Family Day: CT Eastern Railroad Museum

Started the day off with lunch at Cinco de Mayo (not my fav mx establishment) and then ventured over to the RR Museum.

The museum is in an odd location and wasn't what I had expected. It is all outdoors..... and there are a ton of bugs. The museum houses buildings, coaches, cars, a turn table, and a roundhouse.

Columbia Junction Roundhouse
The Columbia Junction Roundhouse was completed in November 1892 and was used for servicing and repairing steam engines. It is believed that the roundhouse was razed during the later 1920’s or early 1930’s and the remaining walls were bulldozed into the six pits inside the roundhouse. In 1991, work began on clearing the roundhouse site of trees, brush and debris. Plans for a new roundhouse were drawn up using the original plans as a guide. The shell of the new roundhouse building was completed in August 2000 on the original foundation. The doors have been installed and a brick paver floor is being laid. For a donation, people can have a paver inscribed and placed in the floor. Windows will be installed in the near future and the roundhouse will be used to store and display equipment.

Jakob "driving" EMD FL9
This dual-mode FL9 was built for the New Haven Railroad in November 1960 at General Motor's Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and assigned road number 2057. It was rebuilt by the Chrome Locomotive Companyin Silvas, IL in 1985 at which time it was renumbered as #2023, and served both Connecticut and New York until retired from service in September 2002. It was donated to the museum by the Connecticut DOT Office of Rail and arrived at the museum on February 7, 2003 with help from the Providence & Worcester and New England Central railroads. The dual-mode FL9 operates normally in diesel-electric mode but converts to electified operation while in motion by lowering a shoe which makes contact with an energized third rail. At that time the diesel engine is shut down and the electric motors take over, a transition that occurs so smoothly that passengers are not even aware that it has taken place. On the New Haven Railroad, the changeover to electric operation occured when approaching New York City in the area of Woodlawn, NY. When leaving the city, the third rail shoes were raised and the diesel engines took over.