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 27 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.

  
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
P.O. Box 3886
Ithaca, NY14852

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(as below)
Cornell Railroad Historical Society

E-Mail: CRHS@lightlink.com

Usually, April is the month for our Finger Lakes Railfair. Sadly, this year we did not present a Railfair. Decreasing attendance, difficulty in finding an appropriate date at our usual venue and significant financial losses for the past two years caused our Board to cancel the event. We are looking at possibilities that will allow us to bring back the Railfair in the future, but this year, alas, there wasn't one.
Picnic by the Lake Scheduled for July
Our annual picnic meeting will be held on July 14 at Stewart Park in Ithaca. Between the waters of the lake and the Ithaca Secondary tracks, it is usually a good time with food supplied by individuals, train (if at all) courtesy of Norfolk-Southern and plenty of time to spin yarns, complain about the weather or lack of train, and even watch as motorists play "chicken" with an oncoming diesel. (Please note: the photo is actually deceptive: the train was operating push-pull and the engine about to ram the car had actually just passed by.)

 

Show and Tell Makes for June Show
The June 2009 meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society featured a variety of short presentations by various members. Held on June 9 at the History Center in downtown Ithaca, we saw everything from detailed models built by Art Wilcox to a Journal Brass and a Whatzit Tool (later revealed to be a flattened hook for detecting cracks on the surface of a journal brass) shown by Bruce Tracy, to a photos slide show from Doug Flanagan. We also had a talk on "Steam Locomotive Types of the Lehigh Valley" by Greg Dickinson. All told, an evening of great variety and interest.

 

CRHS Plans Trip to Steamtown National Historic Site
Scheduled Date: October 24, 2009
Download Reservation Form
May Meeting
For our May meeting, we viewed two videos from the "Tracks Ahead" series. One, in particular, showed operations at the marklin model factory in Germany. Sadly, this company, a pioneer in the model railroad business, which originated toy trains (so reported) in 1892, has declared insolvency, and over 400 workers have been laid off.
April Meeting

The April Meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society was held at The History Center, downtown Ithaca on April 14. We viewed video of the last mainline steam operation in the world. This line in China, featuring giant 2-10-0 steam over the Jing Ping Pass, attracted railfans from all over the world including our own railfan extraordinaire, Tom Trencansky. Tom was unable to appear, due to family matters, but an intriguing video of the operations in China was substituted.

 
March Meeting
The March meeting of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society was held at the History Center, on East State Street in downtown Ithaca. Tom Trencansky showed (via computer) many fascinating slides of the Delaware and Hudson, in and around Binghamton, NY, as well as other locations on the line. The D&H was one of the oldest corporations in America, having started with a canal to bring coal from the early Pennsylvania coalfields to the Hudson River.
February 2009 Meeting
Our February meeting at the History Center featured the final installment of the video on how railroads were involved in war, particular attention being paid to how the Allies attacked the Axis railroads during World War II.
Reports on CRHS Meetings of 2006-2008

Page revised by Gene Endres, June 19, 2009