The story related about the terminal tower is absolutely true, I can vouch for that. Back in the late seventies-early eighties time frame, myself and a few friends picked some locks and got into the tower and a number of rooms. Yes there were desks and file cabinets stuffed with all kinds of old New York Central "paper" type collectibles. At the time Tony Fedele had the building and the local railway historical society was helping with the building, it was basically volunteer labor, Tony got some things done and the railroad buffs felt like they were making a contribution to the future of the terminal so everyone was happy.....well mostly. Leadership from WNYRHS at the time knew of the vast amounts of historical paper records through out the building and told Tony if he donated it they would provide receipts of it's value as a historical donation and provide tax benefits for Tony, another win win. Instead, Tony had his crew throw massive amounts away in roll off dumpsters, WNYRHS got nothing and Tony got nothing except paying for dumpsters and his labor costs.
We found loads of employee timetables and concentrated on those tower floors, dating back to about 1940, every region and division in PA and NY state, some Ontario and Ohio. We found a back staircase and had about 5 of us and made an evening of it, filled the trunk of my car and more on the back seat, got what we could in a couple hours time. We divied up the stuff. I long ago disposed of my collection of railroad paraphenalia (Gave it to friends, I got tired of it filling boxes and drawers, never being looked at and having to be moved every time I did). I'm pretty sure my friends still have all that stuff.
And while I diverted on to this topic, one of the fun aspects of being a buff back in the late seventies was discovering little pots of treasure like this. We lost a lot of interest after Conrail took over and our trips centered more around abandoned lines and old railway structures. At that time one might find some real treasures left behind that would have eventually been tossed out or lost to the elements or vandals etc.
Some of the more exciting treasures" we discovered and liberated back in the day......
Chessie former BR&P shop buildings at Salamanca, Locomotive inspection reports from the days of steam, lettering diagrams for equipment, plans of B&O specific style cars.
LV late fifties-early sixties locomotive inspection reports at Manchester..... I had enough just from my portion of the haul to fill a good sized dresser drawer
Even though we frequented the place in the late seventies we still got some good stuff out of the old DL&W terminal. Broken Lackawanna and Nickel Place china that was only in a couple pieces in the trainsheds that were easily cleaned and glued back to whole pieces. The old main ticket office did have a fire at one time but paper is a good insulator. Under the top burned crust we found loads of old tickets, timetables and promotional items for DL&W and Nickel Plate going back into the thirties.
Found and restored an oak ticket case in a DL&W station in the Southern Tier that was abandoned and open to the elements. Paperwork including milk train records from the early fourties.
Ft Erie Ontario late Seventies....The N&W was scrapping the old Wabash F7's there one by one as their term came up. We made friends with the engine shop personnel and they allowed us to come and take whatever we wanted, we would show up, with tools and go to work for hours, no problem ever other than explaining it to the folks getting back over the Peace Bridge. We got horns, builder plates, seats, gauges and entire engine control stand in one instance, number boards, bells other stuff I have long forgotten. Kval Hobies used to have a 5 chime horn in the shop for many years, that was an item Bruce Aikman and I recovered from a Ft Erie scrap F7. When one thinks about this it was truly amazing we were allowed to do this, no releases, noting, just don't get hurt and stay low key, help yourselves, that was IT ! Far cry from the life we all live today in this day and age anything like this would be totally unimaginable.
I know myself and various friends managed to save former LV signal and other related signs and equipment when the LV main was being torn up.
Fast forward to about 1999, I wasn't an active buff anymore but still had closet interest in railroads. I was a Business Manager at UP in KCMO and around the holiday season would take my boys to work with me on some days. We would always go over to Neff ard tower to watch the hump and then visit the diesel facility we all knew as Jiffy Lube. They had a dispatch office in there that the boys liked to see (They were around 5 or 6 at the time) and go go see ther engines, even underneath at the inspection and light repairs shop. Some of the guys who knew me let the boys run a locomotive on the approach track, blow the horn and all as they stood by to assist with brake or throttle but the boys did get to run an engine or two. One year they ahd an SP SD45 there to scrap, and I was offered anything of interest. I wasn't into collectiong but a local hobby shop did end up receiving a seat with SP embossed in the top, a horn and builders plate.