A youngster observes the mystery of Lehigh Valley Railroad crane No. 96532 in Sayre in this undated photograph. “Growing up on the LVRR” is the subject of a special presentation on Saturday, June 25 at the Sayre Historical Society’s Annual Caboose Day.
Guest speaker Danny Armitage will highlight the annual Caboose Day festivities at the Sayre Historical Society on Saturday, June 25.
Special displays, tours of the 1941 Sayre-built Lehigh Valley Railroad caboose and a new Lehigh Valley Railroad print by artist James Mann will be part of the day’s offerings. The event is free to the public and runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donations will be accepted.
The exhibit “Sayre at 125,” highlighting the notable milestones in Sayre’s 125 years as a borough, will run until September 1 in the museum’s Rotating Exhibit Room.
“The Kid from Freeville /Growing up on the Lehigh Valley Railroad” will begin at 1 p.m. with a first-person account of life spent around the railroad in upstate New York by Danny Armitage.
“I grew up in Freeville, N.Y., where two branches of the Lehigh Valley Railroad crossed,” said Armitage. “From the age of five, I hung out at the freight station behind my house getting to know all of the trainmen. This led to an unusual childhood of literally growing up on the railroad.”
The Marathon, N.Y. resident has a unique perspective on the railroad.
“From 1963 until the mid-1980’s, I rode the locomotives and cabooses over 400 times and was accepted by the crews as one of their own,” he recalled. “For 26 years I resided in the Ovid area and worked for 30 years at the Willard Psychiatric Center and Willard Drug Treatment Center. This afforded me time to study both the Willard Asylum and US Army Depot railroads.”
Armitage’s program consists of a lecture and slide presentation. He has presented his program all over central New York covering the people and operations of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The program will be held in the Henry Farley Community Meeting Room on the second floor of the museum, located in the historic Lehigh Valley Railroad station in downtown Sayre. The museum building is elevator equipped and handicap accessible.
In the Burkhart Gift Shop, the newest item for sale is a watercolor print by artist James Mann of Coopersburg, Pa. The illustration shows Lehigh Valley Railroad C-420 diesel locomotive No. 414 in the Sayre yards opposite the railroad station.
Mann is a member of the American Society of Railway Artists.
The Sayre Historical Society is a non-profit museum supported by members, staffed by volunteers and a recipient of United Way funding.
In 2015, the organization received the Clement F. Heverly Outstanding Service Award from the Bradford County Historical Society.
