PHILLIPSBURG 150th ANNIVERSARY
JUNE 4, 2011
Greetings all !

The town of Phillipsburg NJ was celebrating its 150th Anniversary this week culminating today with a parade from the High School down to N. Main Street, through Union Square then along S.Main past the Civil War Memorial in Shappel Park. In our (Phillipsburg Railroad Historians) continuing support of town activities we opened at 10 this morning and operated the Centerville and Southwestern miniature Railroad. Our great friends in the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society also came, moved their Public Service Electric Trolley 2651 out of the car shop and give guided tours to our visiting guests. Below are several photo's of the days activities.

PRRH President Paul Carpenito acting as conductor guides the C&S into the Cross Street Station with a train full of Boy Scout's brought by member Pat Graham.

Here Pat Graham speaks with engineer Bob Marinelli. BTW Pat is also certified to be at the throttle of the engine.

Bob ran the train most of the morning then PRRH Chief Mechanical Officer Glenn Terminelli took the throttle.

Glenn and Bob answer questions from one of our young guests and his dad.

The parade crossed the Kenneth "Red" Vandegrift Bridge (a.k.a. the Black Bridge) approaching Shappell Park. In this picture we can see Ron Titus has managed to get a hold of an old RR Signal Bridge. Also the PU tower sign is back in place. It's amazing what Ron has done with the tower in a few short years.

Among the groups taking part in the parade were 2 Mummer String Bands from Philadelphia. Unfortunately it started to rain just as the parade got to Shappell Park so to protect my camera I lensed this from the Library of our museum building and missed most of the beginning of the parade.

Finally the rain subsided and I got out to S. Main street. A large contingent of local Fire and Ambulance Squads were represented in the parade. The parade was covered by Service Electric Cable TV, their mobile unit antenna can be seen in the background.

Here EMT/Paramedic Matt Winter (the son of PRRH Vice President Steve Winter) passes by.

The length of the line of First Responders passing through town was amazing.

That's it for this time.
Pete
Photos and narrative by Pete Blaess
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