<VV> Re: Railroad info/history, Rochester .....(no Corvair)

[Jim Burkhard]

Gary had a lot of good info on RR stuff in the Buffalo area. If you 
have a little time to kill while you are out here, there are 2 little 
museums just south of Rochester (about an hour east of the convention) 
which have a lot of information on light rail (and other stuff, 
including the infamous Rochester Subway System).  The 2 museums are 
packed full of varied old iron of every sort and are connected to each 
other by an ~2 mile track on which they run "track crew cars" (I'm 
gonna use all the wrong terms) back and forth to take folks from one 
to the other.  Said track was in the process of having overhead 
electric wiring strung last time I was there a couple years ago in 
order to run a restored light rail electric interurban trolley.

Checkout the websites to see what they have to offer.  They are at:
http://www.nymtmuseum.org/
http://www.rgvrrm.org/

They are both all volunteer operations, that exist for (near as I can 
tell) primarily for grown men to play with trains and other big 
equipment... and there's nothing wrong with that!  ;-) It looks like 
lots of fun -- if I had more time I'd join up!

Also, I don't think they have a museum or anything (maybe I'm wrong), 
but there's a neat little shortline railroad around here called the 
"Lakeville, Avon, & Livonia Railroad".  Check out their site at:

http://www.lalrr.com/

One more thing...  Steam railfans coming up through Eastern PA, would 
be wise to checkout Steamtown USA, which is administered by the 
National Park Service. I've heard it is pretty nice:

http://www.nps.gov/stea/home.htm

Have fun on your trip to Western NY!

Jim Burkhard
Rochester, NY