Phillipsburg Railroad Historians

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Phillipsburg Railroad Historians Local history museum and operator of the historical Centerville & Southwestern miniature railroad. Located at 10 Pine Alley, Phillipsburg, NJ. All aboard!

PRRH is a nonprofit, all-volunteer group of rail-interested folks whose mission is to preserve the rich railroad history of the Phillipsburg area. We maintain a collection of full-sized railroad artifacts significant to Phillipsburg and the local railroad industry. Recently we were recognized for the full restoration of Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad caboose #18, a historic WWII-era railroad caboose. (https://www.wfmz.com/news/piece-of-restored-wwii-history-chugs-into-phillipsburg/article_8f3887cf-7ca7-51fb-b0b0-3a2071dfe3f9.html). Our current restoration project is Lehigh & Hudson River #105, a wood-bodied flanger car built in the 1870's, and originally from the New York, Ontario & Western Railway. We also operate the historic Centerville & Southwestern miniature railroad, a 1/6 scale railroad originally created on Becker's Farm in Roseland, NJ in 1938. The trains are equipped for automatic air brake operation and are conducted with full hand signals and rules designed after prototype railroad practice. Although short, the C&S is Phillipsburg's authentic "mainline in miniature," and it's a ton of fun! Please visit us at our free open houses offered 6-9 times a year, or consider joining our forces as a volunteer! You can learn how to restore rolling stock, conduct the C&S, and more. Whatever your age, skill level, or experience, we need you!

We’re starting to make some serious progress on the 91197 now!The front beam has been set in place with the steps bolted...
10/20/2026

We’re starting to make some serious progress on the 91197 now!

The front beam has been set in place with the steps bolted into them! Now we are test fitting the boards on top of the bracing and making all of the necessary cuts and bores for the handrails and ladders. This is the first time in many years that one of the end ladders has been bolted onto the car.

Come on out for our open house this Sunday from 10am-2pm to check out all of our work!

Next Sunday is our next open house!We will be open on the 25th from 10am to 2pm in conjunction with Phillipsburg’s Fall ...
10/18/2026

Next Sunday is our next open house!

We will be open on the 25th from 10am to 2pm in conjunction with Phillipsburg’s Fall Festival. The Centerville & Southwestern will be running, the museum will be open, and we’ll have restored equipment on display. Including our newly restored Lehigh & Hudson River Flanger 105!

Speaking of 105, enjoy these photos from when it was out for the open house on the 10th. It truly is an eye-catcher with its bright yellow paint!

Last night Phillipsburg Union - PU Tower were the gracious hosts of a combined event where we had our president Paul Car...
10/17/2026

Last night Phillipsburg Union - PU Tower were the gracious hosts of a combined event where we had our president Paul Carpenito show off some of his slides he has taken over the years.

Despite the rainy evening we were able to make the most of it as we all enjoyed a glimpse into the past.

We all greatly enjoyed the night and look forward to more events like this in the future!

Some of you may have noticed that the small layout we have in the museum depicting our grounds looked a little different...
10/15/2026

Some of you may have noticed that the small layout we have in the museum depicting our grounds looked a little different at the last open house.

Some of our members began to take a look at the layout to determine what work is needed to bring it back into a running condition. While they were working on it, it was discovered that there were a whole bunch of models sitting in boxes under the layout. So we decided to once again populate the layout with much of the equipment you can find at our open houses.

Unfortunately there is still some wiring, cleaning, and fixing that’s required to bring the layout up to its past standards, but we’re making progress!

Today was a great day! We hosted over 300 riders as we participated in the festival. We brought out the flanger for its ...
10/10/2026

Today was a great day!

We hosted over 300 riders as we participated in the festival. We brought out the flanger for its first open house, the Centerville & Southwestern was busy the whole day, and we had a very special visitor….

Hambone from the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs decided to drop by for the festival and stopped by our place! Who doesn’t love Hambone?

Thank you to everyone who attended today!

Stay tuned to the page as we will be adding a new event soon!

10/09/2026

Keep in mind folks, tomorrow is the Pork Roll Palooza!

We will be open from 10am-5pm in conjunction with the event. We will be running the Centerville & Southwestern, Restored equipment will be on display, and there will be plenty of Pork Roll nearby to accommodate everyone!

Come on out for good fun and great food!

10/06/2026

The views you get to see while volunteering! This week will be focused on cleanup in preparation for our open house this Saturday. Much of the shop was cleaned, vacuumed, and organized. We also took the opportunity to clean up the interior of the 91197 of the paint chips, dirt, and what was left of the hornet nest that was scattered around the car.

Work continued on 91197 this week. Work was focused on fitting the first crossbeam onto the end of the car. Originally t...
10/01/2026

Work continued on 91197 this week. Work was focused on fitting the first crossbeam onto the end of the car. Originally this was done with one large oak beam, however due to limited resources we opted to layer four pieces of pine for this beam. Due to years of operation and decay, much of the metal has been warped and misaligned. This has led us to perform a good bit of milling and routing to this first beam so it’ll have a smooth fit. There’s been a lot of trial and error with this piece!

If you look closely at the metal end plate you’ll see a dent in the middle of the bottom. We believe at some point the caboose struck something large as it made this dent, bent the end plate, and also twisted the left step. We plan to bend as much as we can back into shape, then work around the parts that can’t be brought back to their original dimensions.

We currently have a very small crew of 2-4 people working on restorations. If you’d like to help out all you have to do is become a member! Any help is always greatly appreciated!

Address

10 Pine Alley
Phillipsburg, NJ
08865

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