Museum exhibit features 150 years of railroad history 

Calling all train enthusiasts and history buffs, the Tioga County Historical Society and Museum, and in partnership with the Susquehanna Valley Railway Historical Society, is hosting a “Historic Railroads of the Southern Tier” exhibit highlighting 150 years of railroading.

The exhibit runs from May 15 through Sept. 18, 2021, and covers the region of Broome, Tioga, Tompkins, Chemung, Chenango, Cayuga, Schuyler and Steuben Counties.

The DL&W Owego Station sign, once adorning one end of a train station building until 1957, welcomes visitors at the entrance of one of two rooms filled with railroad memorabilia.  

Featured at the exhibit are a multitude of rare photos of early railroad locomotives and equipment, along with a full train display and several maps that encompass Tioga County’s Railroad depots and other sites. Marketing materials that encouraged the public to ride passenger trains are fun to view, and then an artist’s rendition of the first horse-drawn trains on the Ithaca & Owego Railroad, circa 1840, takes visitors back to railroading’s early days.    

Familiar railroad names like Lackawanna, Erie, Lehigh Valley, Southern Central, Ithaca & Owego and more, and then well-known train names like the Black Diamond Express and Phoebe Snow, along with other notables like Colonel Welles and Old Puff, are all part of the display.

Visitors will find familiar people mentioned at the exhibit as well, such as James Pumpelly who served as President of the Ithaca & Owego Railroad for several years. Frank M. Baker, the donor of the Firemen’s Memorial Fountain in Owego’s Courthouse Square, was a huge contributor to railroading history. Baker started as a young clerk at Owego’s Erie Railroad depot in 1864, and retired in 1907 after a long-term role with the New York State Railroad Commission.

From ticket stubs to conductor uniforms, and then railroad lanterns and switch lamps, to Owego’s “OG” Tower lever, an interlocking control device used for railroad traffic back-in-the-day, the exhibit houses a number of fascinating artifacts.

Grabbing the attention of visitors, too, are the “message fork” and “quay hoop,” a creative method used to pass written orders to crews of moving trains. Station agents placed papers in the fork or hoop, and held them out for train personnel to grab as they sped by.

The historical society’s Executive Director, Scott MacDonald, noted that Southern Central Railroad bond certificates on display are significant in that they are part of the museum’s collection. About half of the items on display, MacDonald said, belong to the Susquehanna Valley Railway Historical Society’s collection.  

MacDonald is pleased that live presentations about the people, places, trains, buildings and bridges of the past 150 years of railroad history will take place on June 26, Aug. 14, and Sept. 11. 

Two musical performances by “Ridin’ the Rails” are planned for July 10 at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door. The shows will be held outside near the Susquehanna River.

Contact the museum with questions at (607) 687-2460, or by email at museum@tiogahistory.org. You can also visit them on the web at www.tiogahistory.org.

The museum is located at 110 Front St. in historic downtown Owego. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.