Oyster Bay museum continues train project

Restorations are chugging right along at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum.

Students from the Joseph M. Barry Career and Technical Educational Center in Westbury were at the museum’s train yard Saturday, welding and grinding pieces of a 1920s Ping Pong passenger car. Accompanying them was a group of volunteers that was focused on getting the museum's turntable, which was used to turn around locomotives, ready for operation.

"We're replacing the ties on the turntable . . . " museum trustee Gary Farkash said, referring to wooden blocks responsible for holding tracks and supporting the weight of a locomotive. "You can't take the chance of any one of them cracking. We can't take a chance with safety."

The ties being replaced were original to the turntable, which dates back to 1904. Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Chairman Ben Jankowski hopes that the museum will be able to turn Locomotive 35, a steam engine locomotive also being repaired by the museum, on the turntable as an educational exercise for museum visitors.

The students from Barry Tech focused on locating and repairing all of the leaks in the Ping Pong car. Repairs to Locomotive 35 and the passenger car do not yet have a deadline. The turntable is expected to be operational at some point during the spring.

Pictured above: Students from the Joseph M. Barry Career and Technical Educational Center in Westbury and volunteers work on a restoration project at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum. (March 12, 2011)