E. Littell (R-24); Robert J. Martin (R-26); John J. Matheussen (R-4); Edward T. O'Connor, Jr. (D-31); Joseph A. Palaia (R-11); Norman M. Robertson (R-34); Nicholas J. Sacco (D-32); William E. Schluter (R-23); Jack Sinagra (R-18); Robert W. Singer (R-30); and Joseph F. Vitale (D-19). The following Abstained: C. Louis Bassano (R-21); Wayne R. Bryant (D-5); Peter A. Inverso (R-14); Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr. (R-13); John A. Lynch (D-17); Henry P. McNamara (R-40); Ronald L. Rice (D-28); Shirley K. Turner (D-15); Raymond J. Zane (D-3). The following voted No: Anthony R. Bucco (R-25); James S. Cafiero (R-1); and Bernard F. Kenny, Jr. (D-33). We can't understand why Senator Bucco supported an amendment to the legislation, which was approved and then he spoke strongly against the bill twice and voted against it. Senators Littell, Martin and Schluter spoke in favor of the bill. Please communicate your feelings to your senator on how they voted. The legislation now must go back to the Assembly for a vote on the amended version, but this will not occur until at least May. Finally, it must be signed by the acting governor.
Over the past twelve months we have made outstanding progress toward our Heritage Center goals. We are very pleased with the progress at Phillipsburg. Those of you who are members have read the detailed accounts of our achievements in New Jersey Transport Heritage, our twelve page, five-times-per-year bulletin. As good as our progress has been, there are many more projects on our list of things to be done. One thing is certain: the closer we get to the reality of our Heritage Center, the more donations we receive. As soon as the legislation is finalized our next critical steps will be to gain the money needed to buy the needed properties and to move forward with construction... For this we will need the help of each one of you and all of our & your friends.
Great volumes of transport artifacts, archives, supplies and equipment are being moved to Phillipsburg for the Heritage Center. We are most happy to have the use of two storage buildings which Friends leases from the County of Warren. Some of our recent achievements are as follows:
Public Service trolley car #2651, owned by No. Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society and the last survivor of its type, has been moved from Ringoes to protected storage at Phillipsburg. It has wheels under it for the first time in 60 years.
Lafayette & Greenville Bus Owner's Association has donated three 1980's "fishbowl" buses, in operating condition, to "Friends."
Over 750 feet of mostly girder/trolley rail, tie plates, cobble stones, switch points, a drop table and other artifacts from the recently demolished Montclair carbarn have been moved to P'burg.
More than 2,400 feet of rail, parts, supplies and equipment was moved from the former DL&W MU shed at Hoboken to Phillipsburg.
We bought two 40' storage containers, moved them to Phillipsburg, and are rapidly filling them with materials for the Heritage Center.
Newark City Subway steel picket fencing and station signs were moved to Phillipsburg.
The success of our Phillipsburg Open House and Tour day, drawing over 150 people, demonstrated what these pages can not show and tell.
A member has acquired former NJ Transit 1980 Grumman/Flxible bus #1596, donated it to Friends and paid to have it moved to Lakewood.
Many truckloads of obsolete and scrap track materials, tools, equipment, and artifacts have been salvaged/moved from the former Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (PATH) rail shop and DL&W MU shop buildings in Hoboken to Phillipsburg.
Our bus committee has been busy cleaning up our historic fleet, securing needed spare parts and scouting possible additions to the collection.
Bill Clelland has agreed to donate his 1946 Ford Transit bus to Friends.
Friends have acquired several private collections for our growing archives.
Our former PSCT buses #Z-546 and #G-572 have been moved to Lakewood with the balance of the Heritage Center bus/truck fleet. Now, all of our vehicles are protected and secured, in buildings.
The Volunteer Railroaders Assn. & Friends members have been working very hard to secure track materials for the Heritage Center.
Very historic ca. 1870's rail was saved from the demolished Plainfield westbound station.
A 45 ton temporary trolley bridge and ties for it from the Newark City Subway have been secured and moved to Phillipsburg.
We have established a new website www.NJTHC.org and have posted the Master Plan Executive Summary on it.
We have secured and moved to Phillipsburg many truckloads of cobblestones, Belgian block, and historic pavers from several No. Jersey locations.
The local Phillipsburg Railroad Historians group has granted space to Friends in an old firehouse (leased from the town) to store library and archive collections in high and dry conditions.
North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society and Friends members have installed track at the Phillipsburg RR Historians site.
We have secured and moved to P'burg a CNJ upright switch machine and a LV RR car bumper.
We have a beautiful new membership piece and it has brought us a steady stream of new members.
The Phillipsburg Youth Corps have installed screening and restored doors to the Pump House, which we lease from the County of Warren.
We got a bargain used truck trailer for storage.
We have acquired a PRR manhole cover, Public Service cast concrete logos and two benches from the Newark City Subway Orange Street Station.
Our inventory of spikes and other track parts is growing. We need more small, old tie plates, joint bars, track bolts and 60 to 100 lb. rail. Pick 'em up on your hikes on old rail lines and bring 'em to us or let us know where they are.
We have acquired a goodly quantity of archival materials from the Rahway Valley RR.
Future Projects, Initiatives & Wish List-
NJ Transit has a significant volume of additional archive materials destined for our Heritage Center.
We have begun to secure a collection of Hoboken Shore Line RR archives.
We are looking for historic streetscape fixtures such as: gas & electric street lamp/poles; street & highway signage; transport related manhole covers; slate sidewalk sections; granite curbing; more cobblestones & brick paving materials; etc.
More of the old Newark City Subway overhead hardware is expected to become available to us, as well as more of the line poles and other items.
We own a 50' x 120' prefabricated steel building, but don't have the money to construct the concrete foundation upon which to erect it.
We are working to secure the trolley loop trackage at Franklin Avenue when it is removed.
We are trying to acquire a vintage Jitney; an old taxi of the type Public Service would have operated; and a pick-up truck, but we don't have enough money to purchase them. If we did (or someone would donate to us) we could fit them into our former water company storage building.
A private collection of historic buses and trackless trolleys in South Jersey contains several items we would like to preserve, but we don't have the money to move them nor the space to store them.
We are looking for individuals to help us staff our information/sales tables and display booths.
A boom truck (with crane) would really be of tremendous help to us.
We sure could use someone to pursue grants, donations from foundations and general fundraising.
And, we always need people & vehicles who can help us move the materials we acquire.
Last, but not least, we need lots of money to begin the first phases of the Heritage Center.
We need YOU to be (or continue to be) a member of Friends now more than ever!
All of these snippets and much more will be reported to you in greater detail in each 12 page issue of the five times per year NJ Transport Heritage. Our annual dues are only $15. We now have over 550 members!
Friends of the NJ RR & Transportation Museum Inc. PO Box 147, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865-0147 Website: www.NJTHC.org To volunteer - call Bill McKelvey @ 908.464.9335. To order Friends hats, shirts, jackets, etc. contact Ann Miller, P.O. Box 396, Washington NJ 07882, or call 908.689.0472. To order prints & drawings contact McKelvey, 103 Dogwood, Berkeley Hts., NJ 07922-2327 or call 908.464-9335.
United Railroad Historical Society (URHS) 158 Heights Terrace, Middletown, NJ 07748 or call 732.671.9644 Website: www.URHS.org EASTRAIL 2002 is again planned to be at the Warren Hills Regional High School in Washington, NJ. URHS is working very hard on future excursions. Details as available are published in our "NJ TRANSPORT CALENDAR," and are available on the URHS web site. Help with restoration projects is a continuing need.
NJ RR & Transport Museum Commission secretary is same address/phone as URHS.
North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society is working to restore Public Service trolley car #2651 at Phillipsburg. Check out their website: http://www.NJERHS.org For membership or other information write them at: PO Box 1770, Rahway, NJ 07065. To volunteer contact Bob Hooper, President, @ 908.8786.4709
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