Volume 64 – Issue 10 October 1, 2024
From the Brass Hat
October has arrived with all it’s fury. Rain, Hurricanes, Halloween Prep and, of course, executing the train rides themselves, and cleaning up after. We will need maximum participation from everyone who can be available to help, especially for the rides. The lineside vignettes pull away a number of our key operating crew members to do supporting tasks, be witches, vampires, ghosts and innocent victims along the tracks. Be on the lookout for CREWCALLS from me requesting help for the three Saturdays and one Friday rides.
If you’ve never been on the Halloween train, you will love it! BTW – we are still decorating daily and would appreciate help. Contact me directly if you want to help.
As everyone already knows, word-of-mouth is one of our best forms of advertising. Please play up the upcoming Halloween rides with your friends, neighbors and social media contacts. Since our ridership for the year is over 30% behind normal, our Halloween and Santa trains could bring in up to 70% of our annual revenue if they are full.
Wear your hat or shirt and/or overalls in public and tell the story to anyone who will listen. If you have (or can make) business cards with the NCRM website address, pass them out. Take a handful of rack cards to pass out. Put the event on your Facebook or other social media.
We have lots of other things happening you also need to be aware of. The ballots for the Board election and the minor change to the NCRM Bylaws need to be turned in to the Secretary by 5 October, either in person, by mail, or dropped off in her mailbox in the office.
We also have the required Rules and Safety Class (and testing) for those who need it on 5 October. If you have not taken the class in 2024, you will be expired and thus ineligible to run trains for Halloween or Christmas except as a car host. Likewise, if you have not taken the test in the past two years, the same will apply. This is a FEDERAL requirement.
Thanks to those who have donated money to the Museum as a result of last month’s urgent request. We are still not in a good place due to low ridership for whatever the reasons may be. If you have not, please consider making a contribution.
We also have some sad news. We lost one of our best last month, Mack Lackey. Please keep the family in mind as we all mourn his passing. We will all miss his vast knowledge, humor and his straightforward approach to all things.
In light of the catastrophic flooding in Western North Carolina, we have decided to accept donations at the Bonsal Yard site beginning 2 October. They will be delivered to the American Legion post where we have our annual meetings in Fuquay-Varina, for onward movement to the disaster zone. We are also putting info on our webpage asking riders (or anybody who wants to help) to bring something to donate on the Halloween ride days. We are also accepting monetary donations via our Network For Good link on the webpage which will be passed to the American Red Cross as quickly as possible. Money or in-kind items would be most helpful to the victims of the flooding. Please help if you can!
As Always, Thank you for all you do for our Museum (and Disaster Victims)!
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Tilley
President, NCRM
Get to Know a Member
by Tom Hutchinson
Name Tim Carroll
How long have you been a member? Since August 1982
Where are you originally from? Fuquay-Varina, NC
What is your job in real life? Lead station agent at the Fayetteville NC Amtrak station
Where do you live now (City & State)? Fuquay-Varina, NC
Family: Nephew Porter
How did you become interested in trains? Living beside the Durham & Southern Railway
What is your favorite activity at the New Hope Valley Railway? Historical aspect of local railroad history & collection artifacts for the museum.
NRHS Convention in Harrisburg, Penn., Aug. 25-31
by Victor Varney
There was another GREAT NRHS Convention organized this year! It happened in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with an unbelievably low nightly rate at the wonderful Harrisburg Downtown Hilton. First day outings on Tuesday, Aug. 27 included a visit with three buses to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum and the Strasburg Railroad.
I didn’t get to attend the Tuesday outings, but I did manage to join the Wednesday, Aug. 28 outing to visit the now back in operation narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad. What a wonderful experience! After our three buses arrived all of us split up in thirds to visit the roundhouse and shops, or take a Trolley ride on their interurban line, or take a couple mile excursion train ride on their historic railroad.
On Thursday, the normal all day of NRHS business meetings happened. Two highlights. The NRHS Heritage Grant Program funding for 2025 will increase to $150K due to all the donations. As you may know we have received around $15,000 in Heritage Grants in the last couple years.
For the NCRM, our name has been officially changed from being the East Carolina Chapter of the NRHS to now being the North Carolina Railway Museum. I encourage you to check out info about the NCRM on the NRHS.com website under the chapter list. For me personally I also managed to slip in late in the day a visit to the Pennsylvania state capitol building a few blocks away.
A breathtakingly beautiful and historic building that I got to see with a docent led tour. And even later in the day the Harrisburg NRHS Chapter that helped organize the Convention invited us to visit their
beautifully restored PRR interlocking station there in downtown. You wouldn’t believe how many trains passed thru in less than an hour.
On Friday, the NRHS organized a wonderful outing to visit the Reading & Northern Railroad which offers
aside from their common carrier freight service excursion trains for the public pulled by their famous 2102 steam loco, and rides on their fleet of RDCs. On Friday we got to ride a three car consist of their RDCs with a visit to their roundhouse to see 2102 and under restoration steam loco 425, too. (In next month’s Telegrapher I will provide more pictures of the R&N’s RDCs. Will let you know what our RDC “could look like” inside.)
On Saturday, I returned to NC and missed the last day of outings featuring a visit to one historic railway know for operating center cab GE locos. Our moral equivalent up in PA. However, I did manage to get a 
picture of the three deluxe coach buses leaving the hotel that morning. The NRHS does a great job chartering buses for every excursion day during the conventions.
There will be a more info and pictures about the 2024 “Keystone” Convention in an upcoming NRHS News. If you aren’t a member yet, you can see it on the NRHS.com website under the documents tab. If you as an NCRM member have still not yet joined the NRHS, consider doing so for 2025.
The NRHS is a wonderful organization to be a part of as they share the NCRM’s priority for historic railroad history preservation. Our membership committee is planning a new membership level to allow NCRM members to join both organizations with a single payment to the NCRM starting in 2025.
DON’T MISS THE 2025 NRHS CONVENTION PLANNED FOR TOLEDO, OHIO, NEXT SUMMER. SECRET: THERE WILL BE SOME REALLY GREAT “BIG” STEAM LOCO EXCURSIONS!
If you do not receive the operating crew calls, please contact the crew caller if you are interested in participating in train operations! We need all the help we can get to keep the trains running safely.
Welcome, New Members!
We are pleased to welcome the following new members this month: Alexander Saltsgaver (Anita Hussey’s grandson). We extend our welcome to you. Please attend the New Member Orientation and Rules Training coming up soon. I know you will have fun working with us! Please grab on to a veteran member and make them show you what they do. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the Board Members. – Chris
[Editor’s note: If you have photos or other info about long-ago (or recent) events at the NCRM, please contact your editor. You can submit your own “Back in the Old Days…” or other article with pictures about anything (within reason) from our past for the Telegrapher. If you can rough out the ideas, we can work with you to craft an article to benefit the entire membership. – CT]
Rules and Safety Training Oct. 5, 9 a.m.
by Kevin Edwards
The next Rules and Safety Annual Training session will be conducted on Oct.5, 2024 at the NCRM Gazebo, located behind the Dispatcher’s Office. Bear in mind that each member of the Operating Crew (Car/Train/Head Brakemen, Conductors, Engineers, Signalmen, Dispatchers, Switch Tenders) are required to attend at least one session every 365 days in order to maintain Federal Railroad
Administration mandated crew currency requirements. For newer members, this is your first step toward advancement in the crew qualifications. Training will consist of “classroom” discussions of the rulebook, timetable, policies, how to interact with passengers and general railroad information followed by a “hands-on” portion covering brake systems, coupling the train, connecting the air brake lines, how to skate and other yard activities.
Come prepared to run a train! Lunch, Boots, long pants that can get dirty, rulebooks, timetables, training record books, radios (if you own one), gloves, water, etc. Rules tests, required every two years, will be given during lunch or after the hands-on session.
The Oct. 5 session, prior to the Halloween/Santa Trains will be your last opportunity for 2024. Those who fail to meet the training requirement can still serve as Car Hosts or other non-crew-related jobs.
Last Run: Mack Lackey
Long-time (42 years) NCRM Life member Mack Lackey passed away on Sept. 6, 2024, at the age of 88.
His funeral was held in Winston-Salem on Sept. 12 with a number of NCRM members present.
Mack served as a member of the NC Department of Transportation for many years while also serving in multiple capacities in the East Carolina Chapter of the NRHS, the forerunner of the NCRM. He LOVED anything to do with trains or antique cars.
He is survived by his son, Gray Lackey, a 43-year Life member and past NCRM President. Mack was a friend to many of us and will be sorely missed.
Around the Yard
