Wantagh Museum and the New York times article

Hello,
I hope we are all enjoying our weekend. I would like to put it out there that today while reading the times I came across an article about Nassau museums. From Sands Point to Wantagh the county is having problems keeping them open. The article goes on mostly about the other museums, but talk’s briefly about the Wantagh Railroad museum. It states that it is only open 2 hours a week due to lack of help

Most of us railroad fans know it was created after the grade was raised and the station was moved. In addition to the station house the museum also boasts the only reminisce of a bygone era, the parlor car Jamaica.

I have visited the museum only once but saw it as an essential part of the railroad history of long island. Unfortunately, the article goes on to talk about the county giving up some of its collection. Although, it did not mention any museum in particular I just thought we should ponder the 'what if's?" if the county is trying to get rid of part of its collection, anyone think that it should be absorbed into one of the other groups.

I might be getting a little off topic but, it would seem to be the most logical to streamline the little groups and eventually have one group acting on the island. "United we stand, divided we fall” If the site were to be liquidated would the RMLI be interested in moving the car and/or station house to some where else. If moving it is not deemed practical, what about talking over the day to day operations of the museum. It seems that if the organization can’t stand on its own two feet (metaphorically speaking) then it should be helped.

This might not be a problem, because the article states that the county might acquire funds to pay for it. But I am only human and love to ponder the "what if's" of life. I hope every one find this as interesting as I do.

here is the link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/nyreg ... imuse.html

I visited the station museum site last October and took some photos.

At the time I was there, a crew of people was painting the old depot.

I was amazed at how nice the entire site looked. The condition of the depot, the wooden platform, the diamond crossing sign, the mail crane and, yes, the "Jamaica!"

(The old Post office building across the parking lot was kind of neat, too! I have a shot of a similar one in use at Remsenburg c. 1915!)

I remember the early years of the museum. I took photos once the depot was originally moved there in 1966. Believe me, things look a lot better now than they did then!! It would be a sorry thing for all this preservation to be lost, especially after the amount of work that went into putting it together.

Think of the irony of the situation if, after being saved from the wrecking ball back in 1966, it was destroyed at a later date.

This is the only sample still standing today of what once was a very common LIRR depot design. Also, the old heavyweight observation is the last of the old LIRR heavyweights still around.

When you destroy the last representative of something, you have what is known as "extinction!" While this pertains to living things, I feel the term is appropriate here as well.

And . . . .extinction IS final.

Dave Keller

I've visited this very small museum too.

The good news may be that it is so small it only takes a few local folks to keep it going.
The abundance of trees in the area also make a cool spot to just hang out & have a picnic or something.

Dave, would it be possible for you to post a picture of the station/museum and a picture of the heavyweight car? Thanks!

RPM:

I'd love to, however I do not have a scanner.

Sorry!

Dave Keller

I had never heard about this museum until I read about it on the forum. I talked it up to the family and planned a trip. We got to the museum at 2:20 pm today (Sunday) and unfortunately, they were closed.

Copied from: http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/official/ ... oad_Museum


Wantagh Railroad Museum

Wantagh, 1700 Wantagh Avenue, across from Emeric Avenue
516-826-8767
Open: Sundays, 2 – 4 p.m., April through October (facility is staffed by volunteers, so hours subject to change)
Admission: Free

There are links on the Twin Forks website to the two smaller museums, Wantagh and Lindenhurst. We have met with representatives from both museums in the past and have tried to get them to come to Railfest at RMLI etc. but my guess is that they just don't have the staff.

Friends of 35 folks can probably shed more light on these museums. Check their website too. As a matter of fact the link we have for Lindenhurst brings you to the write up that Friends of 35 has on their website since Lindenhurst doesn't have their own spot on the world wide web

RPM2Night wrote:Dave, would it be possible for you to post a picture of the station/museum and a picture of the heavyweight car? Thanks!

Go to my LIRR Parlor Cars website and look at the following page

http://www.mindspring.com/~jhdeasy/lirr ... a2000.html

Scroll down to the last 3 photos on the page.

In addition, you can visit http://www.wantagh.li/museum

Dave Keller wrote: ... the old heavyweight observation is the last of the old LIRR heavyweights still around.

Dave Keller

This is not an accurate statement, Dave.

Several of the LIRR heavyweight parlor car fleet remain in existence today. In addition to LIRR 2000 JAMAICA "stuffed and mounted" at the Wantagh Museum ...

LIRR 2002 is "stuffed and mounted" in Manchester, MI.

LIRR 2003 SOUTH SHORE is in the collection of the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati at Covington, KY.

LIRR 2004 SYOSSET is stored on the New Hope and Ivyland at New Hope, PA.

LIRR 2037 TUSCARORA CLUB is "stuffed and mounted" in Marietta, GA.

LIRR 2038 SETAUKET is privately owned in Minerva, OH.


LIRR Parlor Cars website
http://www.mindspring.com/~jhdeasy/lirr

Hi Jack:

I meant around on LI. It's the last of the heavyweights left on LI.

Guess I should have expanded my sentence. After all, I knew what I meant!

Dave Keller