Otto,
Yes, I am still heavily involved with the group. We are called the Volunteer Railroaders Association;
http://www.vratrips.org/
We maintain the out of service portion of the line (14 miles) and have about 13 miles available to operate our speeders. The M&NJ even gave us keys for the gates in Slate Hill and the railroad traffic signal at Dolson Avenue. We have a storage container with two speeders located on the line in Johnson where we have reconstructed a switch so we can get the cars on the siding to our container. We have an original Lehigh and New England Sheffield 40B speeder typically stored in the M&NJ enginehouse in Middletown along with some other vintage speeder parts for that car. Also a UP MT-19, a CP Woodings CBL, and our Fairmont A-5 brush hog our in our stable. Earlier this year we gave rides to attendees of the annual Minnisink Days festival on about 2 miles of track at the southern limit of the line.
Fall of last year we were invited to operate our motorcars on the Black River & Western Railroad's Bel Del Line. As a result of our help on the trip the BR&W has asked to help them clear brush along their lines and open the line to Lambertville. In exchange, we have been able to operate on their lines. We hope to complete the brush clearing (actually tree removal) in Lambertville this fall. Once completed we will bring our mowing equipment back up to the M&NJ for clearing that line prior to winter. Once the snow hits the speeders go into storage.
Due to the death of Mr. Rasmussen and the uncertainty that arose earlier this year with their non payment of property taxes we fear the future of the out of service portion of the M&NJ may be short, unless a miracle occurs. So while we still maintain the line we want to continue to cultivate our relationship with the BR&W to keep our options open. But for most of us the M&NJ is closer distance wise than the BR&W.
This weekend we will have three of the four speeders we own at the BR&W railroad days. We will be giving rides on two of these cars. On Sept. 19 we will be at the CNJ Festival in Jersey City with at least two cars, giving rides.
On October 16th and 17th we will be operating a NARCOA speeder trip on the entire Southern Division of the NYS&W. Butler to Warwick on the 16th and Butler to North Bergen on the 17th. We are looking for volunteers to flag crossing for this trip and the deal is if you flag crossings one day you get to be a passenger on a speeder the other. You must sign a release form to work or ride. Since the NYS&WTHS no longer is allowed to run passenger trains, this is the ONLY way you will get to ride the Southern Division of the NYS&W. This year should be pretty good too since the RR has been installing welded rail east of Butler, which will greatly smooth the ride.
Anyone interested can also contact us via our YahooGroup;
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/V ... ilroaders/
or at my email address
[email protected]
Sorry for the long winded response.
Chris Vitz
Butler, NJ
