Restoring Lv #95100

Lehigh Valley Railroad #95100. Work is well underway!
Built for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in February 1941, LV 95100 was one of 105 “Northeastern” style steel-bodied cabooses built by the railroad between 1937-46. This car is a significant addition to our collection, as the LV served the city of Rochester with a branch line that terminated at Court Street (now home to well-known Dinosaur BBQ restaurant). We rescued it from a scrap yard in October 2011, thanks to generous private donations. It is our goal to restore this car to its mid-1970s appearance, to pair with our preserved Lehigh Valley RS-3m 211. The car will be restored entirely through volunteer labor. We will be depending entirely on outside donations in order to complete the work. Please help us return this car to the rails!

Update September 2013… We have completed welding and riveting on new steel to replace the section that had rotted out. We are also nearly completing the interior paint removal work. Soon we will be priming the exterior and getting ready for paint! We still need your help to reach our goal.

 

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 two years 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 and additional engineering work done in through the start of 2013, we are very motivated to do that work and get as much accomplished as we possibly can in 2013.   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 2013 fundraising goal is $75,000.00.   The funds from the 2013 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.

To date, we have raised $33,305.00, but we need more help!

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.  We look forward to rock solid 2013 as we work to Pour the Floor!

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

 

Donate a Ton

Help ballast our railroad!

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum works hard every year to maintain and expand its two mile demonstration railroad that it shares with our partner, the New York Museum of Transportation.    From planned tie replacements in our mainline and sidings to planned construction of new sidings around our restoration shop, we are again in need of more rock ballast to provide the structural base for our tracks.   Even purchased by the ton, the ballast goes quickly, but it is a vital piece of building solid track.

For 2013, we estimate we will need 150 tons of new ballast for the railroad.   That is 300,000 pounds of stone!  

To reach our goal and purchase the stone we need especially during our spring and summer track work season, we are looking for a little help from you.

Would you please Donate-A-Ton or more! For every $20.00 you donate, the museum can buy one of the one fifty 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 to fill our cars full of the ballast we need.  

Thanks!

Donate Online

Make a donation online using using your credit card or checking account securely via Paypal:

Donate By Mail

Make your donation check payable and mail to:

Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum
P.O. Box 23326
Rochester, NY 14692-3326

Thank You!

Donations to the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.