WINTERFEST 2019 at New York Museum of Transportation

Come join us On February 15 and 16, 2019 to ride and operate our two Strafford cars 161 and 168. We will be open for volunteers and staff from area museums with trolley operations mid-afternoon on Friday, with rides and the traditional pizza dinner at NYMT. On Saturday, we will offer guest operation of cars 161 and 168 during the day with a connecting train ride to Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum where you may inspect ongoing restoration work on Rochester Subway car 60. Our Saturday dinner will be off-site, and Winterfest 2019 will conclude there with an after- dinner slide show by NYMT President Charlie Lowe, covering the Rochester Subway in the 1950s and in-service photos cars that are preserved today at museums. Original slides in the show will be from his extensive private collection.

Cost for the entire event is $35.00 which covers pizza on Friday night, Saturday coffee and hot cocoa, submarine sandwich lunch, and the Saturday evening Banquet. If you cannot be at the entire event, we can provide “a la carte” pricing: $8 for the pizza dinner; $9 for lunch on Saturday; and $18 for dinner on Saturday.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Radisson Hotel Rochester Airport (175 Jefferson Road, Rochester, NY 14523; (585) 475-1910) which is about 5 miles from our Museum and has a first-class breakfast buffet included in your room price of $92 + tax. Rooms will be held until January 25th. These rooms have two double beds, so you can share a room and split the cost with a friend.

Information for guest operation of cars at NYMT: As in 2009, we will again be offering Guest Operation of our Strafford cars. Our cars feature M24C brake valves and C36C master controllers with automatic sequencing. The master controllers have their parallel notches blocked out of service, but there really isn’t anyplace to go much faster than 20 mph on our line anyway! Those wishing to guest operate our cars are asked to attend a Guest Operator’s Meeting in the NYMT Gallery on Saturday morning from 9:00 to 9:30. With the severity of the grades (3.5%) and curves (24°) on our line, we are asking that those who guest operate our cars tell us about their previous operating experience. (We can handle inexperienced guest operators but we would like to do that near the end of the day and on northbound runs.) Guest Operator’s will be issued a 3” x 5” card with the NYMT Trainmaster’s approval to operate. A half-run (southbound or northbound) will be available to you on a 20-minute headway since we will be operating one car on the line while the other is loading; sign-ups will need to be made with our Dispatcher. Please make sure you are on your car 10 minutes before departure time from NYMT so your pilot can brief you on details of operating our cars).

Please make checks payable to “New York Museum of Transportation” and mail to: New York Museum of Transportation, Attn.: Winterfest 2019, P.O. Box 136, West Henrietta, NY 14586. For our Canadian friends, please make necessary adjustments for the exchange rate. So that we may best plan for Winterfest, please ensure your payment has arrived by February 8, 2018.

If you have any questions about Winterfest 2019, please contact Carlos Mercado at Cmercado@rochester.rr.com or (585) 507-8778. NYMT is located at 6393 East River Rd., Rush, NY, and the museum’s web site is www.nymtmuseum.org.