Home for URHS museum at old CNJ terminal?

Steamtown Observer wrote:Dare I say that even if you had a location (Jersey City, Camden, Phillipsburg, a corn field in Warren County) that the bulk of the URHS "collection" is not worthy of being in a museum. How many GG1's do we need? E units and F units painted for railroads that are the favorites of URHS leadership - they would never be allowed into a properly accredited museum. And then there's the famous "it never ran in NJ" Hickory Creek. Do we fill out the exhibits with second hand Jersey Builder coaches - how many is enough? Well at least there is the Susquehanna S2 from the first Class 1 in America to dieselize; oh wait they gave that away. Well we can show a PRR MP54; oh that's right we missed a deadline to move it so it no longer belongs to us. No steam locomotives, no Ingersol Rand pioneer diesels, no long distance passenger cars, just the leftovers given to them in the 80's.

I think the reason a museum never got off the ground (aside from the people issues) is that with nothing really important enough to be in a museum no one was convinced to help build one.

I would have to agree with you on that point. There are a few genuine artifacts in the collection (the CNJ and PRR GP7's), but way too many recreations in the collection. Becoming accredited (which can mean the difference in obtaining grants) would be a difficult task. The most valuable pieces to a prospective mueum in NJ are scattered across the country, already in museums that will never gime them up.

Heck ... the URHS had at least TWO opportunities to try and obtain a genuine Erie E-8, but were too busy playing with the Hickory Creek and their two "fakes" to be bothered with it. Sad.

I appologize for mistaking this thread as a thread for the state museum not the URHS collection.

What's wrong with their current location?

Later!
Mr. Ed

The URHS "collection" IS the state museum. The yard in Boonton is supposed to be the storage and work site, although the person arranging most of the work quit or was forced out. In theory the "Friends" group is supposed to be advocating for a state museum and a location while the URHS is supposed to be the caretaker of the equipment. The 2 organizations have a lot of management overlap (not always at the public level) so you might as well think of them as one. This thread started with someone suggesting that a museum should be located at the former CNJ Terminal in Jersey City. In the 20+ years (yikes!) that the URHS has been trying to create a museum, the CNJ Terminal has been suggested a rejected several times. From the state's point of view I think their are two issues, one political and the other more practical. The political is that most of the people running Liberty State Park are, shall we say, very green and don't want dirty, stinky trains ruining "their" pristine park. Yeah, never mind that that almost every inch of the site once had rails on it, they don't want it! On the more practical side I have heard that the actual trainshed is in very poor condition and would need a huge amount of money to repair.

As to the URHS, its 20+ year history can make you laugh or cry depending of your mood. I won't rehash it here but you can search here and at www.rypn.org for either URHS or me as the author to get a lot of this history.

Seems like the only viable location could be a idled railyard (ala Steamtown). If that could work, the CNJ at Elizabethport might be an option. Most of the yard is vacant brownfield land (in a State Urban Development Area), with some of the shop buildings still in existance. Portions of the site were used to construct the Jersey Gardens complex in the late 1990s. It would also be convienient, being off the Turnpike at 13A.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Seems like the only viable location could be a idled railyard (ala Steamtown). If that could work, the CNJ at Elizabethport might be an option. Most of the yard is vacant brownfield land (in a State Urban Development Area), with some of the shop buildings still in existance. Portions of the site were used to construct the Jersey Gardens complex in the late 1990s. It would also be convienient, being off the Turnpike at 13A.

It's only an option if you force NS off of the property and bulldoze their Erail yard complex. IIRC, NS owns all the way over to the old Singer building, and has plans to expand Erail with additional COFC loading tracks. E'Port yard itself is very active with both SAA and CSX, and the surrounding neighborhoods make the areas around the Camden Attractions look like an upscale, gated community.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Seems like the only viable location could be a idled railyard (ala Steamtown). If that could work, the CNJ at Elizabethport might be an option. Most of the yard is vacant brownfield land (in a State Urban Development Area), with some of the shop buildings still in existance. Portions of the site were used to construct the Jersey Gardens complex in the late 1990s. It would also be convienient, being off the Turnpike at 13A.

Like Linden Yard off the NEC?

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Seems like the only viable location could be a idled railyard (ala Steamtown). If that could work, the CNJ at Elizabethport might be an option. Most of the yard is vacant brownfield land (in a State Urban Development Area), with some of the shop buildings still in existance. Portions of the site were used to construct the Jersey Gardens complex in the late 1990s. It would also be convienient, being off the Turnpike at 13A.

How about THIS rail yard in Newark!

It has seen more historic rail equipment pass through it than any other yard in the state of NJ,

and it would be a far more merciful fate for the collection than the fate it currently endures!

NJT4272 wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Seems like the only viable location could be a idled railyard (ala Steamtown). If that could work, the CNJ at Elizabethport might be an option. Most of the yard is vacant brownfield land (in a State Urban Development Area), with some of the shop buildings still in existance. Portions of the site were used to construct the Jersey Gardens complex in the late 1990s. It would also be convienient, being off the Turnpike at 13A.

How about THIS rail yard in Newark!

It has seen more historic rail equipment pass through it than any other yard in the state of NJ,

and it would be a far more merciful fate for the collection than the fate it currently endures!

Hahaha, thats the spirit!! I see you finally came around... Good to see!!

Let's try to steer back to topic... the discussion of the historic CNJ terminal as a home for the proposed state transportation museum.

If you want to discuss the history of URHS operations outside the scope of their current Morristown stabilization efforts, please start a new thread.

Thank you!

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:Let's try to steer back to topic...
If you want to discuss the history of URHS operations outside the scope of their current Morristown stabilization efforts, please start a new thread.

Thank you!

-otto-

I think you mean Booton or Lebanon. The URHS moved the equipment out of Morristown in 2008 to great fan fair on this site.

Just had a idea. I heard from someone in the lumber industry that Warren Lumber is closing or has closed their Phillipsburg yard. Looks like it could be a nice location for the URHS collection, it already has a switch leading to it on the south end of the property from the Bel Del.

pierrerabbit wrote:Just had a idea. I heard from someone in the lumber industry that Warren Lumber is closing or has closed their Phillipsburg yard. Looks like it could be a nice location for the URHS collection, it already has a switch leading to it on the south end of the property from the Bel Del.

Good luck with that...Sorry, I would love to see a Museum, but i'm just being a realist here...It aint gonna happen, at least not in this state!

That is a very sad statement, but I sadly believe it's true. We will never see a railroad muesem in New Jersey.

I agree with you guys, don't think a museum will actually happen, but the Warren Lumber site would be great (its already protected by a fence).

Or Don, a nice place for 142, the GE, etc

pierrerabbit wrote:Just had a idea. I heard from someone in the lumber industry that Warren Lumber is closing or has closed their Phillipsburg yard. Looks like it could be a nice location for the URHS collection, it already has a switch leading to it on the south end of the property from the Bel Del.

Warren Lumber is already closed.