(A periodic publication of Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center) April 10, 2002

FRIENDS OPEN HOUSE AND ANNUAL MEETING

...will be held rain or shine at the Pump House along the Delaware River at the north edge of Phillipsburg on Sunday, June 2nd from 9am to 5pm. Please come to see our progress, supplies, materials, equipment and vehicles recently acquired; take interesting hikes in the area; take self guided auto or bicycle tours; share good food, refreshments and socialize/network with fellow members. The annual meeting will take place at 11:30am. Our 1913 Allis Chalmers triple expansion steam pumping engine will be on view. We will have operating demonstrations of our equipment and vehicles. We will have coffee; have a refrigerator with sodas and will have a grill - bring your grillables and a picnic lunch if you like. Public Service trolley #2651 will be open for inspection in the early afternoon so you can inspect the restoration progress being made. In late afternoon we will offer guided hikes to the top of Mt. Parnassus, Lackenauer Heights, and the abandoned Easton Transit trolley line which went up to the former Paxinosa Inn - overlooking our Pump House. For detailed maps or other information contact McKelvey - by phone or mail - see below. Click here for details.

The designation of Phillipsburg as the NJ Transportation Heritage Center location and Netcong Station a satellite is law, and the Commission is preparing to purchase the needed land along the Delaware River.

A grant of $150,000 has been secured and title search, an appraisal, environmental assessment and surveying/mapping are almost complete on the Heritage Center property. We hope excess funds can be used to hire an executive director. Legislation is being introduced to establish a Board of Trustees, a Foundation for the NJ Transportation Heritage Center and to locate the Heritage Center under the umbrella of the NJ Department of Transportation.

As we get closer to the reality of the Heritage Center the volume of donated materials, artifacts and archives keeps growing. Those of you who are Friends 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. Our biggest job ever will be to raise the funding to build the Heritage Center. For this we will need even more help from each one of you and all of our friends.

Our Progress Summarized -

We are most fortunate to have buildings and lands which we lease from Warren County, NJ Transit and have the use of these and other plots for storage of materials, containers and vehicles. This has allowed us to be able to move our acquired materials and equipment to the Phillipsburg area. Some of our recent achievements are as follows;

• Canal Captain's Press, Bill McKelvey's book business has been donated to the Heritage Center. The inventory includes over 2,500 books at a wholesale cost of $17,000. "Capt." Bill will continue to manage the business for the benefit of the Heritage Center.
• A beautiful, ornate set of cast iron spiral stairs has been saved from the now demolished former LV RR "NK" tower at Newark and moved to Phillipsburg.
• Friends has traded one of the duplicate "fishbowl" buses in our collection for a 1952 GMC over-the-road parlor coach (former Asbury Park-New York Transit #125).
• We have moved 6 more truckloads of scrap, but reusable, materials from the Newark City Subway to Phillipsburg - including three controllers; overhead, electric, signal & track parts and tools.
• We have saved 13 decorative, cast iron, building/wall anchors and a quantity of cobble stones from the now demolished South Orange (trolley) Line carbarn plus two pieces of horsecar rail from Verona.
• A 1990 Dodge hi-rail pick-up truck; a 1964 International fuel truck from Wooley Oil Co.; a 1955 Mack B-62-SX recovery vehicle; and a large construction type fork lift were purchased by Ken Miller and Bill McKelvey from member Andy Leopardo (Leopard Trucking).
• A 1948 Chevrolet dump truck; a 1970's International dump truck with a snow plow; a 1953 Mack B-61 wrecker; and two sets of shop trucks/RR wheels were donated by Andy Leopardo.
• The Murray Hill Railroad Club (ex-Bell Telephone Labs Model RR Club) library was donated to Friends.
• Ten retired insulated rail joints donated from the Newark City Subway have been moved to Phillipsburg.
• Twenty three boxes of archival materials from the collections of Joseph Leiper & David Phraner were moved to P'burg. They include surveys, studies, reports, etc. of H&M RR, No. Jersey Transit Commission, Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission, Port of NY Authority, etc. plus glass slides, negatives, photos, guides, directories, maps, NJ bus schedules/timetables, etc., plus a cast iron coal stove & 35 file cabinets.
• Old rivets, parts and pieces from the historic Free Bridge in Phillipsburg have been acquired for display and sale as souvenirs in the future Heritage Center and creosoted timbers obtained for reuse as crossties.
• A total of 60 cubic yards of debris was removed from the pump house & grounds; the 1913 Allis Chalmers steam pumping engine restoration is progressing; electric service has been restored to the pump house; all exterior wood & our three 40' containers have been painted; and steel shelving installed to condense storage.
• Three of the recently retired Newark City Subway PCC cars have been promised to our Heritage Center.
• We were selected to receive a $315,000 TEA-21 grant to restore some of our historic bus fleet.
• Sixty retired signals, related equipment & spare parts from the Newark City Subway have been moved west.
• The entire former Newark City Subway Franklin Ave. loop and connector turnout was moved to P'burg on four tractor-trailers gratis by local trucker, H & S Enterprises.
• Six pallet loads of Public Service, Transport of NJ & NJ Transit archives have been moved to P'burg.
• Thirty-five truckloads of wood crossties in excellent condition were moved from Hoboken to Phillipsburg.
• We salvaged 600 volt DC trolley switchgear & breakers from the PSE&G City Dock (Newark) Substation.

OUR PROGRESS IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IN OUR BULLETIN, NJ Transport Heritage

Future Projects, Initiatives & Wish List -

• We have wood chairs from Pullman and lounge cars which need restoration - a nice home shop project.
• We have several historic trucks which need TLC - looking for some one or a group to adopt one or more.
• We hope that the old Newark City Subway work equipment will be donated to our Heritage Center.
• We are looking for a vintage highway trailer and a SeaLand container - both useful for storage also.
• We need historic streetscape fixtures such as: gas & electric lamps/poles; street & highway signage; slate sidewalk sections; granite curbing; paving bricks; transport related manhole covers and more cobblestones.
• A trailer load of 100lb. rail from former Erie RR Riverside Yard, Paterson, needs to be moved to P'burg.
• The Morristown & Erie Railway has a quantity of 60lb. rail which we can have if we move it.
• More 60lb. rail is available west of the NYS&W Hawthorne station - we need to pull it up and move it.
• We soon hope to be able to secure a transformer & rectifier as a suitable trolley power supply.
• We own a 50' x 120' prefab steel building, but need the money to erect it.
• We need a stage coach; a vintage Jitney; an old taxi of the type Public Service would have operated.
• A boom truck (with crane) and volunteers with CDL's would really be of tremendous help to us.
• We are always looking for individuals to help us staff our information/sales tables and display booths.
• We sure could use volunteers to pursue grants, donations from foundations, and general fundraising.
• And, we always need people & vehicles to help us load and 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 great detail in each 12 page issue of the five times per year New Jersey Transport Heritage. Our annual dues are only $15. We now have over 550 members!

We have changed our name to: Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center, Inc., PO Box 147, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865-0147 To volunteer or order books, prints & drawings contact McKelvey, 103 Dogwood Ln., Berkeley Hts., NJ 07922; call 908-464-9335 or check our website: www.NJTHC.org

United Railroad Historical Society (URHS) 158 Heights Terr., Middletown, NJ 07748 or call 732-671-9644 or urhs@bellatlantic.net Website: www.URHS.org URHS is working on future excursions. Details as available are published in our "NJ TRANSPORT HERITAGE CALENDAR," and will be available on the URHS website.

NJ Railroad & Transportation Museum Commission secretary is same address/phone as URHS.

North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society is working to restore Public Service trolley #2651 at P'burg. Check their website for information, membership & work schedule/days: www.NJERHS.org or write them at PO Box 1770, Rahway, NJ 07065. To volunteer contact Bob Hooper, President @ 908-876-4709 or bob.hooper@att.net

Our thanks to: The Commission; Alex DeCroce; NJ Transit; Warren County; Phillipsburg; URHS: NJERHS; contractors and truckers; volunteers; individuals and entities making donations; and to any we may have overlooked.

Please help spread the word and share this "News & Update" with others.