Nothing substantial, other than a new mail box, has been happening at the depot these last two months, however, the Depot Crew still meets on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 till noon. Our time has been spent in meetings for the projects and fund raisers we will be having for 2017. |
Our schedule so far this year: • We will continue to provide a place for the Native Offerings Co-op farm market which is held at the depot on Tuesdays afternoons from 3 to 6. • The Orchard Park Garden Club will have its annual plant sale on May 20th at the depot and they may have a flower show at the depot on • August 26th, details for that show have not been finalized yet. • The Orchard Park Depot Crew will have its first annual "Touch a Truck" fund raiser on Sunday July 2nd. • The Village of Orchard Park will have its annual Ice Cream Social at the depot on Friday July 28th. • The Orchard Park Depot Crew will have its annual chicken BBQ on Sunday August 20th. • The Village of Orchard Park is tentatively scheduled to host its second annual Octoberfest at the depot in early October. • And the Village of Orchard Park is scheduled to hold its annual Holiday in the Park at the depot on Saturday December 2nd. The BR&P caboose still needs roof repairs. That will be our top priority when it comes to major projects. We also will be getting an estimate on repairing the Southeast corner of the passenger station. The bricks in that area are loose and are ready to fall off of the building. Come join us Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 to noon at the Orchard Park Railroad Depot. Our phone number is 716-662-7002. |
Much of our inside work has been devoted to our July 2nd, 2017 "Touch A Truck" fund raiser. We have been in the planning stages for several meetings now and will be until the event happens. So far we have secured a good assortment of vehicles, food trucks and "WestHerr Automotive Group™" is our corporate sponsor. Much has been accomplished but there is still plenty of work left to do. Click the image for a full size print and read our "Press Release" here for a complete list of all the trucks you will see at the Depot. Or visit our "OP Depot Facebook" page for a video of our Depot Chairman, Bob Snyder describing the event. |
Thank you to all of the society members who have donated funds to help us maintain and restore the Orchard Park Depot. Recently one of our hardest working Crew members personally donated the funds to replace the mechanical light timer for the passenger station with a new digital electronic device. No more having to reset the timer due to a power outage or because of daylight savings time. He then installed it as part of the deal. Thanks to our own Bob Reynders for another one of his most appreciated projects. |
master electrician Bob Reynders with help from Dave Mallory, Gary Ludwig, Jim Slominski and Duane Warchocki. |
On May 24th Duane, Jim, Alex and myself replaced one of the old depot signs with a new one. Duane had two signs made up and the second one went up on June 10th. |
out on Orchard Parks main drag, Buffalo Street..., the work never ends. |
The Orchard Park Department of Public Works fenced in the show field for us and provided us with their village snowplow. Orchard Fresh provided doughnuts and the Orchard Park Bee printed a great news story about the event. Olaf Fub in the Buffalo News wrote about us in his Friday June 30th edition of the paper. |
The event was a huge success. The weather co-operated and by the end of the first two hours over one thousand people had paid $5 each to view the trucks. The list of trucks included an Orchard Park fire truck, an Orchard Park police cruiser, a United Materials pink concrete mixer, Rusiniak's Recovery Service sent a huge tow truck, a new NFTA metro bus, a semi-tractor trailer truck, the Buffalo Public Library book mobile, two motor homes, a Dave's Express Delivery box truck, a high railer and a Tom Greenauer Development dump truck. Also on displayed were three antique trucks a child's pedal truck and three food trucks provided a choice of good things to eat. |
August 17th, 2017 was a great day for the Orchard Park BR&P Depot! Senator Chris Jacobs announced today that he had secured a $150,000 grant to assist with the restoration and structural improvements to the trackside waiting platform. The brick platform base will be taken up, curbing will be reinstalled, drainage lines installed, the foundation for wood columns and the columns will be replaced and the brick will be reinstalled. The total project is estimated to be approximately $300,000 and will begin this year. With this grant, plus committed pledged of funding, over two-thirds of the required funds have already been raised to complete the restoration project to this historic building. Along with Senator Jacobs, the Orchard Park Town Supervisor Patrick Keem and Village of Orchard Park Mayor Jo Ann Litwin Clinton joined us to celebrate the grant award. Our Depot Committee Co-Chairman Jim Slominski accepted the ceremonial check on behalf of the Society. Jim also expressed his upmost thanks to Orchard Park Village Trustee Fran Hogenkamp for his active support of the depot. Fran has been a great benefactor to the depot and the major fundraising arm of the depot committee. Fran has donated $50,000 towards the project himself and is working hard to secure the rest of the funding required. He currently has pledges for an additional $40,000 in support of the restoration. It also was Fran who initially contacted Senator Jacobs office to get the ball rolling for this grant. The BR&P Depot, built in 1911, is listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places, and has been owned by the WNYRHS Inc. since 1990. It was the setting for a scene filmed in in summer of 2016 for the movie "Marshall," the courtroom thriller about a case involving Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice. |
On August 20th we held our annual chicken Bar-B-Que at the depot. The weather was perfect and so were the dinners. Wendel's does our chickens and this year's order of 240 dinners sold out in record time. We started selling at eleven and were finished at eight minutes after one. That beat last year's record by seven minutes. |
The movie "Marshall" is now showing at movie theaters in our area. I saw it on a Tuesday, November 24th at the Walden Galleria theaters and enjoyed every minute of it. It's a good movie. The acting is superb and the photography is stunning. Not only did I see my cars in the movie (don't blink when they're on or you'll miss them) but our Orchard Park Depot is shown in the movie several times. The depot segments are on long enough to really appreciate what you are seeing. There are track side scenes, interior scenes and street side scenes. The Whites only drinking fountain scene is in there but so are several others. In a track side scene you may notice an actor at the agent's desk as you look through the bay window, our mannequin didn't make the cut. In another scene a walk on |
Congratulations to the Orchard Park Depot Crew for prepping the depot for the movie and especially to Jim Slominski for his work the day the movie was shot. Jim played a crucial role during the filming. A special effects crew was in the depot using a smoke machine to add atmosphere to an important scene when Jim realized we might be in trouble. Nobody expected smoke in the depot as part of the action. The smoke would have set off the silent smoke alarm and the fire department would have shown up to put out a suspected fire. What a mess that would have been. Thank you Jim. |
Coming up in no time at all will be our Greater Buffalo Train and Toy Show on November 18th and 19th. Our crew will be there maning the Society table and answering questions. After the Train Show, we will host "Holiday in the Park" on December 2nd. As always, there will be tree decorating, a parade, dancing and a visit from Santa! This year the time will be again from 12:00pm until 3:00pm and the Depot will be open to visit. |
Work sessions will continue every Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 9 to noon. Anyone interested in spending some time at the depot please call our number, 662-7002, and let us know you are coming. |
The big end of the year event for the depot was "Holiday in the Park" organized by the "Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce." This was the second year that the event was held during the day on December 2nd under 44' skies. The event started at 12:00 noon with a parade complete with the OP High School marching band, fire trucks and Santa and Mrs. Claus arriving in a wagon pulled by two horses. |
In addition to Santa and Mrs Claus arriving at the Orchard Park Depot, there was a Tree Lighting at 3:00pm, dance performances at the DPW by Mary Alice Dance Studio, face painting and more! The depot was used for visiting Santa and Mrs. Claus, the DPW (department of Public Works) building was used for food service and entertainment while the library was used for craft activities. Our O scale layout ran continuously during the event to the delight of all of those coming to visit Santa. Thanks go out to Spencer Trank for operating the trains and to all of the "Depot Crew" for their efforts. Bob Snyder and Colleen Baker from the OPCC captured just some of the fun in the photos below. |
Society president Joe Kocsis stopped by the Depot December 12th, after a very successful fundraising event for the depot that was put together by the Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce." The goal of the fundraiser was to match the grants |
that have been made to repair the 7,000 square feet of brick platform and the 28 roof supports. The estimated cost of the repairs is just over $500,000. Society member Geno Dailey captured a couple of beautiful night photos of the park Christmas Tree. |
Anyone visiting the Orchard Park Depot over the last few years has undoubtedly noticed the significant deterioration of the Depot's trackside platform. Much of the platform's brick work has moved away from the building and crumbled. The support columns have rotted at their bases and moved causing the platform roof to acquire a distinctive "wave". This deterioration has seriously compromised the overall structural integrity of the Depot. Recognizing the safety issues that this deterioration has created, the OP Depot Committee has embarked upon a major fundraising drive to help reconstruct the Depot. Reconstruction of the platform is a multi-faceted project. The old brick must be removed and replaced with new similar brick. Prior to the reinstallation of the brick, the land must be regraded; a new drainage system installed and the original curbing that held the brick in place must be reconstructed. In addition, the platform columns and their foundations must be replaced. All of this work is beyond the capability of the OP Depot Committee, and consequently must be done by outside contractors. Cost estimates to do this work are in the $500,000.00+ range. The Depot Committee's initial fundraising efforts have centered on securing grant money and donations from local community leaders. Next year, the Committee will extend its fundraising efforts to the general public. The Committee hopes to start the reconstruction of the platform in late spring or early summer of 2018. So far Senator Chris Jacobs has secured a $150,000 grant, a $40,000 grant from former NYS Assemblyman Mickey Kearns and $5,000 from Legislator John Mills. With the funds raised tonight, nearly $105,000 in private matching donations have been raised through the very generous efforts of Fran Hogenkamp, an Orchard Park Village Trustee. We're 75% towards the goal and very hopeful that we will reach our goal in the coming months. With the noted funding, the Depot Committee will start the reconstruction process by first replacing the support columns. The balance of the work will proceed as funding permits. If you would like to help in this reconstruction process, please send checks to the WNYRHS, noting that the money is intended for the OP Depot Reconstruction Fund. |
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