C O N C E P T U A L D E S I G NB Y

85 MAIN STREET GREAT BARRINGTON MA 01230

tel: 413.528.3556 www.williamcaligari.com fax: 413.528.5104

graphic design and production by

MISSION STATEMENT

The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, Inc., is an all-volunteer not-for-profi t organization whose mission is to foster interest in the history of railroading in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts and beyond.

This mission is accomplished in part through the provision of safe, educational, and entertaining train rides between Lenox and Stockbridge. The revenues generated by these train rides, shall be used to maintain the station, equipment,

artifacts and exhibits.

To further this mission, the Museum shall collect, restore, preserve, operate and display railroad equipment and artifacts. The Museum shall provide a repository for artifacts and information of an edu-

cational and historic nature relating to the history of railroading in the

Berkshires.

History

The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, Inc is a not for profi t 501(c)(3) corporation established in 1984.

The Museum is located in a restored 1903 New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad station located in Lenox, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Museum’s restoration and preservation activ-ities are funded almost entirely through grants and donations, with revenues from the train operations covering most operating expenses and maintenance. The Museum is operated entirely with volunteer labor; there is no paid staff.

Goal

The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum desires to expand and enhance its “museum” aspect (as opposed to the “train ride” aspect) by developing a Master Plan with long-term goals designed to transform the museum into a premier railroad museum. The transformation will provide a destination for tourists and serious railroad historians alike and will benefi t the overall tourist industry in Berkshire County. The museum will focus on, but not be strictly limited to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad – the former railroad that owned our station and rail line.

The Master Plan calls for the construction of three new, historic replica structures and landscaping to return the area to an early 20th century confi guration. This will be accomplished in phases.

1 2

Photo realistic rendering of the proposed improvements to the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum complex. New buildings (from top) include an Engine House, Block Station, and Freight Station.

Phase I - Block Station

Construction of a replica “Block Station” – Yokun. Block stations were used in the days of the telegraph to stop trains and give them orders to proceed to the next block station or stay and wait for another train. They were critical to the safe and effi cient movement of trains in the era before modern signaling systems and radio communica-tion. Our block station will be a replica of Rising block station located 14 miles to the south of our museum in the village of Housatonic. As railroad block stations had to be named to be identifi able to trains, ours will be named “Yokun” in honor of the original name of Lenox – Yokuntown.

Not only will this structure be a museum exhibit , it will be a piece of “living history” as it will become an offi ce for our train crews to work out of. This will free space in our station for exhibits or proper storage of historic documents and artifacts.

We hope to construct this exhibit as soon as possible with locally donated materials and volunteer labor.

34

Phase III - Historic Restoration of Station Grounds

Identify funding to purchase adjoining property and building. Historically, the entire corner of Willow Creek Road and Housatonic Street was owned by the railroad for its passenger and freight stations. The museum would like to be able to purchase the neighboring property and level the building to allow the view and landscaping to be returned to its early 20th century appearance. This would present a breathtaking view of Woods Pond and October Mountain and would become a superb gateway to this wonderful recreation area for boating and hiking. In addition, this would allow us to work with the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area in promoting and fulfi lling their mission of exposing our youth to the rich heritage of our region.

This phase would be a benefi t not only to the museum, but would establish a recreation area that the town of Lenox and its residents could certainly be proud to show off to visitors.

ABOVE View of Woods Pond from the station, RIGHT satellite photo of Woods Pond and, BELOW Aerial photo of the station and adjacent property.

7 48

Phase IV - Freight Station

Construction of a replica Railroad Freight Station. Unlike the other two construction projects, this project will be a reconstruction of a building that was originally on this site and torn down. This will open a door to visitors that they may not know much about. Freight stations are the unsung, forgotten siblings to the passenger station. Our station will be based on the station that originally existed on this site and a remaining New Haven freight station locatedin Housatonic, Mass. In addition to telling the story of freight stations, and offering more exhibit space than we currently have in the passenger station, part of this building will serve as a library to store and preserve many historic documents that we have collected and will continue to collect. These documents can then be properly cataloged, preserved and accessed by anybody wishing to do research. This will be a very important addition to our museum.

Time line

We have no specifi c time frame for implementing the phases of our master plan. We will begin immediately and proceed as rapidly as we can. All of these projects are dependent on our ability to identify and secure the necessary funding. Where possible we will work on multiple phases concurrently so that we may realize these goals as quickly as possible to share them with our visitors and accomplish our mission.

109

Phase II - Engine House

Construction of a replica Engine Servicing Building. Engine servicing facili-ties were critical on the railroad for keeping the trains running. Just as the New Haven Railroad needed them, so too does the Berkshire Scenic Railway.

Currently all maintenance and restoration activities are done outdoors in the open, subject to weather conditions and limited to three seasons. Rather than build a modern building that would only serve the purpose of actual maintenance and restoration, we feel it would be more appropriate to build a historic replica so that visitors can experience railroading as it was and view our restoration projects underway.

This phase will be broken down into two parts. Funding will have to be secured for engineering; design and permitting in the fi rst part to then iden-tify the necessary funding needed to actually complete construction.