 "Current view of Lehigh Valley #95050 ©2006smph50 - Click to ENLARGE (10K)-(100K)") |
Lehigh Valley Railroad Caboose #95050 was acquired by the Society in June of 1995 and was stored on the Buffalo Southern Railroad in Hamburg, NY until June 2010. On June 23, members and friends of the Western New York Railway Historical Society watched as flatbed truck bearing Lehigh Valley caboose number 95050 turned onto South Long Street in Williamsville and slowly made its way to the Lehigh Valley Historic Site. Tom Stackhouse, our Williamsville Depot Chairman, spearheaded this endeavor. Over the summer of 2009, he and his dedicated crew installed 40 feet of track next to the Depot to display the caboose. |
| The caboose will be restored to its late 1930's livery by Society volunteers, so it will be painted in a Cornell Red like color with "Route of the Black Diamond" spelled out along its sides. The #95050 will be placed on permanent display adjacent to the abandoned Lehigh Valley "Niagara Branch" which is now called the "Lehigh Memory Trail". Below is the story of how the caboose came to Western New York, written by Society member, Jim Syzmanski in 1995. |  "©2008 Mark Obrzut - View of LV #95003 in Steamtown with Route of the Black Diamond lettering. - Click to ENLARGE (10K)-(100K)") |
|
While passing through Renovo, Pa. in early April , I stopped at the former Pennsylvania RR car
shops to inspect the former Lehigh Valley RR cabooses in storage there. These cabooses along with a variety of older NY,NH&H, NYCS, DL&W, ERI E and PRR cabooses are currently owned by railroad equipment dealer Al Brummer. After a few hours of taking notes and pictures , I reported back to the Board of Trustees at our April meeting , that about 30 LV cabooses were stored at Renovo . Of these, three seemed to be good candidates for purchase. According to Mr. Brummer, the price was fixed at $4000.00 each. All the cabooses are quite weathered, as many have been out of service for 10 or more years and are stored outside. On May 21, Joe Kocsis, Don Owens, and myself took a trip down to Renovo to further inspect and then pick out a caboose to purchase . After a careful inspection, we selected caboose #95050. This car was built in July 1931 and has a rather quaint interior. It had never been modernized by Conrail and still sports its tongue and groove interior walls, benches, wooden Conductor 's desk , and Waybill rack mounted along the wall. We also found no evidence of water damage from leaking windows or roof to the ceiling, floor, or interior walls. Although the caboose is missing a cabinet door and is dirty on the inside and a little rusty on the outside, the #95050 is still in better shape than most of the others. While there, we talked to Mr. Brummer and we learned that caboose #95050 was still available for purchase. At this time, Don Owens wrote a personal check for $1000.00 as a deposit. Two weeks later, myself and Al Toale drove down to Renovo to prepare the caboose for movement to Hamburg. We added journal oil to make sure the friction bearings were well lubricated, new air hoses were installed, and we cleaned out the dirt collector and then stencilled current lube dates and the Society's name as owner on the sides and ends. We also painted out "CR" and replaced it with "WNYX" reporting marks. Under Conrail ownership, the caboose was numbered #18671. Tom Stackhouse is currently working with Conrail's Corporate Contributions Office to set up the move to Buffalo. At the June 13th 1995 Trustee meeting held at the Orchard Park Depot, Don announced that he and his wife Barb, inconjunction with matching funds from IBM, would be donating the balance of the funds to acquire #95050. The Directors, Trustees and Members would like to thank Don and Barb for their very generous donation. Thank you Don and Barb! The caboose was prepared for the trip back to Buffalo in late July, but none of us were prepared for what the trip would bring. Through the efforts of our Treasurer Tom Stackhouse he arranged in conjunction with Conrail's corporate contributions department to have the car transported over Conrail's ex PRR Harrisburg main to Frontier Yard and eventual interchange to the Buffalo Southern Railroad. The #95050 was picked up by Conrail at Renovo on September 2nd 1995, arrived in Buffalo within a day, and then was mishandled (lost) resulting in the caboose being "out there" touring the Conrail Southern Tier mainline for the next three months. The caboose was eventually found at Campbell Hall, N.Y. and was expedited to Buffalo within a couple of days and was seen by Joe Kocsis and myself on the night of Monday December 4th 1995 at the Ohio Street Yard. And what a scene it was, both sidesof the caboose were covered with graffiti, on one side our reporting marks and the car number had been completely painted over. After our initial shock, we inspected the exterior for any signs of wreck damage or side-swipping and fortunately, no damage was found. We took a good look on the inside and miraculously the interior had appeared the same as it did several months previous in Renovo. Apparently the vandals ran out of paint before they could paint up the interior. The caboose was later interchanged to the Buffalo Southern Railroad and arrived in Hamburg on the evening of Friday December 8th 1995. Earlier on Friday, I picked up a few gallons of blue paint from Tom and waited for the caboose. I also had a paint roller and pan to accomplish a temporary spruce-up paint job. After the caboose was spotted by the Buffalo Southern crew consisting of Fred Furminger, Larry Atti, and Burt Feasley, I went to work in subfreezing temperature with lighting provided by my truck's high beam headlights, to paint out the graffiti. The poor caboose looked more like a New York City subway car and with it in such a prominent location it was imperative to have the graffiti painted out. Once again I would like to thank Don and Barb Owens for the generous donation of funds to acquire the #95050, but also need to include thank-yous' to Tom Stackhouse for his tireless effort in keeping in contact with the good people of Conrail who also put forward a great effort to locate and safely return our wayward way-car to its proper home. We couldn't have asked for a happier ending to this saga and we all look upon this as a early Christmas present. Respectfully submitted by Jim Szymanski. |
| The Society is working hard to get #95050 fully restored to its original Lehigh Valley colors. All donations will be applied to the restoration of this classic piece of railroad history. Any amount of money you can donate would be greatly appreciated and enhance the charm of the "Lehigh Memory Trail." Thank You for attending our Gala Fund Raiser "The Caboose Affair" held on April 16, 2010 |
Web Site Hosting by TRAIN WEB
The WNYRHS, Inc. P.O. Box 416, Buffalo, NY. 14231-0416 is an independent organization and has no affiliation with any other local or national group.
The Society is a fully qualified organization under 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and all donations to the Society are tax deductible.
©Copyright 1999 , WNYRHS Inc. all rights reserved
