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The Railyard Local Volume 5, Issue 4 -The Monthly Newsletter of the Danbury Railway Museum- April 2006 Hammer-In 2006 In This Issue Blacksmithing Event April 29 & 30, 10-5pm ~Ten Years Ago - page 2 Skilled blacksmiths will be demonstrating their ~The Yard Inside - page 4 craft once again in the railyard at the DRM. Bill Scheer ~DRM Volunteers in 2005 - page 6 is shown below at last year’s event. The response to plus . last year’s event encouraged us to schedule it again. DRM Express Track and Library News Come be entralled by metalworking at portable forges and our vintage New Haven forge. There will be opportunities to purchase blacksmith’s wares. We DRM Annual Meeting 2006 hope to have an area for new enthusiasts to try their Wednesday evening March 15th featured the hand at a forge under the supervision of skilled arti- Museum’s Annual Meeting, in addition to Ed sans. All this will be Blackman’s always interesting program of slides from in addition to our his collection. DRM President Ira Pollack began with regularly scheduled his weekly update train rides and on goings-on at the attractions at the Museum, then Museum. Those addressed the wishing to partici- assembled audi- pate should call ence with a review Skip Kern at 203- of the past year at 642-4111. the Danbury Railway Museum. This address to the Little Engine That Could Event membership is fea- tured in his col- Committee Hard at Work umn DRM Express Members say “We know we can!” as they Track on Page 3 of meet weekly to organize the BIG event this issue. Our Treasurer, Patty Many of our most active volunteers are work- Osmer, gave a ing diligently organizing the Museum’s BIGGEST financial overview event of the year which will be held June 17-18 & 24- of the DRM’s past 25. There are several subcommittees involving: adver- year, and volunteer tising & marketing, train operations, overall site statistics update. preparations, attractions & entertainment, gift shop & The Museum sales, food, and volunteer recruitment/deployment. worked within a Each aspect of the event will have specific balanced budget, needs for volunteers. This event will require volun- and gained signifi- teers on a large scale to help out in one way or anoth- er, even if in small ways. If one of these areas listed Continued on Page 7 above appeals to you as a way to help, please call the Museum at 203-778-8337. Reminder: Expanded Hours This promises to be a hugely popular and suc- Spring is here! The DRM hours for April- cessful event for the Museum, and a major attraction October: Tuesday through Saturday 10am-5pm; for Danbury. It will take the coordinated effort of a Sunday 12-5pm. Closed on Mondays. Open on certain large number of volunteers to make it happen. Please holidays, and expanded hours for some special events, step forward to participate. so call for information or refer to our flyers. New Members Ten Years Ago We are delighted to welcome our new mem- By Stan Madyda bers this month. All members, as well as the general The April 1996 "Danbury Railway News" start- public, are welcome to attend the weekly meetings ed off by reporting on the April Open House Week- and free programs held Wednesdays, 7:30pm, at the end. Saturday began with Mayor Gene Eriquez arriv- Museum, 120 White Street, Danbury. We invite all ing at the station in a Stanley Steamer. By 11:30, 500 members to become involved in Museum activities as riders were on board the special excursion train to soon as possible! Beacon. Activities continued throughout the day end- Maria Nascimento Danbury, CT ing late in the evening with our first ever Night Photo Larry Deming Bethel, CT Session conducted by Dan Foley and Ed Blackman. Francis Casale White Plains, NY Our RS-1 was decorated in a temporary Rutland Linae Wutzl Brookfield, CT scheme. Also in the yard were engines from Metro North and Providence & Worcester. On Sunday we Life Member: Thomas W. Derwin Kent, CT Bill Scheer was one of the black- smiths par- ticipating in last year’s Hammer-In at the DRM. Here he is in action with The colorful Providence & Worcester 2209 locomotive his portable graced the DRM railyard for the Spring Show 1996. This forge fired photo, as well as the ones on the back cover of this issue are up. from the DRM Library’s collection of photos of that event RPO News and Notes taken by Bob Westerfield. welcomed more visitors, including 1,000 riders on By Bill Britt shorter excursions to Dykeman's. The final estimate The window replacement project is not quite was that 5,000 people visited the Museum over the done but so close we can almost “taste it”, as they say. weekend. We need less than $100 in order for us to turn this On April 19th, Mayor Eriquez and Peter part over to the glazer. Cornwall signed the lease for the station set to termi- As the weather is about to break(we hope) our nate in 2015. The initial plans for allocation of space next major project on the car will be the exterior, start- has been followed for the most part over the last 10 ing with the roof. Those that have seen the car can years. The only real change was the Telegraph Office attest that the roof is extremely rusty. However, with was slated to be exhibit space. the exception of some small holes that can be patched There was a call for volunteers to help staff the and covered, it is in fair shape. When we start this we station. The station and yard were to be open six days will need some manpower. a week. Some optimistic hope was indicated that at Did you know? That the postal clerks working sometime in the future we would be in a position to in the railway post office cars were alerted to upcom- have paid staff. ing stations that the train was not scheduled to stop at Our first exhibit was not a railroad related by whistle signals from the engineer. These signals exhibit, but one on the Still River, set to open in June. allowed the clerks to prepare for mail sack pick-up The exhibit was put up by the Danbury Preservation from the “crane”, as well as delivery of sacks at those Trust and faculty and students from West Conn. The stations while the train was in motion. theme of the exhibit was to show how Danbury devel- Again thank you for your continued support. oped around the river, how it was abused and ulti- We always look forward to hearing from you; not just mately how it was coming back to life. The floods of with the financial support we need, but also 1955 were well documented. The exhibit was to be on with railway post office tales and facts. Continued on Page 6 8) Large directional signs for the DRM were erected on DRM Express Track I-84. By Ira Pollack, President 9) Through efforts from outside sources, unusable rail- This month’s column features my address to the road ties were removed and rail was donated. Danbury Railway Museum’s membership at the Annual 10)The DRM Library has grown to the bursting point. Meeting on Wednesday, March 15th. It summarizes the past It has acquired many large collections through dona- year at the Museum beginning last March. tions and purchases. Tonight I’d like to look back over the year 2005 11) The birthday party room is now being used year- and talk to you about some of our successes. To start round. with: 12) Two 44-ton locomotives are being donated by This past year is probably the first year that the Electric Boat. Museum has worked within a planned, balanced All in all, it has been a very successful year for budget. Although there were some small overspend- the Museum. Unfortunately we have lost some key ings, for the most part we were able to follow our players in our operation, but we must continue to planned expenditures. This is a major accomplishment grow and move forward. We have many challenges to for our organization. My thanks to our financial offi- meet in these months to come. We have track work to cer, Patty Osmer, for her diligence. accomplish: replacing ties on the turntable lead switch Our membership at this time stands at 592. We now have many different people who have joined. Many are families with children, joining our tradition- al railroad buffs. As always, we have many projects going on both outside and within the station. To list a few proj- ects and accomplishments from 2005: 1) NYC caboose work continued up to the frost. Work on the north side and roof will continue this year. 2) Through a $4500 Meserve grant, we were able to enhance our signage in the yard and building. This is the best the Museum has looked since its beginnings. 3) The Wilton semaphore, while still needing electric wiring, is almost complete, and is an operational The sheathing for the vintage New Haven forge was almost exhibit. completed last year. We just need a bit more funding and 4)We have a work to finish it. regular crew of and tracks 34 & 42. These are major challenges for the 5-6 people on Museum and its staff. We must remain positive and Tuesday nights work on it methodically, even if it is a little at a time.

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