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Mini Descriptions of Presenters and their Presentations

[NOTE: Green bold font indicates Friday ONLY presentation; Blue bold font indicates modeling presentation]

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• Todd Blide: Rochester Passenger Stations 1840-1968 - Presentation will include photographs, drawings, plans and maps to illustrate locations, designs, and operations of each facility.

• Don Brown: Keynote Speaker at Banquet

• Dick Chait:

  1. NYC’s Merchants Despatch Car Shops in Eash Rochester - During its heyday, NYC depended on its Merchants Dispatch Shop facility in East Rochester for many of its freight cars and cabooses.  This presentation will present the history of the Shop, its operations, and an overview of the rail cars it produced.  The facility can still be seen in East Rochester.

  2. Today’s Rochester Amtrak Station reflects NYC’s 1914 Station - Displaying an interesting design the current Amtrak station has a similar look of NYC’s 1914 station known as the Bragdon station (named for its architect Claude Bragdon), this presentation will compare the 1914 station with the current station through photographs and discussion.

  3. Derailments on NYC branch lines along the Genesee - Known as Charlotte (where the Genesee River empties into Lake Ontario), this point has been the location of several derailments.  The location is where the swing bridge over the Genesee River for the Hojack Line hosted the 1947 dive of an NYC Mikado into the Genesee, when the crew missed the bridge signal.

  4. Coal to Rochester’s Power Plants on NYC branch lines - In the 1900s Rochester was home to many nationally known companies.  These companies depended on coal to generate their power needs and the NYC was a vital link in making certain coal was available; the NYC serving no less than 2 major power plants one each at the Russell station and Beebee station.  This presentation will provide an overview of this important business provided by NYC.

• Doug Chapman:

  1. Lake Erie Coal Dumpers - Transloading coal from rail to water has been an essential operation on the Great Lakes for over 150 years.  We examine the ports, machines, and railroads, with emphasis on the NYC.

  2. Modeling the T&OC in HO scale – A layout modeling the 1920s.

• John Delano: A personal and scientific account of the 1953 event - This is the story of the events that led up to a historic train wreck that occurred in western Pennsylvania at 10:02 PM on Friday, March 27th, 1953.  As a 5- year-old boy traveling with his mother and younger brother on an eastbound New York Central passenger train (Southwestern Limited), they experienced an accident that directly involved the largest number of trains (3, plus one indirectly) in a single wreck in the history of the United States.  This presentation describes the unusual circumstances (e.g. near-simultaneous arrival of three trains on a section of the Water Level Route that had been damaged a few minutes earlier) that led up to this tragic event of 21 fatalities and the personal recollections of being a passenger on the Southwestern Limited.

• Geoffrey Doughty: Preparation for the 1948 NYC Great Steel Fleet launch (Friday ONLY!) - A look behind the scenes at NYC’s launch of the 1940s multi-million dollars dive into modern passenger train service.  Our presenter, Geoffrey Doughty, is the author of many books on passenger service (by the NYC and other eastern railroads) and is considered one of the best authorities on the subject.

• Lynn Heintz: Batavia NY Roundhouse & surrounding area - A photographic tour and insight into one of the areas active railroad hubs, this presentation (beginning in the 1960s) will highlight changes through the years; culminating with today, as the roundhouse continues to be used for railroad purposes.

• Richard Jordan III: Buffalo Passenger Terminal - A photographic tour of the Terminal over the years; focusing on the platforms and other areas and their neglect, as the Terminal itself has undergone many preservation activities.

• Matthew Lynch: NYC and The Eastman Kodak facility including an overview of Rochester (Friday ONLY!) - A look at the Kodak Railway and its connection with the NYC.  Plus a view of Kodak Eastman and their relations with not only NYC but railroads in general.

• Kenneth May: Vintage photographs and postcards of West Shore Railroad structures in the Rochester, NY area

• Duncan Richards: Images of the NYC in the Rochester area - Come along on a photo journey of railroading from photos taken by several local rail photographers.  These images are slated to become part of the collection maintained at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.

• Paul Shinal: The NYC Auburn Road Line - Come along on a photo journey and hear the history of the Auburn Road.

• Vinson Skibo: L.S.& M.S. Emergency Brake Tests of 1909 - As the first all-steel passenger cars began to see service, it was determined that brake force required to control them exceeded the capabilities of brake systems then in service. The Master Car Builders Association (MCBA) established goals and the LS&MS (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern) stepped up to perform the tests (in conjunction with Westinghouse Airbrake and others) to conduct the field testing to see if the goals were reasonable and achievable.  Learn through photographs, diagrams, and tables how these tests were performed and how the modern passenger brake rigging systems had to change in order to provide safe stopping in the era of the “all-steel” passenger fleets.

• Russell Weis:

  1. Building an NYC flavored layout (Friday ONLY!) - Come along as the presenter shares insights of his layout.

  2. Signaling on The New York Central - How the presenter installed NYC prototype signals on his layout.

  3. Adding Simplified CTC - A Part 2 of “Signaling on The New York Central”, adding CTC to the layout.

• Daniel Wurme: Highlights of the NYC - This presentation will give an overview of the NYC “Peanut Line" and cover how telegraphers were trained on the NYC.

• Walter Zullig: West Shore (New York City to Albany) Passenger Service - A history covering the saga of passenger service on this “on again – off again” line.  Trains are discontinued and substitute service via RDC arrives (aka, “Saga of the Boston-Albany Beeliner”) then is replaced by a diesel locomotive and coach as the end drew near.  A photo journey of the 1950s and 1960s.​

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