Hopewell Junction depot restoration thread

[Bernard Rudberg]

Saturday 1-14-2012 Most of the day’s work went into the reception center floor. After the padding was laid down and marked, Mike started nailing down the floor boards. We also acquired a box of recycled hardware for the depot. The last photo is the depot on a chilly January 15th afternoon.

One of our members has created a Facebook Page about the Hopewell Depot Restoration. Take a look at this URL.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hopewell ... 2071793718

The Hopewell Depot Restoration project also has a new web site. This site is growing.
http://www.hopewelldepot.org

Next work sessions will be Wednesday 1-18-2012 and Saturday 1-21-2012.

Remember, the Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp is a 501 C-3 non-profit group so any contributions are tax deductible. If you can help out, send a check to:
Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp.
P. O. Box 1044
Hopewell Junction, NY
12533-1044

[Bernard Rudberg]

Hopewell Depot on a chilly January afternoon.

[Jeff Smith]

Mr. Rudberg, bravo to you, your donors, and your volunteers. It is absolutely beautiful.

Now, if only we could get a stub end station there for a Harlem Line branch!

[Bernard Rudberg]

Actually the tracks about 200 yards from the depot belong to MTA Metro-North but there is no regular traffic.
They use the Hopewell Junction yard as a training facility for track Maintenance crews.

Bernie

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎1-18-2012 Work continued on the reception center floor while our donated stove was assembled and cleaned.

Next work session will be Saturday 1-21-2012.

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎1-25-2012 We made more progress on the reception center floor.

Next work session will be Saturday 1-28-2012.

If you have any good ideas for fund raising just let us know. The bank account is getting low.

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎1-28-2012 With bright sunny weather we had 18 volunteers today.
Work continued on the floor boards while an interior door was added.
Salvaged boards were used to repair the fire-damaged east wall.

‎Our bank account is getting low. We need sponsors for such items as:
1. Crown molding $626 2. Window molding $345 3. Baseboards $180.
If you would like to sponsor or contribute send a check to:

Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp.
P. O. Box 1044
Hopewell Junction, NY, 12533

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎2-1-2012 Work continued on the floor boards while new battens were made up and
added to the fire damaged east wall.
We have no idea where the train car came from. It was covered with coal dust.

The next work session will be Saturday 2-4-2012.

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎2-4-2012 We had very nice weather for working on the outside today. Our school volunteers scraped old paint while others sealed up cracks in the east wall. Our electician worked on outside light wiring. Inside, we prepared the depot for installation of wall insulation while Joe put recycled hardware on one interior door. We are ready for the insulation truck. Now we have to figure out how to pay for it.

One of our volunteers finally confessed. He planted that train car and waited for us to find it. He says he bought it at a yard sale for 50 cents. We don't really care. It is still a fine old piece of history.


Next session will be Wednesday 2-8-2012.

[Bernard Rudberg]

‎2-8-2012 Most of today's work went into laying down more floor boards. We also did some clean up work to prepare for wall insulation. Rich is cleaning 130 years of coal dust off the wall beams.

The next work session will be Saturday 2-11-2012.

[Bernard Rudberg]

We went to the State of the County address by County Executive Marc Molinaro this past Monday. After the meeting I sent him an E-Mail inviting him to come and see what we are doing with the Hopewell Depot. Today I got a call from his office and he is taking me up on the offer.

They are arranging for him to come to the depot at 11:00 AM on 7 March with photographers etc. We should be working that day so it all works out. Smile, you might get your picture in the paper.

Bernie Rudberg

[Otto Vondrak]

If you have any good ideas for fund raising just let us know. The bank account is getting low.

Get some of these great photos off to Railpace so they can publicize your fine work (and encourage donors). Also send out a few inquiries to the local newspapers in Poughkeepsie and Middletown. One of the editors might pick up your story as local interest and give you some publicity as well, and in turn encourage donations. Search the internet and see what grants you may be eligible for. There may be a grant for installing energy efficient windows in your restoration, for instance. You won't get a blank check, but there may be grants available for specific projects. Grants take a long time to process. Have you tried partnering with any of the local historical societies? What about the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association? You might find some interested members there who might be interested in supporting your project.

-otto-

[Bernard Rudberg]

With a bit of snow on the ground, we worked mostly inside today. The wall of the ticket office got some attention from Paul while Joe added recycled hardware to the southwest door. While all that was going on, the rest of the crew finish laying down the floor boards in the reception center. That floor is now ready for sanding. We are still waiting for the wall insulation crew.

The next work session will be Wednesday 2-15-2012.

For those of you who are planning to ride with us on this years annual CNE Rwy historical tour, the time is getting near.

This is a heads up for those planning to join us for the 2012
segment of the annual bus tour along various portions of the former
Central New England Railway. The 2012 tour will be on Sunday
April 1st (rain or shine).
We will depart from the parking lot of the train station in Canaan, CT
The 2012 tour will cover the CNE between Norfolk, CT and the NY
State line at Millerton plus Copake in NY.
The exact routing is subject to change if we run into any last minute
problems or find a new way to get the buses into a small space. Due
to the narrow roads and lack of suitable parking in much of the general
area of our tour, some locations can only be shown from the bus
or in photographs. We will show you as much as we possibly can.
As usual, everybody will get a copy of the 2012 CNE Tour guide
book. We have a lot of ground to cover so we will have coffee and
buses will roll at 9:00.
The cost of this year's tour will be $55.00 per person and
payment should be made out to: Joseph Mato CNE 2012
Be sure to include your E-Mail address so we can contact you if we
need to. If you don't have E-Mail then include your phone number.
Send it to:
JOE MATO-CNE 2012
62 WOOD ROAD
REDDING, CT. 06896
Any money that is left after expenses will be used as "seed money"
for next years trip.
As we did last year, we have two buses with 55 seats each. In past
years we sold all seats and had a waiting list so don't wait too long to
send in your reservation. Please note that any request for refunds
must be received thirty (30) or more days in advance of
the tour date. If you can find a replacement to take your bus seat,
that's OK just let us know who it is. We have to know who to let
onto the bus when the tour starts. If you can't find a replacement
then we may have somebody on the waiting list to suggest but we
can't refund money that has already been spent on tour expenses.

[Bernard Rudberg]

2-14 and 2-15 2012 The wall insulation was completed in about 4 hours on 2-14. On 2-15 we sanded the visitor center floor and cleaned up salvaged door trim boards. Also did some outside work on the east wall.

Next work session will be Saturday 2-18.

Does anybody want to sponsor ceiling light fixtures for the visitor center ? The green shade type will go for about $60 each and we need four of them.

We also are looking for an antique telephone for the agents office. Anybody have one to donate or loan ?

[Bernard Rudberg]

It was a good day at the depot today. We got a lot of work done on the visitor center walls and we started a new bird house project. We are using wood scraps to make up bird house kits to sell. Our high school volunteers liked the new project with Charlie as tutor. The kit is $15 and an assembled house is $20 or two for $30 assembled. We are starting off with Bluebird houses but others will follow. On the first day we built 4 and mounted 2 outside the depot. We also sold one kit.

We also got donations of cash and a bag of antique telephones and parts. It was a very good day.

Our next work session will be Wednesday 2/22. Come on down and join the fun.