BOONTON, N.J. – The United Railroad Historical Society (URHS) of New Jersey announced that it has hired Kevin Phalon as its first executive director. Phalon is URHS’s first paid employee in its 36-year history. He has served as URHS president since May 2020, and as a volunteer for the past decade.
Phalon comes to URHS from a career in journalism, working as a photographer and editor for NJ Spotlight News on public television station NJ PBS. The URHS mission is to preserve railroad equipment of cultural significance to New Jersey and its neighboring regions. It is governed by representatives of several New Jersey-based railroad historical societies, with the common goal of preserving the state’s largest collection of historic locomotives and railroad cars.
“I could not be more honored to be given this opportunity and responsibility,” Phalon said in a news release. “A little more than a year ago, we never expected to grow so fast that we would need staff so soon, yet here we are. As a nonprofit, our chief responsibility is to educate. For us, that means running more trains, holding more events, and making more of our collection accessible to more people more often. A year-round, indoor, public museum and operating railroad are vital to the sustained survival of our collection. It is our hope that such a museum would bring together all the interests that have long sought a permanent location in this state, so that our combined efforts can better serve the public.”
The Society said it was prompted to hire its first staff member by the demands of its highly successful Hudson River Rail Excursions program with URHS operating public day trips from New York with former New York Central 20th Century Limited observation car Hickory Creek and tavern lounge No. 43. URHS has sold out every trip since the program’s inception and will be expanding its schedule significantly in 2023. Phalon’s position will be funded entirely by program revenue, allowing donations to continue to be used exclusively for equipment restoration.
URHS has completed the first phase of renovations to its new shop in Boonton, where it is now undertaking the restoration of the last GE U34CH locomotive [see “New Jersey commuter locomotive to operate again,” “Preservation,” Trains, February 2023].
