Almost thirty years ago, Rob Piecuch thought it would be a good idea if the Elmira area had its own organization dedicated to railway history. He says he got the idea after visiting Steamtown in Scranton.

“Nobody in Elmira was doing anything at the time,” he says, but there was a city official who had the same idea. One thing led to another, as things often do, and the Chemung Valley Railway Historical Society came into being. After a few bumps in the road, or maybe twists in the ties, the group has “kind of settled into a pretty good structure now.”

“There’s a core group keeping things running,” Rob says. So much so that CVRHS, held in conjunction with the Eldridge Park Carousel Preservation Society, is having its third Train Day on May 24 at Eldridge Park, 96 Eldridge Park Road, Elmira. It’s a free event, Rob points out, one the whole family can attend. It will include vendors, food trucks, miniature train rides, model train displays, and local historical society exhibits.

“The Horseheads Historical Society is not the only museum that will participate in the Train Day,” says Eva Nelson, a self-described train history enthusiast and a member of CVRHS. “We are planning on bringing Erin’s, Big Flats’ [historical societies], and, of course, Chemung County Historical Society.”

She characterizes CVRHS as “a group of train fanatics, but not the Norfolk-Southern/Conrail kind. We love history, and the Northern Tier and Southern Tier used to have quite impressive number of rail lines.

“Some are still operational, like the (former) Erie that runs through Elmira. Other ones, like the recently ripped up Tioga Central, met their demise for various reasons, covid being the nadir of the tourist Wellsboro line. CVRHS is doing our best to preserve the history of the railroads that are no longer with us.”

Norfolk-Southern is still a part of Train Day since one of the displays is a boxcar that, in its former life, belonged to that line.

“It was donated to us in 2006 from Norfolk and Southern,” Rob says. “It was in their railyard in Elmira. It’s a very rare car. We saved it at the eleventh hour, and then had to work to find a place to put it.”

That place ended up being Eldridge Park.

“It needed a lot of work,” he continues. “We’ve been gradually restoring it as close to the original as we can get.”

Climb on board at noon, and you’ve got until 6 p.m. to enjoy the festivities.

“We hope that the weather cooperates,” Eva says. “Last year everyone went home early because of a downpour—it was bad. We are hoping that many kids of all ages will attend our event and leave happy, with lots of exciting things to talk about. We’d love our Train Day to become a force to be reckoned with.”

Train fanatics are welcome to contact Rob at [email protected] or visit CVRHS on Facebook.

“There is some big planning going on,” he says.