LIRR donates simulator to railroad museum

The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum this week received a donated piece of equipment that should prove irresistible to all those who grew up wanting to be a train engineer.

The Long Island Rail Road on Tuesday turned over to the museum a simulator once used to train engineers to operate the now obsolete M-1 electric trains.

The museum, consisting of a historic brick LIRR station and adjacent rail yard in Oyster Bay hamlet, plans to restore the simulator so rail buffs and prospective engineers can try their hands at the throttle.

The simulator is the front end of an M-1 car containing the engineer's cab, front vestibule and passenger seats. It has all of the switches of a real M-1 cab plus a computer screen showing simulated track conditions. The simulator was used to train more than 200 engineers at the LIRR's Hillside facility from 1987 until the M-1 fleet was decommissioned in 2003.

Starting Saturday, visitors can sit in the simulator for free whenever the rail yard is open -- weekends from noon to 4 p.m. until October -- because it is not operating yet. A fee might be imposed after the restoration is complete, said museum chairman, Ben Jankowski, a former LIRR conductor.

But for now, visitors can sit in the cab, try their hand at the master controller or throttle, and fiddle with switches for lights, uncoupling cars, doors, and emergency stopping.

When it was used by the LIRR, the simulator also swayed and bounced to be more realistic, like an aircraft simulator. But that feature will not be available at the museum, Jankowski said.

The museum is also nearing completion of the restoration of the historic turntable used to reverse locomotives so they could make a trip west. Volunteers replaced the wooden ties under the tracks over the past two weekends. The rails that will be installed on top of the ties have been ordered, Jankowski said.

The museum still needs to arrange for electrification of the turntable. Probably by the fall, he said, it will be used to turn the museum's rolling stock and provide rides for visitors as the LIRR did for more than three decades during open houses.