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The Lehigh Valley Railroad was the chief line serving Ithaca, home of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society
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The Cornell Railroad Historical Society became a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1981. In the 30 years since that time, we have grown and prospered. With recent membership levels of nearly 130, while we may be one of the smaller NRHS chapters, we are an active one, with great enthusiasm for the subjects of railroads, rail history, rail photography and other aspects of the railroad hobby.
        The City of Ithaca lies at the foot of Cayuga Lake, and is surrounded  on three sides by steep hills. It is also home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, meaning its population practically doubles when school is in session. In former years, most of these students arrived by train, but with the changes seen in the 20th century, the two main railroads serving the area, the Lehigh Valley and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, faded away. Nonetheless, our chapter holds both dear, especially the Lehigh Valley, sometimes known affectionately as the "Leaky Valley", which is also the name of our newsletter.

 
CRHS Badges and Memorabilia
The Cornell Railroad Historical Society Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at the History Center, 401 East State Street, Gateway Plaza, Ithaca, NY. From NY Route 13, take Green Street (NY 79 East), three traffic lights to East State Street. After third light, turn hard right into Gateway Plaza parking behind 401 (large building with two pizza shops on ground floor). If westbound on Rt. 366 or 79, make left at foot of hill to 401 (Gateway Plaza). Doors open at 7:00 PM, meetings begin at 7:15 PM, and generally last until about 9 PM We have other yearly activities, most notably our RailFair, and meetings are open to anyone. Our mailing address is :  
Check out our new links to available books in the list at left!
  

Cornell Railroad Historical Society
c/o Ron Koger 116 Candor Hill Road
Candor, NY 13743

 
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Cornell Railroad Historical Society

E-Mail: CRHS@lightlink.com
Another January, Another Fine Program from Trencansky

Our January program brought back Tom Trencansky, with pictures of the start-up of the new tourist railroad the Saratoga and North Creek and a number of pictures taken over the past 25+ years on expeditions with members of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society. Tom has photographed railroads all around the state, the United States and Canada and even in China, and was in instrumental in starting our society and NRHS chapter. The photo shows an Arizona Eastern diesel which is being returned to that road, and will be replaced by E-Units obtained from the Central new York Chapter, NRHS.
December Meeting Featured Our Annual Auction of Great Stuff
The December meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society hosted our annual auction of railroad items, model railroad equipment, books and other unclassifiable rail-oriented items. The auction was a lot of fun, as usual brought in some badly needed funds to our treasury, as well as entertainment for those attending. We also voted for a slate of officers and board members for the coming year, and approved new by-laws for both the Cornell Chapter (NRHS) and for the Cornell Railroad Historical Society. Our meeting took place on December 13, 2011 at The History Center in downtown Ithaca.

 

Bill Caloroso Brought Pennsylvania Railroad's Elmira Branch to the Cornell Railroad Historical Society November Meeting
Note Special Date: November 15, 2011
Caloroso, author of The Pennsylvaia Railroad's Elmira Branch and owner of Cal's Classics, vendor of vintage photos and other rail memorabilia, told us great details and showed rare photographs of this fascinating line that ran from Williamsport, PA all the way to Sodus Point, New York. It hauled coal from the Pennsylvania mines to ships which delivered the fuel to cities in New York and Canada. It was a final stamping ground for Pennsy I-1 "Hippos" and also for latter-day ALCO PA cab units.
October 2011 Found the CRHS At Sea!
The October meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society was run in conjunction with the History Center of Tompkins County. As a result, it was not directly about railroads, but instead featured a lively, engaging and informative talk by John Laurence Busch, an independent historian who has scoured archives and libraries from the East Coast of the United States to the far reaches of Europe, uncovering a wealth of never-before-published material on Captain Moses Rogers and the Steamship Savannah. Mr. Busch made it clear the steam boats, steamships and railroads were well connected in the history of steam-powered movement. His major point is that these inventions totally changed the world we live in and our relation to it. Time and space have never been the same since.
September Meeting Featured Herb Trice on Pennsylvania Switchback and Tom Trencansky Covering Recent New York State Rail Action

Herb Trice, noted local rail author, presented a program at our September meeting on the Mauch Chunk Switchback, said to be the second railway constructed in the United States. Earliest in Pennsylvania, the Switchback Railroad, commenced operations on May 5, 1827, hauling anthracite a distance of 9 miles from Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company mines at Summit Hill to to their coal chutes above the Lehigh River at Mauch Chunk. It is also said to be the forerunner of the roller coaster! The meeting was begun by Tom Trencansky, who presented a computer slide show of photographs he has taken all around New York State in the last several months. He demonstrated that there is still lots of local or regional rail action all around us.
August Meeting Did Not take Place. All Chapter Executives Were Out of Town
The August meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society, scheduled as a "pot luck" event, was not be held on August 9 at the History Center since all the people with access to the facility were out of town. Take some time to visit a railroad on your own. Next meeting on September 13, in downtown Ithaca.
July Meeting Was a Picnic on July 23. Well, a Picnic and Trainwatching Combined
We met on Saturday morning, July 23, at the Oakland Road crossing over the CSX main line north of Weedsport. Our objective was to see more trains than usual at the "picnic" site. In the past, we've met in Stewart Park, Ithaca, and been lucky to see one runby of the coal or salt train. We're hoped for more this year and saw lots of traffic. The gathering was on a Saturday morning, so people don't have to rush to the location from or after work.But it sure was a hot, humid day.
June Meeting Covered History Museum in Elmira
The June meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical was presented by Rob Piecuch of the Chemung Valley Historical Society. The Chemung Valley was the route for both the Erie and Lackawanna main lines, and was crossed at Elmira by the Pennsylvania Elmira Branch and at Corning by the New York Central line from Lyons to Pennsylvania coal country. Some 50 years ago, the area hummed with industry of all sorts, ranging from steel bridges, to fire equipment to typewriters to glass products.Rob covered efforts to organize a rail historical society in Elmira and to bring various pieces of rail equipment to a site at Eldridge Park. Rob is also a champion of travel by train and showed photos taken on various trips. He is one railfan who actually travels BY RAIL!. (Photo by Jim Shaughnessy from Center for Railroad Photography and Art)
Frank Barry Returned in May 2011 with Photos of His Trip to Zimbabwe

Frank Barry, noted local author and rail photographer, showed pictures and described his trip to photograph Beyer-Garrett steam locomotives in Zimbabwe. Barry had flown to Johannesburg, South Africa, where a bus took him and his wife to Frenchtown on the border of Botswana. From there, it was a train to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, where they were able to see the three of the Beyer-Garrett steamers in operation now. All three of the steamers had operating problems, but Barry says he got good photographs of them. He also mentions that he saw a 4-8-2 operating in Botswana. There is still a line operating from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls, where the railroad constructed a bridge across the falls gorge, and which is still in use, though they only operate a [diesel] freight a few times a week. Frank got a wonderful photo of the special train on the bridge when he wasn't able to join the main photo line and found a better vantage point.
Frank Barry is well-known to our members for previous programs and his colorful storytelling. In earlier visits he has shown us things as varied as narrow-gauge steam railroading in Mexico, remaining steam in Cuba, end-of-era steam in Canada and the United States, and even trains in far southern Argentina. This is sure to be an excellent program. Barry has been recognized by the Center for Railroad Photography and Art and has been published numerous times in Trains and Classic Trains.
April 2011 CRHS Meeting Puzzled Over Items from The History Center
The April Meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society viewed more items from the History Center collection. A few were well-known to the attending members, having been seen in several local histories, but others were completely mysterious. One photo of a boiler explosion (an early locomotive) was quite spectacular to see, the water tubes looking like a large bundle of spaghetti. Our members brought their specialized knowledge of local rail history to bear, with some successes and some failures. Several photos of a flood-caused derailment near Dryden seemed to point to a date of about 1922. We thank the History Center and their archivist Donna Eschenbrenner for their valuable assistance with this program.
March 2011 Meeting Described the Beginnings of Building Airplanes In Ithaca Next to the Lehigh Valley Tracks

The March meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society welcomed representatives from the Ithaca Aviation Heritage Foundation. Randy Marcus and Mike Shay talked about how aircraft began to be built in Ithaca and the program of the Ithaca Aviation Heritage Foundation to bring one of the "Tommy" airplanes back to where it was made.


The program was arranged through the help of our member Dave Flinn and the President of the Foundation Don Funk. The story of aircraft in Ithaca is interesting, since it dates back to before the First World War. Over in Hammondsport, Glenn Curtis built some of the first "flying machines" and tested them on Keuka Lake. Thomas-Morse Aircraft actuall began over in Hammondsport,but moved to Ithaca. There remains a building in the West End, hard by the former Lehigh Valley tracks: "The Airplane Factory", though most of the aircraft were build in the large factory on South Hill which later became a part of Morse Chain.

 

February 2011 at the History Center — Looking at History
The February meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society viewed various items (largely photo prints) from the collection of the History Center with an eye toward identifying and amplifying what was known about them. We particularly noted that some of the photographs were in somewhat different locations than was thought. Some of the items were familiar but for which we had no ideas as to location or what the event was. It was both an enlightening and a humbling experience. We hope to do this kind of meeting again in the future, to help out with the local historical record.

 

January 2011 Meeting Brought Back Tom Trencansky
Tom Trencansky, founding father of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society presented our January program. Tom showed pictures from his trip to Essex Montana this fall (on the famed BNSF "High Line" through Glacier National Park and all the way to Sandpoint, Idaho. He also showed pictures taken in the summer of 2010 of various rail interests around new York State. Tom concluded the program with slide photos (scanned into digital and digitally corrected at huge expense of his time) of a trip he and his wife took to Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1977. As he noted during the program, in those days, there was no Internet to scope out motels and restaurants, no Google maps for following rail lines, and film was expensive! Nonetheless, he captured historic photos that are a valuable resource to anyone looking to see what the rail world was like in 1977.

 

Reports on CRHS Meetings of 2009 and previous years

Page revised by Gene Endres, December 12, 2011