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| The Depot Crew continues to meet at the Orchard Park Depot on Wednesday and Saturday mornings throughout the winter. The buildings and grounds are checked on a regular basis for security issues, as is the rolling stock. |
| The Depot Crew has been busy working in the crawl space below the passenger station. That’s a good place to be, considering the kind of winter we’ve been having. It’s actually warm enough to work there without a coat on. Roger Smith has been heading up the effort to raise the station floor, street side below the restrooms, for the last few months. The floor on that side of the building sank at least ¾ of an inch many years ago. | ) |
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Three-quarters of an inch doesn’t sound like much, but it’s huge when you’re trying to do any type of work related to the floor, i.e. installing new toilets, plumbing and baseboard work. The station’s original floor beams are rotted away where they meet the concrete outer wall of the depot foundation. Along with Bob Reynders, Gary Ludwig, Jim Slominski and Roger Smith have been busy reinforcing those old floor joists with new wood. | ) |
| A couple of old barn timbers were positioned across the floor beams and used to evenly raise the floor with a series of screw jacks. The floor is now back to its original level and work on restoring the restrooms should begin when the good weather returns. |
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The weather outside was frightful but the warmth inside the Depot crawl space so delightful ! All of December, January and February saw the depot crew working in the crawl space to raise the Depot floor on the street side of the building. Once that was accomplished, the crew began work on the men’s washroom. Bob Reynders, Roger Smith, Jim Slominski and Gary Ludwig didn’t wait for any warm weather: they completely gutted the room during the month of March. The toilets, heavy marble stall dividers, plumbing, wall tiles and the mountains of objects stored in there were all moved out onto the men’s Waiting Room floor. Even though it was cold on the main floor, Bob, Roger, Jim and Gary continued to work in the building. | ) |
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The old men’s washroom was now empty (including the old cement on the walls that held up the tile). New 4 x 8 sheets of plywood were brought in to be nailed in place for a good base on which to apply new ceramic tiles. A local tile expert (who as a ten year-old kid actually helped his father unload cases of tiles from boxcars shipped to Orchard Park) was called in to give us an estimate on the work. Our goal is to restore the washroom to its former glory. A replacement urinal, two modern toilets, the original slop sink, marble stall dividers and two new sets of wooden stall doors will make the room usable again. |
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Our outside work has started. Our yearly planning meeting defined the work ahead. A massive weed killing program and a replanted center island top the list of our “to do” landscaping chores. | ) |
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It is mid-June and the tiles are still not in place in the men’s washroom. All of the preliminary work has been done. Mike Fitzsimmons reworked the old plumbing, the Depot Crew put up the drywall and Gary Ludwig cleaned all of the original woodwork. We even held a special ceremony for putting in the last drywall screw (see photo of the installation of the “Golden Screw” below). | ) |
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Everything is ready for the tile installation. As soon as the walls have been tiled, we can finish the job by putting in the sinks, the toilets and the urinal. Then it will be on to the ladies washroom where we intend to do tiles and at least one new toilet. The Roto-Rooter Company made a visit to the Depot on June 4th to fix a troublesome sewer drain that caused our only working toilet to overflow. | ) |
| The problem arose from local hoodlums clogging the drain with half of a brick and a Slurpee cup full of stones. After a power flush (excuse the pun) from the Roto-man, the problem was solved.. Our good friend, Ray Stevens, was by a couple of times to do some plaster patching where the walls have been damaged by rain from our leaky roof. Bob Reynders did the follow-up by painting the patches. All of our usual warmer weather jobs are in full swing at the Depot: flower planting, weeding, cleaning, patching and painting are regular occurrences during May and June. In other news, the Orchard Park Ed-U-Kids made their annual tours of the Depot on May 25th and June 1st (Jim Slominski and Yours Truly handled those duties), the Orchard Park Garden club held its annual flower sale at the Depot on Saturday, may 21st and three of their members dug out weeds from the center garden on one of our rain-free days in May. Marie Naverath has rented the Depot for her second annual flea market on June 18th, with a rain date of June 25th. The Depot Crew will be on hand to sell coffee, water and pop. On schedule for July at the Depot is the Fourth of July parade and fireworks display, which can be seen from anywhere on our property. We will have the Society Trustees Meeting at the Depot on the 7th, and our annual Society summer meeting will convene at the depot on the 23rd. Orchard Park will hold its annual Summer in the Park Ice Cream Social at the Depot on July 29th, followed by a huge fireworks display. The Depot is looking and functioning quite well for being 100 years old. Much has been accomplished, but there is still plenty to do. We are always looking for more help. Please visit us at the depot any Wednesday or Saturday between 8:30 and noon if you would like to join our work parties. |
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July was a busy month at the Depot in Orchard Park. On July 4th, the Depot required some babysitting during Orchard Park’s Independence Day fireworks display. The property around the Depot was alive with a few hundred people who like to view the pyrotechnics from our location. At the other end of the month, we once again manned the depot for the Orchard Park Annual Ice Cream Social. | ) |
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Tile work for the two washrooms continues as Roger, Jim and Bob Reynders have been cleaning the original tiles for reuse. Bob can also be seen closing the unused water faucet on the south end of the Depot. Work at the Depot takes place every Wednesday and Saturday from 8:30 to noon throughout the year. | ) |
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Of special interest is the Depot story that was featured on the front page of the Orchard Park Bee newspaper, the week of July 28th, by new Bee editor Naomi Spencer. She did a superb piece of writing. |
| Society member, Geno Dailey did some spectactular night photo's of the depot one summer's evening. |
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The long wait for the tiles in the men’s washroom is over. The tiles are in, and the wait for them is quickly forgotten when you look at the new tiles. The “WOW” factor is definitely there (the beauty of the tiles may not show up in the photo). The newly retiled men’s washroom is spectacular. It’s so good that when the Depot Crew took a good look at the ladies’ washroom, we decided to have it retiled too! . | ) |
| Society member, Mike Fitzsimmons did some plumbing work in the men’s washroom, but is now waiting for the correct hardware to finish the job. We hope to have the room ready for the “Holiday in the Park” on Saturday, December 3rd.. |
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Depot Crew members Bob Reynders, Roger Smith and Jim Slominski replaced all of the year-old light bulbs on both the passenger and freight stations, as they were starting to show their age. These lights not only help to cut down on vandalism, but also give the Depot a great look after the sun goes down. | ) |
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One of the projects that required several days of work was the clean up, fix up and paint up of the old BR&P caboose. All aspects of the caboose needed attention. Putting a temporary seal on the roof will help keep the interior dry. | ) |
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Replacing missing pieces of siding and putting on a coat of red paint were some of the things that also had to be done. The fix is temporary but necessary. Old BR&P is biodegrading before our eyes. It is hoped that some funding becomes available soon so that a proper rebuild can take place. | ) |
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Members of the Depot Crew, Bob Reynders, Jim Slominski, Gary Ludwig, Mary & Roger Smith and yours truly worked outside this Fall cleaning up leaves and yard debris in order to prepare the landscape for the winter season. All three gardens were also cut down by Bob Reynders with the help of Jim Slominski. We also moved society items from depot storage to the new museum. | ) |
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Bob Reynders and Jim Slominski loaded the AMTRAK Buffalo sign onto Orchard Park village mayor John Wilson's suv for transport to the Lee street facility, and yes even the mayor helped out, Thanks Mayor! Roger drove his pickup, I took my car, and Jim took his suv all loaded with society items to Lee St. that same Saturday. The station was decorated for Holiday in the Park and on Saturday December 3rd we opened the building for the Christmas celebration. |
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Four hundred children visited Santa from 4 to 7 pm. The Orchard Park Garden Club sold home made Christmas decorations under the portico, we sold hot chocolate and coffee in the baggage room, and the preschoolers train ride was set up in the ladies waiting room where donations were accepted for riding the train. Gary Ludwig operated his G scale steam train under our new artificial Christmas tree which was on loan for the evening from Bob Reynders. |
| A Depot Christmas by Robert Snyder T'was three weekends before Christmas and all through Orchard Park village, Not a creature was looting, doing stealing or pillage. All was at the train depot for Holiday in the Park, Which usually starts about an hour before dark. Decorations were hung throughout the building with care, Knowing that St. Nicolas soon would be there. When out by the portico we heard such a clatter, I ran to the street side door to see what was the matter. It was a horse drawn wagon, a jolly old elf and his misses too, Not a single flying reindeer, I don't buy that old story, did you? And then through the depot came a man and a toy sack, Shouting come on now children old Santa is back. We laughed and we chortled as Santa held court, Listening to four hundred children, he's such a good sport. All to soon it was over this time of good cheer, Santa's visit marks the end of another good year. And now that it's over and our year at the depot has wound down, Finding cash for the depot would be most profound. As we locked the door we knew we'd done right, Cause we heard Santa say as he rode out of sight, Good work on the depot it's such a good site!. |
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