Photo by Steve Falco of Rockaway River falls in Boonton's Grace Lord Park on Capt. Bill's tour on Saturday, 7 July. In the past the DL&W Iron Works branch extended to this point and this very same view could be repeated from a trolley or railcar if we get permission to re-install tracks to this point.
Dazzled Fireboat
In the past, we have contributed toward the fireboat Harvey. Here's the new / current visually-arresting paint scheme in vibrant red and contrasting white - they are the original colors of the vessel, but with an artist's twist...
Boonton "Big Dig"
"The Big Dig" under way @ Boonton Yard on Thursday, April 26, 2018. Removing soil, concrete, rock and trees to make room for truck parking. Work funded by Liberty Historic Railway. Photos by Dave Lindstrom.
Backhoe: Carbonetti Contracting
Trucking: Polaris Equipment, Mountain Lakes (Bill Amaducci)
Moving a caboose to the Boonton Station 1904, April 20, 2018
Armed Forces Day at WRyM
The Military Transport Association and the Whippany Railway Museum are hosting a special Armed Forces Day event at the WRyM on May 19, 2018. Click here to see the event details!
Rutan Coal Co. Truck
In 1947 a Mack model EF scissor-lift retail coal delivery truck was acquired by the Rutan Coal Co. of Dover. After they went out of the coal business it was acquired by prominent truck historian / enthusiast / restorer and supporter of the Heritage Center, Kerry Day. After Kerry’s untimely death, the Day family donated it to the Friends of the NJ Transportation Heritage Center via curator Capt. Bill McKelvey and Tom Amaducci delivered it to the Phillipsburg Pump House site. McKelvey convinced the “Friends” to donate the Mack to the Mahan Collection Foundation at Basking Ridge for needed preservation and restoration. Gary Mahan picked it up in 2011 and subsequently wonderfully restored the veteran. That was timely, as soon thereafter the Phillipsburg site was hit by waves of vandalism and theft. The Mack EF is now safe, restored, and on display for visitors to enjoy. Another good and timely decision indeed!
Apgar Bulldog Mack
Photo by Richie King
WOW! We were elated to see the absolutely wonderful restoration of the 1923, chain drive, Apgar Trucking, Mack tractor at the March meeting of the Metro Jersey Chapter, American Truck Historical Society hosted by Gary Mahan at the Mahan Collection Foundation at Basking Ridge. The Bulldog sat at the front of the Apgar facility in South Bound Brook for many years. Former Executive Director of the NJ Motor Truck Association and member of the NJ RR Museum Commission, Sam Cunningham, helped Capt. Bill McKelvey, then curator of the Friends of the NJ Transportation Heritage Center, convince Matt Wright, Apgar president / owner to donate the veteran vehicle to the “Friends”. In 2011 McKelvey convinced “Friends” board that the deteriorated Mack needed the protection and restoration that Gary Mahan could give it. That was a very wise, win - win, decision indeed!
Article by LHRy Director Emeritus in "Railway Age"
Autonomous Trucks: An Elephant in the Economy is a forward thinking, thought provoking, perspective article appearing on page 20 in the March 2018 issue of Railway Age, by Transportation Economist J. William Vigrass. "Professor" Bill is a LHRy Director Emeritus who led the most successful Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning, Graduate Student Studio focusing on the transportation needs of Liberty State Park for us.
New Donations Received
A $1,000 donation has been received from Capt. Phil Francis to fund LHRy projects, especially restoration of the M36 cargo truck.
A donation has also been received from the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers in appreciation of all LHRy does to preserve NJ transportation heritage.
UK SUCCESS! A U.S. Vulcan is Restored
Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barre, PA, (1860s to 1950s) was a builder of hundreds of small industrial type locomotives. In 1942 they produced an 0-6-0 Tank steam locomotive for the US Army Corps of Engineers, one of 382 in the class that saw service variously in the UK, western Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. It was shipped across the Atlantic in 1943 and operated in the UK as War Department No. 1960 until the end of hostilities. It was purchased by the Southern Railway (UK), and worked at Southampton Docks, and later at the Ashford wagon works until 1968. The embryonic Kent & East Sussex Railway preserved it for future heritage operations. Finally in 1994, with restoration completed it entered service for the next 10 years, until it’s boiler certificate expired. A second round of restoration was begun in 2012 and it was decided to return it to service in the striking blue livery of scrapped classmate No. 300, which was the last representative of the class operating on the Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire. The original No. 300 was named after Major General Frank. S. Ross, a distinguished member of the US Army who was chief of transportation in the European theater of operations in the Second World War, and his name will be placed on #300. The restoration was completed late in 2017, just in time to delight Santa Special passengers. K&ES Ry has a second USA 0-6-0T, BR No. 30065, which is in queue to be restored by 2022.
NO MORE ROOF LEAKS!
After several attempts to stop roof leaks on our Whitcomb switcher we finally engaged Diamond Crossing Enterprises, LLC on 11 December. John Nolan and his helpers, Ryan Murphy and Rocco Miele, came up from Langhorne, PA and applied a commercial rubber roof membrane. It leaks no more!
Tri-State Recognizes LHRy
The LHRy "Company" Car
photo by Rudy Garbely
LHRy Chair, Capt. Bill, in his new Honda CR-V "company" car.
Canal Books Donated
A selection of canal books focusing on New Jersey (both Delaware & Raritan and Morris Canals) have been donated to the research libraries of the following maritime museums: New Jersey Maritime Museum, Beach Haven; The New Jersey Museum of Boating, Point Pleasant; Toms River Seaport Museum, Tom’s River; Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen’s Museum, Tuckerton; and the Canal Society of New Jersey, Waterloo Village; by Capt. Bill McKelvey, Chairman, Liberty Historic Railway. All of the above are considered excellent, with the NJ Maritime Museum rated outstanding by McKelvey.
Funding Received by LHRy
The Liberty Historic Railway board is happy to report that we have received our first major funding from the public. A NJ Family Foundation sent us a $5,000 grant in September to be used for railroad projects. We interpret this as an endorsement of the type of projects we have been funding recently. It was our hope that such confidence would be fostered by our new “Project Funding” rack card which we are distributing as well as the project funding record posted on our website.
During August, LHRy received an additional $90,000 of supplemental funding from a board member.
D&R Canal Watch
LHRy supports the D&R Canal Watch, whose mission is to protect, maintain, and promote the recreational, historical, aesthetic, and environmental qualities of the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park and its environs, to assist and to support regional, state, local, and private enterprise efforts that contribute to this goal, and to investigate the restoration of the canal to through navigation.
The D&R Canal Watch now has a Facebook page, and we encourage our members and friends to join!
D&R Canal Watch is looking for volunteers for few hours to staff its table at one or more of these festivals. For all of these events, D&R Canal Watch will supply a table, chairs, tent, and banner.
37th Annual Raritan River Festival
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Boyd Park, New Brunswick, NJ
12:00 PM - 5:30 PM
To Volunteer, Contact: Doug McCray at 609-859-4084 or K2QWQ@comcast.net
Bound Brook RiverFest
Date TBD (usually a Saturday in September)
East Main Street, Bound Brook, NJ
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
To Volunteer, Contact: Linda Barth at 908-240-0488 or barthlinda123@aol.com
East Millstone CanalFest
Saturday, October 14, 2017 (raindate: October 15)
East Millstone Park, Somerset, NJ
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
To Volunteer, Contact: Linda Barth at 908-240-0488 or barthlinda123@aol.com
August 2017 News
Total auto gridlock at Liberty State Park was observed on the weekend of July 29 - 30. The west end of Zapp Drive was subject to bumper to bumper stagnation due to full parking lots. As a result, Park Police blocked off Morris Pesin Drive, Freedom Way and Zapp Drive east of the ferry parking lot.
A plan that would have prevented this mess and others like it was put forward by Liberty Historic Railway with an award-winning LSP Transit Study by Sam Schwartz Engineering a couple of years ago. It called for the re-creation of a historic electric trolley operation on its own private right-of-way along the south side of Zapp Drive. Vintage streetcars would shuttle park goers between the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal on the Hudson River and the Hudson Bergen Light Rail’s Liberty State Park station adjacent to the Liberty Science Center where parking spaces are plentiful.
Sadly, this solution to traffic congestion received unreasonable opposition from the Friends of LSP. They claimed buses were the answer – but we know they would be trapped by the same auto gridlock. They stated that the trolley would take “blanket space” from park visitors - not credible - no one would want to spread a blanket out 10 feet from a busy roadway in a 1,200 acre park!
Two years ago a meeting at the Thomas Edison Laboratories National Historic Site on Main Street in West Orange was attended by LHRy Chairman McKelvey. At the time the remnants of the pioneering Edison Menlo Park electric railway displayed at the front of the building were noted to be in a rather deteriorated state. We offered financing to restore and place them on short sections of vintage rail. Park staff said they had the funding and they planned to do the work. They have done so! An excellent restoration has been completed to preserve these iconic NJ artifacts on rail. Photos by Gage Bongiovi, Thomas Edison National Historic Park.
Demolition of Ferry "Binghamton" Begins
The demolition of the historic Lackawanna Railroad ferryboat Binghamton (built in 1905) has commenced. The ferry, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, was severely damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Sandy. Click here for the full story.
July 2017 News - GG1 Cab Ride
Sounds and sights of the GG1 locomotive in operation, from an January 2, 1982 video taken in the cab by Mitchell Dakelman from South Amboy, NJ to New York Penn Station. DVD copy provided to URHS by LHRy Chairman Bill McKelvey. URHS owns and has cosmetically restored GG1s #4877 and #4879 into iconic PRR paint schemes.
June: A Thank You From the Steamboat Crew!
Dear Liberty Historic Railway Board;
Bill, Martin, Jack, Larry, Ted, George & Greg -
Many thanks for your extremely generous support of the Steamboat Floating Classroom.
With our boiler re-tubing complete, and your help, SPLASH is providing many trips this Summer season to groups from Hunterdon, Mercer, Bucks, and other counties.
Gratefully, Eric and SPLASH Board: Cody, Brad, Gary, Kim, Liz, Pete, & Ray
Photo on card: The late SPLASH founder, Dr. Bart Hoebel with students