by Bill McKelvey
Liberty Historic Railway was again among the over 60 invitees to this years' event. We were pleased to meet John Aurelius (retired NJ Transit executive) and Al Zelazo from Parsippany; but we missed Conrad Misek. LHRy has made donations toward the preservation and restoration of NJ pedigree vehicles including a Public Service WW I era trolley from Hudson County; a Wildwood open car; a PATH car which survived the 9-1-01 disaster; the only surviving PS trailer car; a Newark City Subway PCC car; and others, plus we donated pavers for their memorial plaza.
BERA, at East Haven, CT, is a National Historic District, listed as the oldest continuously operated suburban trolley line in the US. Service began on July 31st, 1900 and the initial collection of cars were moved to the property, after the abandonment of the New Haven Division, but before the 600 volt DC trolley power was cut off, following WW II. SLTM has one of the largest and most diverse collections of electric railway cars in the US and they also preserve and operate trolley buses. Their museum, with a 1.5 mile trolley ride, is situated on 70 acres adjacent to one of Connecticut's pristine salt marshes, the Farm River, the Beacon Hill Preserve, and the East Haven Marsh Wildlife Area. A perfect scenic setting for an historic trolley museum operation.
This year I invited well known NJ trolley and railroad enthusiast, Bruce Russell, to go along with me. We got rides on their Johnstown, PA car; their New Orleans car; one of the Connecticut Company cars and (CT Co.) Executive Inspection car No. 500, which is furnished with wicker chairs. Carbarns were open for inspection of the PATH car, their horsecar and many other vintage trolleys.
We had an opportunity to meet and talk with BERA Executive Director, John Proto, and to chat with BERA President Emeritus, Bill Wall who has given us much good advice on the preservation of PS trolley No. 2651. Bill has found trucks for our Trenton No. 288 trolley and we are currently pursuing their purchase. Bill also highly recommends that we utilize Lyons Industries of Edensburg, PA as a contractor to rebuild the trucks. We were also pleased to meet and open a channel of communications with BERA Supt. of Power, Al Santini, because BERA is pursuing converting their energy supply to solar power. This could save them their annual $30,000 electric costs and there would be a payback of 5 years. This is something that we are extremely interested in for NJ.
The wonderful weather day was topped off with a buffet dinner of baked salmon, chicken, healthy salad / vegetables and desert. We returned to NJ, with an infusion of trolley era nostalgia, before nightfall.