Re:(erielack) More on the ELHS Annual Meeting...

["James Harr" <bnchmark_@_eclipse.net>]

Paul and list:

Here's a re-cap of events following lunch at the annual meet:

Doug Berberio (?) offered a well-researched
presentation on the branches of the Erie railroad in Orange county, NY,
notably
the Newburgh branch; unfortunately I was distracted during this and missed a
great deal; hopefully someone else will add to the commentary. (I can't let
my wife know about this, as she grew up in Newburgh...!)

Vince Lee gave us another Power-Point style presentation focusing on The
Erie/EL's captive 28th Street Terminal in Manhattan, using some really neat
photos from the early 20th century to present day (it is now a storage lot
for a phone company, among other things) to illustrate the various
iterations the yard went through. Us fans of the Marine Department were very
happy to have this presentation; as Vince noted, it would make a great small
switching layout, due to the prototype's compact size.

Pete Hasler has collected a wealth of postcard views of our favorite
railroads, from various sources, and shared them with all of us in a
presentation that took us up to the dinner break. You all probably don't
need to be reminded how valuable old postcards can be in your research;
Pete's presentation fortified this.

A two-hour break came so the hotel staff could set up for dinner; the buffet
was excellent, and after the presentation of the door prizes and the winners
of the model contest, we segued into Bob Bahrs for the rest of the evening.
First we were shown a carousel of slides from all over the eastern end of
the EL; then Bob treated us to his excellent multi-media presentation of the
end of the Lackawanna MU's. Even competing with the wedding next door did
not diminish the impact of this very professional presentation, complete
with music and narration. Very well done, Bob. Finally, Bob closed out the
evening with another carousel of his excellent lensmanship, and, as always,
lots of colorful anecdotes and memories of working for the railroad.

Sunday, I attended the layout tours, so I'll let someone else brief us on
the tour of Erie Branches and Moodna Viaduct. As for the layout tours, our
convoy of about ten vehicles made it's way down to Newton, NJ to visit Perry
Squire's extremely well-done Shawmut Railroad, with Tony Koester as our
guide; Tony was an excellent host, and ran a nice coal train powered by
double-headed, sound equipped 2-8-0's with another 2-8-0 as a pusher. Very
nice!

Then we moved on down the road to Harold Werthweins Erie Delaware Division
layout; most of you are probably familiar with Harolds layout, but for those
who aren't, it has been seen in print several times, and apparently will
again. Allan Keller also did a great video on it; by all means, check it
out. At any rate, as usual, Harold's layout left us all pretty much
speechless...

Many thanks go to Harold for his outstanding job running this convention, as
well as Pete Hasler for his assistance, and all the presenters and Tony
Koester, too. A great time was had by all...

Jim Harr


Paul T wrote:

Can anyone fill in the details?

Unfortunately, my wife and I had to leave after lunch, so someone else will
have to fill in the rest of the presentations here....

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