Four years ago, Frank Field decided to stop running the Peconic County Miniature Rail Road on tracks he had built adjacent to his Greenport home. Before that, the retired railroad employee had offered train rides for nearly three decades, much to the delight of children of all ages.
Now, there’s a chance Greenport will once again have its own miniature railroad. READ
On Thursday, we presented Don Fisher, president of the Railroad Museum of Long Island, with our Community Leader of the Year award at a ceremony at Martha Clara Vineyards. This is the video we screened during the ceremony and the original announcement from January. READ
A tradition dating back almost three decades continued this year as The Suffolk Times announced its annual People of the Year awards to honor those who have made a difference in our community. READ
The Railroad Museum of Long Island simply wouldn’t be as vibrant as it is today had Don Fisher never come along.
Supervisor Scott Russell confers with town emergency coordinator Lloyd Reisenberg at the Mattituck High School storm shelter during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo, file)
Are you interested in helping in an emergency shelter? Here’s your chance.
The Town of Southold Emergency Management Committee will host an Emergency Shelter orientation class for volunteers looking to help out in storms or other emergencies. (more…)
TIM GANNON FILE PHOTO | Don Fisher, president of the Railroad Museum of Long Island, with what’s left of the historic Engine 39 in Riverhead.
After sitting in Riverhead for 33 years, waiting to be restored, Engine 39, a steam engine built in 1929 and operated by the Long Island Rail Road through 1955, may be headed for Pennsylvania.
The Railroad Museum of Long Island has signed a contract with the Strasburg Rail Road Company in Ronks, Pa., to essentially split the cost of restoring the steam engine. Strasburg would do the work within three years of receiving the money and the restored train would remain with Strasburg, where it would operate on the company’s property for 44 years.
The deal was bittersweet, according to museum president Don Fisher of Southold.
Train enthusiasts brought Engine 39 to Railroad Avenue in Riverhead on a flatbed truck in 1980, with the goal of restoring it to operating condition and then running tourist trips between the railroad museum’s two locations in Riverhead and Greenport.
But the group and its predecessors never had enough money to finish the job, even after getting an $800,000 grant in 1996. The engine’s boiler and firebox are already in Strasburg, where they were being repaired until the money ran out. Only the bottom part of Engine 39, the wheel assembly, is currently in Riverhead.
“It is a bittersweet thing, because they were people who were hoping to see it running here, but the challenges on Long Island were great,” Mr. Fisher said. “We don’t have a place to get water here, there’s coaling facilities, the museum doesn’t own a service facility, we’re more than 100 miles from the nearest class-one railroad [Amtrak] and there are no more steam-qualified skilled mechanics to keep it running. The challenges against us running it here on the North Fork as a regular service have grown to the point of being monumental.”
The contract with Strasburg, which was signed March 14 after more than five months of negotiation, call for the museum to raise $900,000 in 2013 and transport the locomotive to the Strasburg property. Strasburg, in turn, will contribute about $1.1 million toward the project, Mr. Fisher said.
Once the $900,000 from the railroad museum is raised, Strasburg will complete restoration of the engine in three years and will then operate the locomotive on its property for a period of 44 years, according to the agreement.
While the Railroad Museum of Long Island has 15 years to come up with the $900,000, the contract calls for that amount to increase by 3.5 percent per year, so it’s imperative to raise the money quickly, said Mr. Fisher.
Museum officials originally planned to initiate a fundraising campaign for the entire $2 million. The new deal cuts that number in half, Mr. Fisher said.
The group plans to begin a $1 million fundraising campaign targeting foundations, railroad preservationists and individuals, he said.
“If we can get a million people to give a dollar, that’s a million dollars,” Mr. Fisher said.
Strasburg operates a steam locomotive repair and restoration facility on its property and runs a four-mile “heritage” railroad with five locomotives even older than Engine 39.
The oldest was built in 1906 and the newest in 1926, according to Linn Moedinger, president of Strasburg Railroad.
The Strasburg Railroad is the oldest railroad in the country that’s still operating under its original charter, although it operates mostly within its own property and not on public railroad tracks like Amtrak, Mr. Moedinger said. The trains run throughout the Pennsylvania Dutch Country in Lancaster County, southwest of Philadelphia, he said.
“It’s a shame that it’s been sitting for so long, it’s a nice engine and it will fit in nice right here,” Mr. Moedinger said. “Strasburg presents the best shot for the most number of people seeing it on a regular basis.”
It is very difficult to get permission to run a steam locomotive on tracks used by public railroads, he added.
The last time Strasburg ran on public rails was in 1998 — and that was for the purposes of filming, he said.
Mr. Fisher said the local railroad museum never had a guarantee that the LIRR would allow Engine 39 to run on its tracks.