MX,
At the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, we were not able to do anything since many of our volunteers were busy prepping for our museum for our public visitor operating season opening this coming Sunday. I did attempt to garner some press coverage for our museum building on National Train Day. I sent the press release attached below to several local media outlets, but we didn't get any bites. I think the lack of knowledge of National Train Day coupled with the opening weekend of Rochester's Lilac Festival didn't help our odds.
Hopefully, the event will continue next year and knowledge of the event will increase. All we need is Hallmark to come up with a card to grow awareness.
Until later,
Chris
R&GVRRM
News release
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum
282 Rush-Scottsville Road (NYS Route 251 ~4 miles west of I-390), Rush, NY - 585-533-1431
Railroad museum volunteers celebrate National Train Day doing what they do every Saturday… Preserving Rochester’s railroad history!
Saturday, May 10th marks the first ever National Train Day. Started this year by Amtrak, National Train Day marks, “…a coast-to-coast celebration of the way trains connect people and places. In New York’s Penn Station and Union stations in Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles, there will be simultaneous National Train Day festivities that are a treat for all ages.” (
http://www.nationaltrainday.com/home) While not a public celebration, a group of dedicated volunteers of the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum on Route 251 in Rush, New York will spend their National Train Day working around the museum performing the many different tasks needed to prepare the museum for its season opening on May 18th and its goal of continuing to connect the residents of the Greater Rochester area with trains both past & present.
The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum (
www.rgvrrm.org) is a project of the Rochester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society(
www.rochnrhs.org). Run solely by volunteers, the museum is dedicated to the preservation of the railroad history of Rochester & Western New York. The R&GV Railroad Museum was founded in 1971 when the Rochester Chapter NRHS, itself founded in 1937, purchased the Erie Railroad's Industry, NY (Town of Rush) depot from the then Erie-Lackawanna Railroad for a $1.00. Beyond the depot, the museum built and operates a two mile, standard gauge demonstration railroad. The R&GV Railroad Museum currently rosters over fifty pieces of railroad rolling stock and is also home to a large collection of historic construction equipment.
Since its founding over 37 years ago, Saturdays have become the standard day on which the museum’s volunteers corps takes on the many tasks needed to keep the museum running and open to the public on Sundays from mid-May (2008 opening is May 18th) to the end of October. From maintaining the museums seven diesel locomotives to building & maintaining the track that makes up the museum’s two mile railroad to creating new exhibits for the public to enjoy to operating the museum’s historic railroad or historic construction equipment collections, some of the 250-plus members can be found all over the museum volunteering their time; something they do every Saturday year round. Combining together a diverse set of skills, interests and backgrounds, everyone works together in this unique place to continue to preserve Rochester’s railroad history. Between 2004 and 2006, R&GV Railroad Museum members logged more than 20,000 volunteer hours working at the museum.
The museum is always looking for new members and new volunteers to join and help. Interested parties are welcome to stop by on any Saturday to learn more. With public Sunday operations starting in little over week, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum also hopes many people will come and visit both the R&GVRRM and its partner museum, the New York Museum of Transportation this year. Public operations feature tours of both museums with a railroad ride between them. Finally, the R&GV Railroad Museum continues to seek additional financial support to help keep the museum moving forward. The museum is supported totally through museum admissions, fundraisers, private grants, and donations including those made to the museum’s current “Building Tracks to the Future” capital fundraising campaign (
www.rochnrhs.org/supportus/index.htm).
The Rochester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) is a non-profit, all-volunteer railroad historical society dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the railroad history of Rochester and Western New York. Founded in 1937, the Rochester Chapter is the fifth oldest chapter in the NRHS which has over 170 different chapters throughout the United States and overseas. 2007 marked the Chapter's 70th Anniversary! As its largest project, the Rochester Chapter NRHS owns and operates the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rush, NY. The museum has a collection of over fifty pieces of railroad rolling stock including the last remaining Rochester City Subway car #60, an extensive collection of historic construction equipment, and operates its own two-mile, standard gauge demonstration railroad in partnership with the New York Museum of Transportation.
