PORT JERVIS, N.Y. — After more than two years of planning and development, the Port Jervis Transportation History Center is set to celebrate its grand opening Memorial Day Weekend with the first Port Jervis Transportation Festival.
Also, the Dining Car Society has announced it will move its collection of seven historic passenger equipment from Scranton, Pa., to the Port Jervis Transportation History Center.
Transportation Festival
Set for May 28-30, the festival at the former Erie Railroad turntable facility in Port Jarvis (at 86 Pike Street) will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, and will feature the history center’s growing collection of artifacts and equipment, as well as railcars owned by Operation Toy Train that will be permanently exhibited in Port Jervis. The center’s newest addition, the first Comet I commuter coach, is scheduled to be delivered in time for the event. That car has been acquired from the Dining Car Society.
Local companies and non-profit organizations will also provide exhibits and equipment for the weekend event. These will include a Bethlehem Steel TUG railcar mover and a functioning steam calliope from the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethelem, Pa. Additional exhibits will be announced as they are confirmed.
Tickets will be $5 per person each day, with children under age 12 free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the center’s website or at the gate. For more information on the festival and the center, visit the Port Jervis Transportation History Center website.
Dining Car Society move
The move for the Dining Car Society collection, which includes two Erie Lackawanna cars that operated through Port Jervis, comes after 15 years of being hosted in Scranton by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad. In recognition of the long-term partnership, the society will transfer one of its dining cars to the railroad for restoration and operation in the Wyoming Valley. The car, former Lackawanna Railroad diner No. 470, once operated on the Phoebe Snow. Restored sister car No. 469 will be among those moving to Port Jervis, where it will be available for rental for stationary private parties and corporate events.
“Our deal with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad gives us the best of both worlds in support of our mission,” Dining Car Society President Paul Cappelloni said in a press release. “With historic dining cars located in both Scranton and Port Jervis going forward, a much wider audience can be exposed to the history of the railroad culinary experience.”
Along with the transfer of the Comet car ownership to Port Jervis Transportation History Center, the society has also completed deaccession of another such car to the New York, Susquehanna & Western Technical and Historical Society, which will use it in excursion service in Phillipsburg, N.J.
More information on the Dining Car Society is available at its website.
The Dining Car Society will also be part of the Transportation Festival, with its volunteers serving lunch aboard one of its cars for an extra fee. Special reservation-only dinner events are also planned on the nights of the festival. Dinner reservations will be available beginning March 18 at the events page of the Dining Car Society website.
