• Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc.Neighbor

  • Wayne, NJ
  • Website

The Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the preservation of New Jersey's rich railroad heritage. Its membership is roughly 150, with a majority residing in Morris, Sussex, and Passaic counties. Tri-State is also a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS), which boasts over 22,000 members nationwide in over 170 local chapters.

Tri-State is one of the area's largest and most active railroad historical societies. Its activities include operating excursions over area railroads, publishing books about local railroad history and restoring railroad equipment - such as the L&NE, DL&W, RRRR, and ERIE cabooses that are currently stored in the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey (URHS) Boonton Yard.

Tri-State is also a charter member of the URHS, a group of delegates from each of the area's railroad historical societies. This group acts as liaison to the State of New Jersey and NJ Transit (NJT) with the goal of establishing a state transportation museum.

Tri-State's origins date to 1964, with a few members meeting in a railroad freight house. The society grew to become the largest NRHS chapter in the late 1970s, and its activities often broke new ground among similar groups. Tri-State was the first in the area to preserve a working locomotive, Lackawanna F3 #663, which is housed at Steamtown National Historical Site in Scranton, PA and used by the National Park Service to pull excursion trains.

Tri-State hold monthly membership meetings at the Morris Museum's Bickford Theatre in Morristown, NJ. Meetings include a business section followed by about an hour of railroad-oriented entertainment - usually slideshows or movies. All visitors (members and non-members) are welcome.

Tri-State was the first in the area to identify and procure equipment significant to New Jersey railroad history before it succumbed to attrition. The collection includes a Lackawanna baggage car and cabooses from the Lackawanna, Raritan River, Erie, and Lehigh & New England railroads.

Tri-State volunteers have restored the DL&W, RRRR, and L&NE cabooses, as well as the DL&W baggage car. Current restoration projects include Erie caboose No. C330 and a CNJ boxcar owned by the URHS. The restored Tri-State cabooses are used periodically during the year for excursions throughout New Jersey. We also sponsor an annual Santa Claus train in December originating in Wayne, NJ, which is staffed primarily by volunteers and, of course, Santa.

http://www.tristaterail.org/about/

Posting Activity

Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc. currently has no active events