Photo #1, Trailer #1 loaded and ready to go, with Mike tying down loads; Photo #2, Trailer #2, with restored NJ Zinc Stirling Hill Mine ore car and crossing gate base; Photo #3, Big hook from CNJ E'port locomotive shop - 50 ton capacity, with Gary Mahan in center, Brian driving the fork lift, and Frank, driver of truck #2 to right; Photo #4, Trailer No. 2 being loaded with steel tote pallets of Belgian block. Photo #5, Trailer #2 fully loaded, with last item being the big fork lift which ran up the ramp carrying the 6-ton concrete phone booth from PRR Hudson Yard. Photo #6, Miscellaneous items in Gary's trailer and pickup truck. Note: Numerous items were "loaned to the Mahan Collection Foundation for temporary display and / or for reproduction, with originals to be returned to a NJ location to be determined". The latter items include the NJ Zinc Co. Stirling Mine, two axle ore car; six-faced cast iron road sign: Trenton, Lambertville, Princeton, etc.; Large cast iron sign "No swimming, diving, fishing, crabbing, etc." from Rt. 9, Mullica River Bridge; Four cast iron RR crossbucks; and one cast iron "private crossing" sign from the Camden & Amboy right of way at Robbinsville. Many other items, such as yellow paving bricks; Belgian block; creosoted timbers; other used timbers; Newark City Subway block signals; one pair of cast iron crossing gate bases; one cast steel Victory Bridge swing section ring rail segment and roller from the former center pier in Raritan River; a pair of RR bumper blocks of two very different designs; and a Gravely brush hog donated by Ken Miller. Photos by Alan Ballister and Kathryn Mahan (that's her shadow in photo #6 AND the 16" spare gun barrel from the Battleship NEW JERSEY ahead of the pickup truck, the movement of which Liberty Historic Railway helped fund).
For me personally, I am quite pleased to have all the historically wonderful artifacts and materials we have collected for decades, with the help of scores of volunteers; many contractors; and dozens of truckers, finally being able to be used and displayed for the education and enjoyment of others... Since the failure of the NJ State Transportation Heritage Center, decades ago, the alternative has been storage of these items, mostly in the open, subject to vandalism, theft, and deterioration by the elements, etc. Capt. Bill McKelvey, Tuesday, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1, 2022.
