August 2007 President’s Report

By Ira Pollack

This month I’d like to talk about some of the projects that have been going on both in the yard and in the building. Carolyn Taylor and crew have been making progress on the #1455, making it look much better than it has in years. She needs your help with the restoration and stabilization, and your financial help, if possible. Gerry Herrmann and his crew are in the process of painting the final side to the NYC caboose to make it ready for lettering. After they finish erecting their scaffolding, they will move on to working on the roof and cupola. Bill Britt has been very busy working on the interior of the RPO car. By press time, it is possible that the floor will have been painted and the interior almost complete. This has been a very quick moving project for Bill, and I am sure he, too, is looking forward to its completion.

In the next several weeks I plan to rekindle and finish the track work that we started earlier this season on Track 34. Unfortunately our priorities had to change temporarily because of the events scheduled at the Museum. I am looking forward to completing this work and putting this track back in service and enhancing our Railyard Local’s length of run.

Outside we have been training some of our newer members for our operating train crews, and if you have any interest in running trains please come forward and contact me.

In the building, Wade Roese and his Tuesday night crew have been busy working on a new O-gauge layout and moving forward with the maintenance on the other layouts. He has developed quite a crew, which, of course, you are very welcome to join every Tuesday night at 7pm. They don’t discriminate as far as what scale you might like to pursue. On a regular basis, they have made a lot of progress with our existing layouts. Our Library group meets regularly on Tuesday nights, sorting out and accessing our many donated artifacts.

As you can see there is a lot going on at the Museum, and I am hoping that you can come forward to join these activities. There is something for everyone at our Museum. Please contact me, and I will steer you in the direction of your interests.

We are in dire need of new and more personnel to man the Front Desk and Gift Shop on a regular basis. We need to enhance our pool of available Front Desk personnel in the event of vacations, illness, turnover in staff, extra large groups coming in, etc. We need a minimum of three staff members in order to keep the Museum open on a daily basis. The Front Desk staff is our front line in greeting our guests, who are also our potential new members. The Front Desk staff is the principal contact with the public and all people coming through this facility. I need your help more than ever now to come forward and become involved with our weekday operation.

In closing this month I would like to thank all of the members and friends who participated in this year’s Little Engine That Could event. I feel that we all pulled together, acted very professionally, and worked as a team to please the guests that showed up for this event. Listed below are the people who did all of the different tasks that were required to make this successful. If I have missed your name in this listing I certainly apologize for that. Volunteers were: Dave Rist, Dave Wilson, Carol Wilson, Bill Britt, Dave Roberts, Glenn Miller, Allan Stock, Bob Pitcher, Sean Harte, Carolyn Taylor, Justin Chapin, Jerry Lawlor, Ed Blackman, Don Konen, Desmond McCann, Gerry Herrmann, Suzie Blackman, Tom Murphy, Josh Pollack, Sue Pollack, Ira Pollack, Steve Gould, Pete McLachlan, Joe Ward, Sue Thomas, Jim Teer, Dana Laird, Marie Salata, Richard Shaboo, Wade Roese, Mike Salata, Steve Mayerson, Howard Peatfield, Dave Lowry, Patty Osmer, Tom McCullough, Kitlin Webbel, Kelly Kiyak, Anne Marie Shannon, Ken Landsiedel, Ron Devine, Randy Natale, Ed Holowinko, Jeff van Wagenen, John O’Hern, Dan Carleton, Bob Andriola, Doug Guerriero, Sara Anello, Dan Foley, Art Slothower, Stan Schoonmaker, Ron Huppert, Matt Manske, Paul Gassner, Cathy Fay, Jeff Heyel, Ryan Heyel, Fred McKenna, Mike Harrington, Stan Madyda, John Ivansco, and Patricia Giurgescu. Just look at all of the different people who were involved in making this event work. Thanks again!