At the end of 2010, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum achieved a milestone that we had been working toward for over ten years.   We poured a portion of the concrete floor in our restoration shop!   We now have hard flat surfaces over a portion of our shop where we can work on some of our equipment out of the dirt with much greater ease, efficiency and safety.   In just over four months of use, our new floor has started to pay big dividends.

With our shop measuring sixty feet wide by one hundred forty feet long, the portion of the floor we poured only represents just under fifteen percent of the total shop floor we plan to install.   If you add our goal to install an inspection pit in one of the tracks to give us access under our railroad equipment for maintenance and restoration, we have a lot of work left to do.   With the momentum from our pours in 2010, we are very motivated to do that work and get as much accomplished as we possibly can in 2011.   Our museum is in a great position to make it happen, but we need your help to raise the funds needed to Pour the Floor this year.

Our 2011 fundraising goal is $75,000.00.   The funds from the 2011 campaign will allow us to do two things; complete the entire flat floor and completely install our inspection pit with all of its necessary components including stairs, railings, power and lighting.   The faster we reach our fundraising goal, the sooner we can complete the job and the sooner we can reap the additional benefits of having both a complete floor and a pit.   From allowing us to permanently install machine, electrical, and wood shops to finally giving us easy access under railcars and locomotives to service traction motors or change brake shoes, a complete floor will give us yet another quantum leap in our capability and in our efficiency; putting tools and materials in easy reach where and when we need them.

So will you help us Pour the Floor?   Donations to the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.   Donations to the fund can be made in two different ways. 

• You can donate online via PayPal.     You may donate in one lump sum or setup monthly payments for a given period of time if that works better for you.     
• Donations can be made via the mail.   Please make your donation check payable to the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum and mail it to: Pour the Floor, Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, P.O. Box 23326, Rochester, NY 14692-3326.

If you have any questions about donating or would like additional information about our plans, please contact us. 

On behalf of the Pour the Floor Committee, the volunteers, and officers of the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, we thank you for your generous support of our Museum which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.  We look forward to rock solid 2011 as we work to Pour the Floor!

The building we do today will preserve our rail heritage for tomorrow...

Donate a Ton

Help build our Empire State Express Siding

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum has been working very hard on the construction of a new siding west of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad.   The goal is to use this siding in late summer 2010 for the storage of its operational six-car ex-New York Central Railroad Empire State Express stainless steel passenger car set.    At a minimum to hold that train, the museum needs six hundred feet of tangent siding.  

To date, the museum has:

1. Paid for and had the LA&L install a new turnout in their mainline.
2. Cleared and graded over 600 feet of land for the siding to be installed on.  In some areas, the over two feet of dirt had to be removed.  
3. Installed over 400 feet of track on sub-ballast.
4. Has the material on hand to install the next 150+ feet of track.

The biggest challenge the museum faces right now is affording the purchase of the 300 TONS of ballast needed to raise, tamp and level the currently installed track and the soon to be installed 150 plus feet.    That is six hundred thousand pounds of stone. Therefore we hope you can help us.

We are starting a new fundraiser called Donate-A-Ton! For every $20.00 you donate, the museum can buy one of the three hundred tons of ballast we need.  Where else can you donate $20 and know you have purchased a TON of material.    Every ton helps so please consider donating $20 or more.

Please help us fill our cars full of the ballast we need.   Thanks!

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