It was another OUTSTANDING weekend here at RMLI Riverhead, where we were blessed to have over 26 volunteers working on projects that will help get the museum open to the public next weekend! One of the major accomplishments of the weekend was getting the first coat of white and green paint on the “Freemen” Building, which houses the permanent exhibit, “The Historic Lionel Visitor’s Center Layout” that will be having it’s grand opening and unveiling to the public next weekend. The new colors of the building are rather historic in the fact that they resemble the former colors many Long Island Rail Road stations wore in the early part of the last century. The white base color is complimented with a new green trim. This will become the new standard color for most of the buildings at RMLI. The Visitors Center, which houses the gift shop, will receive the same color, so the two buildings will match. Our two station lampposts also got another coat of black paint. Inside, the layout for the most part is completed and ready to open. There are still little details that need to be worked on, but they will be done by next weekend. Once again Francis spent the weekend on his hands and knees ballasting the track. It almost looks good enough for the Long Island Rail Road to run on! All the push buttons for the operating accessories work, with buildings and animations that will amaze everyone! Track lighting was also installed this week that will go through different cycles including day time, night time and the seasons so people will be able to enjoy the layout in different forms, Carpeting for the room will also go down this week.
The Long Island Garden Railway Society spent Saturday at the museum giving our G gauge train sets maintenance. They did a great job of weeding the layout, re-ballasting the track and landscaping the area. They are currently working on improving the track so we will be able to have a problem free year of operation. It is really starting to look great! This includes soldering the tracks together so they stay connected instead of having the tracks screwed together with clips.
The fences that are around the RMLI yard have all been repaired after being knocked over by the harsh winter. The snow fence that surrounds the G-16 World’s Fair Train loop was repaired and replaced in areas were it was needed. Other small fence repairs took place as well. The spread of woodchips was also completed this weekend. The gardens were all weeded with woodchips distributed, giving the museum a rather “classy” look. Among other things the parking lot was also cleaned up from winter debris caused by the weather and the construction of the new deck.
The World’s Fair Train is once again ready to whisk children and their parents back to the 1964/65 World’s Fair. All 3 cars were hooked up and got brake inspections and adjustments. The train again went on a series of practice runs with and without people on the train to test it out. With an expected high volume of passengers next weekend we will be running with 3 cars instead of two. All the coaches also got a bath this weekend and are nice and clean. I am also proud to announce that this year we have brand new seats for the train. The new Tuscan red seats replace the old green ones that were torn in a few places. This new comfortable seats look great and represent a reminder to our Pennsylvania Railroad Heritage! The GP38-2 Cab Simulator was shown some love this weekend as well in the form of touch up paint. Now that the Lionel layout is completed the Cab Simulator will be the next project, to be completed by the annual Riverhead Railroad Festival.
Thank you to all the hard working volunteers this weekend that did such an outstanding job getting the museum ready to open and completing the historic Lionel layout for our visitors this year! We look forward to seeing everyone next weekend, April 9th, at the Opening of the layout from 10am-4pm. The Museum will now be open every Saturday from 10:00am to 4:00pm until the weekend before Thanksgiving. Riverhead will be open Saturday and Sunday with the Greenport Museum Memorial Day through Labor Day!
