The Crusader “Preserving the Past for the Future”

June 2012

The Crusader RCT&HS 1

Ed Wiswesser Gives A Talk

at the RRHM

One of the current exhibits at the Reading

Railroad Heritage Museum features model trains

through the years. As a bonus, on June 15th a

special event was held with guest speaker Ed

Wiswesser a well known local scale modeler. The

photo below shows attendees gathering around Ed

for a question and answer period after a very

interesting lecture.

-Photo submitted by Paul Troutman.

From May 24 - 27 the RCT&HS modular

layout and sales groups set up in the Lauren Mall in

Hazelton, PA. The photos below submitted by John

Simkovich highlight this event.

Above: Various motive power at the engine facility

Below: A steam powered coal drag approaches a modern

recreation of Prescott interlocking near Lebanon, PA.

Below: Member Ryan Lamm packs up his models at the end

of the event.

The Crusader RCT&HS 2

JUNE 26th GENERAL MEETING President Duane Engle called the meeting to order at

7:36 p.m. there were 7 officers, and 42 members in attendance.

A motion to accept the May 2012 minutes as printed was made

by Larry Mundell and seconded by Bill Hodson. The motion

passed.

EXECUTIVE BOARD Duane Engle 610-929-5661 rcths.dengle@juno.com The June meeting of the BOD was held at 7PM on

June 5th at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in

Hamburg, PA. Topics of discussion and motions carried are as

follows:

Financial – Nothing discussed.

Museum – A motion was passed to spend up to $2750 to

weatherproof the newly exposed wall on the north side of

the RRHM. The board reviewed a proposal for electrical

work to be done to the museum exhibit hall. Carol Adams

presented a grant update.

Annual Committee Reports - The board listened to

annual reports from the following committees; Building,

Sales, Track and Grounds, Modular, Modeling,

Convention, MP&RE, and Long Range Planning.

Museum Property – 36 MP&RE propane tanks being

stored at the museum have been marked for scrap. Tim

Weidner reported that an Emergency Action Plan for the

remaining propane tanks is ready to go once a general

policy has been adopted. The board hopes to adopt this

policy at the next meeting. The Reading Berks Historic

Transportation Association has been contacted in regards

to the buses and other vehicles on the museum property.

We will be meeting with them to discuss the future plans

for their vehicles.

Mailing – A motion was passed to mail the Crusader

newsletter via bulk mail for a trial period.

Other Discussions– Silverliner #9001, HO scale Crusader

model, and installing a museum master key box. A motion

was passed to place a master key box at the museum

containing keys to all locks on the museum property.

Access to this box will be restricted to board members.

Executive Session – An executive session of the BOD was

held following the regular monthly meeting.

The next general meeting of the Executive Board is

scheduled for Friday, July 6th at the Railroad Museum of

Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA. BUDGET & FINANCE

John Brown 717-426-2238 JWBROWN929@AOL.COM

Thank you for your continuing support. Without your

donations, the Society's goals will not be reached.

TREASURER’S REPORT Jim Adams 610-777-3764 adamsjimca@comcast.net

A motion to refer the Treasurer’s Report to the

Finance Committee for audit and vote was made by Don

Crabtree and seconded by John Greene. The motion Passed.

The Crusader RCT&HS 3

SALES Duane Engle 610-929-5661 rcths.dengle@juno.com (for mail order questions contact Dave Heffner at 717-290-1493 daverj1@verizon.net) We have re-stocked many items in the store. We also

have some more new items to sell. Our next show is at the

Railroad Museum of PA in Strasburg July 3rd to July 8th with

set up being on July 2nd starting around 9 AM. Anyone

interested in helping, please contact me.

FUND RAISING COMMITTEE Mike Stehman mke90362@comcast.net The first annual capital campaign fund raising letters

are ready to be mailed next week.

We are looking for door prizes donations and volunteers for

the golf fund raiser on Oct. 13, 2012. We need about 10

people to help at the event.

MEMBERSHIP

Melanie Zimmerman 717-445-6301 rcths.membership@juno.com As of June 26 we have a total of 51 new members

and 777 renewals which brings us to a total membership of

828 for 2012. We had 910 members at this time last year.

Currently the membership breakdown is as follows: 558

Individual, Lifetime or Honorary, 96 Family, 107

Contributing, 48 Sustaining, 16 Corporate, and 3 Student

memberships.

Renewal postcards were mailed, several weeks ago,

to the 2011 members that have not renewed for 2012.

LONG RANGE PLANNING TASK FORCE Carol Adams 610-777-3764 adamsjimca@comcast.net The brick mortar pointing on the façade of the

Museum building has been completed. The Elm Street façade

grant will pay for half the $3200 cost of the repair.

The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum was

represented at the Southgate Community block party in

Hamburg on June 23. The Museum was the site of the

Hamburg Our Town Foundation business mixer on June 27.

Thank you to the volunteers who welcomed the local business

people that evening: Barb Goodridge, Greg Goodridge, Paul

Troutman, Fred Phillips, Mike Stehman, Jim and Carol

Adams.

The Greater Berks Convention and Visitors Bureau

continues to report the number of hits on their website during

which persons visit our site. That number ranges between 80

and 100 hits per month.

Don’t forget to check www.ShopforMuseums.org as

you shop online for end-of- summer specials and back to

school items at your favorite online stores. Many offer a

percentage of the sale to your favorite museum. Go to the

ShopforMuseums site, choose the Reading Railroad Heritage

Museum, then choose the store of your choice. Hundreds of

stores, hundreds of possibilities for supporting the Museum at

no extra cost to you – Amazon, Boscov’s, Blair, Kabela’s and

more.

Preservation Pennsylvania is offering educational

events about Museum topics at several places around the state.

Contact Carol Adams if you would like to learn more about

the topics. Cost is only $25 per session.

SITE DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE Tom Brown (717) 279 - 6783 mjtsbrown@comcast.net No report.

MUSEUM OPERATIONS/CURATORS REPORT

Dale Woodland 215-723-5848 RDG803@yahoo.com

Paul Troutman 610-926-4919 ptrout@epix.net Attendance at the museum has increased with the

publicity in the Reading Eagle covering our special exhibits.

Many visitors have commented positively on the quality of

the exhibits offered.

Dale met with Walt Schneider of the Hawk Mountain

Council of the Boy Scouts concerning the lack of involvement

with the Venture Scout troop at the museum. The troop will

be restructured with Walt being responsible for the organiza-

tion and formation. Our responsibility will be to offer

opportunities for the troop involvement and supervision of

such activities. Dale told Walt we will not be making a

monetary contribution until we see how the program

progresses. Walt mentioned we should not be sponsoring

more than two Merit Badge classes a year. We received our

annual anonymous donation toward supporting the Scout

Programs at the museum. July 14th a Cub Scout troop of eight

boys will be touring the museum at 11:15AM.

We are beginning to experience difficulty in getting

staffing for the museum on weekends.

The Hamburg Our Town Foundation is having a

mixer at the Museum on Wednesday June 27, 5:30-7 PM.

Paul Troutman, Jim and Carol Adams will host. MUSEUM BUILDING COMMITTEE

John Corbit 610-781-1939

We started prepping the north wall for weather-

proofing; a contractor will be brought in to complete the

project. We are also looking into replacing the street side

door to the museum exhibit hall. TRACK & GROUNDS Duane Engle 610-929-5661 rcths.dengle@juno.com

We continued with grass cutting, weed spraying and

general grounds clean up this past month as well as cleaning

up the former floor of the foundry building. The following

helped this month: Don Crabtree, Mike Nagy, Bill Sharman

and Duane and Rebecca Engle. We still need to address

removing the rebar and other metal from the areas that were

graded after the demolition work. The plans remove track in

the Catasauqua area are currently on hold due to property

sales. We need some additional help with the mowing right

now. Anyone that can help with any of this work, please

contact me.

MOTIVE POWER AND ROLLING EQUIPMENT

Tim Weidner 610-780-0497 No report.

PASSENGER OPERATIONS Dale Woodland 215-723-5848 RDG803@yahoo.com The display agreement for the FP7’s at Steamtown is

effective until September 30, 2012, this coincides with the end

of their fiscal year calendar.

ACQUISITIONS Steve Schwartz 610-434-1289 schwartzsj@juno.com No report. SAFETY Duane Brisco has resigned as chairman of this

committee. Therefore, we need a ne chairman. If you are

interested please contact any board member. ARCHIVES / PUBLICATIONS / CALENDAR Rick Bates 610-647-9359 rbates261@verizon.net

Archives

Thanks to the following for recent donations to the

Archives and Museum: a large box of photos, drawings and

documents from Bob Gottschall; an article on the Silverliner

II farewell trip, sent in by Alfred Gaus; some RdgCo

paperwork from Bill Bubeck and from John Greene; from

Larry Keller, a bus driver uniform and some old timetables

once used by his late uncle Noah Nase, a Reading

Transportation Co. driver; and finally some more books and

magazines from Paul Kutta. We continue to handle a number

of inquiries for historical information about the Reading, and

lately we’ve had an average of one researcher visit per week

to the Archives. We thank John Green for handling some of

these visitors. Archives sorting continues on a time-available

basis; Tim Weidner, Monica Willet, and Steve Gilbert assisted

in some drawings sorting.

Publications

Will get back to Bee Line work now that the calendar

is done. Some good articles have been received recently.

Calendar

The Year 2013 calendar should be done for the

Strasburg show. Watch for a flyer in a future news letter and

please contact the Sales Committee to purchase calendars.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Looking for a chairman. MAILING

Ken Riegel 610-777-4555

The Crusader was mailed on June 15th via bulk mail.

Members reported receiving the newsletter on the following

Monday. MODULAR Jonathan Barket 570-366-1533 jono1920@aol.com

Set up for Strasburg in on Monday July 2nd at 10AM.

Plans are to be 140 feet long. MODELING -John Greene 215-721-3006 greene@netcarrier.com

Nothing to report. TRAIN MEET Chuck Race 610-777-2053 No report.

The Crusader RCT&HS 4

CONVENTION COMMITTEE

John Greene 215-721-3006 jgreene@netcarrier.com

The next convention will be April 6, 2013.

WEBSITE AND CORRESPONDENCE

Norman O. Mueller 610-446-6651 rcths.questions@verizon.net Mike Sakal 610-777-3268 msakal@comcast.net No report.

ENTERTAINMENT

Dale Woodland (215) 723-5848 RDG803@yahoo.com Tonight Paul Kutta “The NYO&W, July –

Digitally enhanced 8mm films “Eastern Steam 1935-37”,

August – Sam Herb “Railroads in Kuala Lumpur” ,

September – Paul Kutta “ Cuban Railroads”, October – Dale

Woodland “The Reading in Philadelphia” , November –

“Train Accidents and the Nickel Plate Story” by Tom

Poserina, December – Dale Woodland “Diesels Down

Under” .

OLD BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

Dale Woodland Reports – First, Reading #9010 will be

the last SEPTA Silverliner II to be retired. The car was

built in 1963 and will be out of service by the end of the

June. Second, Trains magazine is doing a special issue

on the heritage units and the Reading unit is on the

cover. Last, the North Carolina Transportation Museum

in Spencer, NC is expecting 5,000 – 10,000 people and

we will have an information table at the event.

Kent Herzer reported that a bridge which carries Rt. 272

over the former R&C branch near Ephrata is being

replaced. A box culvert will then be installed to allow

the construction of a bike trail connecting Ephrata with

Lititz on the R&C ROW. Local officials are hoping

have the trial open by 2016. Kent continued stating that

the former Reading freight station in Lititz was

scheduled to be demolished by Norfolk Southern by the

end of June. Fortunately, it has been saved for now by

the Borough of Lititz so that they can take a look at it. If

the building proves to be structurally sound, NS is inter-

ested in leasing the property to the borough or another

interested party.

Mike Stehman reported that the member’s web site is

down again.

Karen Confer reported that she and Charlie will have a

display at the Lansdale Founders Day on August 25th.

Dale Woodland reported that the New Hope and Ivyland

RR will operate a steam special to support the

Southampton Railroad Station Society.

Don Crabtree announced that the A5a parade engine will

be in Southampton for the 4th and will also make an

appearance in Lansdale.

Tonight’s coal bucket included $159 and 13 envelopes.

As a reminder, 10% of the cash collected in the bucket

goes into the endowment fund which is the only source

of money for the fund. The rest goes into the museum

fund.

CLOSING

Larry Mundell made a motion to adjourn the

meeting and Dale Woodland seconded the motion. The

motion passed and President Duane Engle adjourned the

meeting at 8:29PM.

The Crusader RCT&HS 5

Hamburg Museum Track Fund

Receipts Current Month: June, 2012 = $25.00

Total: May 2007 thru June, 2012 = $30,794.70

Payments Current Month: June, 2012 = $0.00

Total: May 2007 thru June, 2012 = $23,196.15

Current Fund Balance = $7,598.55

Pay Down the Loan Program

Receipts Current Month: June, 2012 = $1,176.00

Total: Nov, 2010 thru June, 2012 = $18,802.22

Payments Current Month: June, 2012 = $1117.35

Total: Nov, 2010 thru June, 2012 = $18,800.00

Outstanding Balance = $78,200.00

In the News

Editor’s Notes

If you have a camera and attend an RCT&HS event

or are able to document news items related to the

Reading Railroad, I am looking for you. Please feel

free to send photos along with a small description of

the event or interesting news item. Photos not used

in the Crusader may be used on our web site. Thank

you.

Jeff Smith

649 Hamaker Road, Manheim, PA 17545

rcths.jsmith@dejazzd.com 717-665-9311

RCT&HS Corporate Members

Russell & Julia Angstadt; Bethlehem Car Works,

John Greene, CEO, Telford, PA (215) 721-3006; C&C

Tax Service, Inc., 842 Lancaster Ave., Reading, PA

(610) 796-9330; Centralia Coal Sales Co. ,Wilkes-

Barre, PA (570) 822-4135; Municipal & Financial

Services Group, Annapolis, MD (410) 226-910;

G&K Hobbies, Bill Krug CEO, Reading, PA (610)

374-8598; Health Insurance Solutions, Inc., Tom

and Nanette Poserina, Health Brokers (215) 721-

2220; “It’s All the Rage” Hair Designs, In memory

of Charles W. Moyer, Jr., 1213 Penn Ave., Wyomiss-

ing, PA (610) 375-0816; Jonathan L. Shalter III,

Conservationist-Naturalist-Historian, Temple, PA;

Lancaster Chapter, NRHS, Christiana, PA (610) 593

-4968; Outer Station Project, Benjamin Bernhart,

historian, author, publisher; PENNVIA Private Rail-

cars, Inc., Passenger Dome car charters in the US and

Canada, West Lawn, PA (610) 678-3604; R. Harris

Russo, MD, Neurological Surgery, Kalamazoo, MI

(269) 343-3939; Rabenold, Koestel, and Scheidt,

Attorneys at Law, Wyomissing, PA (610) 374-2103;

Rack Ability, Inc., 332 N Reading Rd, Ephrata,

PA 17522 (717) 917-7403; Reading and Northern

Railroad, Co., Andy Muller Jr., CEO, Port Clinton,

PA (610) 562-2100; Reading Berks Historic Trans-

portation Assoc., Inc., 842 Lancaster Avenue, Read-

ing, PA; Security First Inc., Security, access control,

surveillance systems, 107 W. Lancaster Ave., Shilling-

ton PA (610) 777-8890; Stackhouse Bensinger Inc.;

Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Land Plan-

ning Services, Traffic and Planning Engineering,

Storm Water Infiltration, Municipal Engineering, Sur-

veying/GPS, and Recreation Planning & Design. Sink-

ing Spring, PA (610) 777-8000; Town & Country

Newspaper, Pennsburg PA, (215) 679-5060

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, a member-

supported special collections library, is currently running a

special exhibit of the train designs of Paul P. Cret. Although

more famous as an architect, Cret also styled many trains

built by the Budd Company from 1933 through 1945,

including the Reading Railroad’s “Crusader”. The

Athenaeum is located at 219 S. 6th Street in Philadelphia,

about a block south of Independence Hall. The exhibit runs

through August 24, 2012, weekday hours are 9 AM to 5 PM.

www.readingrailroad.org

Mark Your Calendars

July 24: General Meeting of the RCT&HS at Trinity Bible Fellowship

Church, Rt. 73, Blandon, PA

October 7: RCT&HS Train Meet, Leesport, PA

Save your Redner’s Tapes

RCT&HS Year 2013

Reading Railroad Calendar “Photos by David C. Augsburger”

The RCT&HS Year 2013 railroad calendar is now available, and this time features thirteen excellent Reading Railroad pictures taken

by noted photographer Dave Augsburger. Dave’s work is well known among fans of the anthracite railroads, and his photos have

been included in countless books and articles. Our 2013 calendar has eight color pictures and five black & white pictures at the

locations of Allentown, Birdsboro, Black Rock, Darby Creek, Emmaus, Exton, Gardners, Hopewell, Port Richmond, Quakertown, and

Shamokin. Each picture has a detailed caption, plus the calendar pages include dates of events both important and obscure in Reading

Railroad history. The 2013 calendar opens to an 11” by 17” size, and is wire-bound and printed on high quality glossy paper. Net

proceeds from sales of this calendar benefit our ongoing projects to preserve equipment and artifacts from the former Reading

Railroad. Please order soon so as not to miss out on a full year’s enjoyment of these vintage scenes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PLEASE USE THIS HANDY FORM TO ORDER YOUR 2013 CALENDAR TODAY!

Member Price for PA resident (sales tax included) ____ copies @ $11.45 ea $________

Member Price for out-of-state residents ____ copies @ $10.80 ea $________

Non-Member Price for PA resident (sales tax included) ____ copies @ $12.72 ea $________

Non-Member Price for out-of-state residents ____ copies @ $12.00 ea $________

Shipping & Handling ____ copies @ $2.25 ea $________

TOTAL (Please make check or M.O. payable to R.C.T.&H.S.) $________

If paying by credit card, please check one: ( ) VISA ( ) MC ( ) Discover

Card Number: ____________ - ____________ - ____________ - ___________

Expiration Date: _______/_______ 3 digit security code (back of card) _______

Ship to: Name __________________________________________________________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

City _________________________________________ State _______ Zip __________

Please print your information clearly SEND TO: RCT&HS P.O. Box 15143 Reading, PA 19612-5143

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Thanks for your support!