Whippany Railway Museum in NJ came through fairly well, although 3 huge trees dropped on the Museum's "Coal Truck Garage" which houses a 1948 International Coal Delivery Truck. The structure was built by the late Earle Gil, Sr. in 2006 while he was undergoing a six-month round of chemotherapy. Unfortunatley, everything from just beyond the front of the building to the rear appears to be a near total loss. No word yet on the condition of the truck.

A replica PRR lineside phone booth that Gil also built blew over, but was quickly set back in place with minor damage.

All preserved locos and rolling stock onsite survived the storm without damage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89454930@N ... 9101/show/

pretty much self explanatory

More damage and recovery updates from Branford:

http://www.bera.org/sandy.html

. . . . . . Stay safe friends. It would be good to hear from all the RYPN folk in Sandy's path to confirm the most important thing -- that we all made it through. . . . . . .

Gentle Forum Members,

I am pleased to report the Railroad Museum of Long Island at Greenport and Riverhead sustained no damage during Superstorm Sandy.

Several inches of water intruded the East End Seaport and Maritime Museum located in the historic Greenport LIRR passenger station. It is understood that EES&MM volunteers had moved their exhibits and supplies to higher floors in the building before high water Monday evening.

At our Greenport Museum site on Tuesday, October 23, restoration work had just begun on LIRR Caboose #14's cupola. The cupola and roof had been sheathed in tarps and those tarps held very well throughout Sandy. The caboose remained dry, work resumed on the hack today.

At Riverhead five trees blew down during Hurricane Irene, August 2011. That storm caused the cancellation of Riverhead Railroad Festival 2011 and the expense of several thousand dollars in professional tree removal!! In summer 2012 the Museum Board was pro-active and removed six additional trees that had loosened up but had not fallen during Irene. That action saved our LIRR collection of Alco RS-3 #1556, baggage (tool car) #7723 and GE 25 ton switcher #399. Had those trees not been removed this summer we would have had a mess following Sandy.

Several active museum volunteers have experienced flooding and property damage at their homes. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and to all the people impacted by Superstorm Sandy. The pain and suffering continues for many, and as a nor'easter forms to blow up the coast on Wednesday, we watch and wait again! This evening evacuation orders have been posted for effected areas to our south and west, good luck to one and all.

Stay safe,
Don Fisher, President

Railroad Museum of Long Island
www.rmli.org

I hope everyone does okay with the second storm which is coming to the same region right now...
I live in the Puget Sound region and grew up in Florida. So, I feel the pain of those recently hit as we were hit by a series of windstorms in 2006 and I've experienced a hurricane first-hand in the 80s as a teen (wiped out the electrical grid the my entire county, many people didn't get the lights on for over a week, it was 7 or 8 days at my house).

Sorry for being a bit late here, but I just got home from a 3 week trip on a tugboat..

We left for NYC 3 days after the storm. Luck would have it, we hit the city in the daylight. Here is the Binghampton as viewed on Friday the 2nd.



I really hope that some of the cosmetics can be saved from her such as the nameboards, etc. I know the engine room is intact as well..

As some of you know as well, NY is home to one last carfloat operation barging railcars across the harbor, NYNJ Rail (last known as NY Cross Harbor). They operate the former Greenville yard in Jersey City, which was home to 4 overhead suspension float bridges. These were built by the PRR between 1925 and 1944. Only one bridge has been in service for the last 20 some years, the rest in poor shape. Well, the hurricane did them in, including severe underscoring as well as barge that broke free and drifted into one bridge. Plans have been in the works to replace them but this has been expedited. The bridges were fully removed last week, and a temporary bridge moved from Brooklyn to take its place and get service back in order. They also lost one of there carfloats.


Likely the last photo of them intact as viewed from the water.

Paul