STATEMENT

For the past four years, TOYX, Inc. has proudly called the former Erie Railroad engine facility in Port Jervis, New York our home. What was once an overgrown, abandoned, and largely forgotten 8.67-acre industrial property has become, through the work of our volunteers and the support of the community, one of the most meaningful railroad heritage sites in the Northeast.

In that time, we transformed the historic Erie Turntable into a fully functional exhibit space, restored historic railcars tied directly to Port Jervis’s history, installed public displays, partnered with local nonprofits, hosted events and open houses, and welcomed thousands of visitors. We acquired historic rail equipment for the Tri-States Railway Preservation Society to house their museum, provided storage for the Port Jervis Soap Box Derby’s cars, and brought in artifacts and exhibits that told the story of the men and women who built this city through railroading. Over time, the turntable became more than just a historic landmark – it became a gathering place, a destination, a classroom, and a place where Port Jervis’s history truly came alive.

Unfortunately, it appears our time in Port Jervis is coming to an end.

Why We’re Leaving

The City of Port Jervis has notified TOYX that all leases, subleases, and agreements covering the Erie Turntable property will be terminated effective July 26, 2026. Although TOYX’s active agreement runs through 2031, the City has chosen to unilaterally cancel all contracts and instead pursue the sale and redevelopment of the property.

Our work at the turntable site over the past four years was made possible through a still-active 2021 sublease under the Outdoor Club of Port Jervis in partnership with several other local nonprofit organizations. In 2023, individual misconduct at these partner organizations (and, in one case, insurance fraud) caused all of them to withdraw from the site, leaving TOYX as the only remaining active user of the property with the Outdoor Club as the leaseholder. Recovered emails between the partner groups revealed plans to try to evict TOYX while retaining some or all of the railroad equipment we had brought to the site. The Outdoor Club subsequently asked the City in 2024 to be removed as an intermediary leaseholder, freeing the City to negotiate a new lease agreement directly with TOYX.

Throughout all of this, City officials kept the situation quiet and avoided all discussion of the site during public meetings (and actively hid it from the public when it was brought up). In response to the Outdoor Club’s desire to withdraw from the site, TOYX prepared a detailed proposal in early 2025 that included substantial public and private support for a direct lease or outright sale of the property to TOYX. The City Council rejected the proposal behind closed doors and without public discussion, simply replying that the property was not for sale and refusing to acknowledge the idea of a new lease.

City officials have now informed us that their intent is to apply for a New York State brownfield remediation grant for the heavily contaminated site (which contains a 15- to 30-foot-deep historic oil plume) and subsequently sell the cleaned property to a private developer. So, it appears the property IS, in fact, going to be for sale – just not to TOYX. The State grant, if awarded, would cover only a small fraction of the remediation cost, leaving Port Jervis taxpayers responsible for the remainder of the cost. Any redevelopment would almost certainly destroy the core historic fabric of the site, including original trackage, the sanding towers, and the operational 1927 turntable.

As a result of the City’s decision, all 27 railcars at the site – and all Port Jervis-related artifacts they contain – must leave the property within the next eight months.

Loss of Heritage

Among TOYX’s departing equipment are several railcars that are intrinsically historic to Port Jervis, including four Erie, Erie Lackawanna, and Conrail cabooses, one-of-a-kind Erie Lackawanna and Conrail boxcars, and the only operational surviving Erie Lackawanna dining car. Together, these railcars represent the most complete collection of original-to-Port Jervis railroad rolling stock ever assembled. Most of these railcars are regularly open to the public, with two rare Erie Railroad cabooses currently under restoration and originally slated to open in 2026.

The Tri-States Railway Preservation Society, a Port Jervis institution since 1985 and now a subsidiary of TOYX, must also vacate the site. Tri-States will take with it a boxcar museum full of hundreds of artifacts donated by local families over four decades. We are actively working to find a new, permanent home for the collection within Orange County to keep local history reasonably accessible to Port Jervis residents. However, it will likely be a year or more before a new museum can reopen.

The Port Jervis Soap Box Derby will also lose its home, as the organization’s custom-built derby cars have been stored in one of TOYX’s boxcars that must now leave the city along with the rest of the railroad equipment. We are working to assist this amazing organization in finding a new, suitable storage location before we leave so their annual events can continue to benefit local children.

Once we depart, the site will revert to being what it was before TOYX arrived: a vacant, overgrown property without exhibits, events, or public history. There will be no more open houses, car shows, or festivals, no more historic displays or interpretive exhibits, no more on-board dining events, and no more hands-on experiences with the locomotives and railroad equipment that helped to build the City of Port Jervis into what it is today.

Volunteer Connection

Besides the historical implications for the city, we just hate to leave Port Jervis, as it has become a second home for TOYX’s volunteers over the past four years.

We have work sessions nearly every weekend, and our volunteers often stop for coffee at Foundry 42 or grab a bagel at Bagel HQ on their way to the yard. We order pizza for volunteer lunches from Port Jervis Brick Oven Pizza or grab sandwiches from JJ International Delicatessen. Often, our work sessions or events will end with our crew grabbing a pint at Fox n’ Hare or an ice cream at Riverside Creamery, both of which have also partnered with us to supply uniquely hometown items for our on-board railroad dining events. We’ve bought hardware and tools from Neversink Lumber, restocked our dining car at Port Jervis Kitchen & Restaurant Supply, and held dinner meetings with donors and partners at Erie Hotel.

We’re going to miss being a part of Port Jervis’s downtown and reinvesting both our organization’s money and our personal funds into the businesses that keep the city alive and thriving.

Operation Toy Train 

Despite everything happening with the turntable site, TOYX will still operate our annual toy collection train through Orange County on Sunday, December 14th.

This event is more important than ever. With the Toys for Tots Foundation not operating in Orange County this year, TOYX’s Operation Toy Train is the only major toy drive collecting for local families. We typically collect over 7,000 toys in Orange County, all of which will stay within the county through our partnerships with local distribution organizations.

However, TOYX’s toy collection trainset is already off the property and will not be returning to Port Jervis. Our 2025 train, therefore, will not operate farther west than Middletown, and the previously announced stop in Port Jervis has been canceled. We have extended the length of our stop in Middletown to do our best to serve the communities in western Orange County given the circumstances and challenges we are facing.

We are optimistic that our train will be able to return to Orange County in 2026, and we are specifically looking at long-term storage locations that would permit that to happen. However, without a convenient place to stop in Port Jervis like we had at the Erie Turntable site, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to reinstitute a stop in the city. 

Where We’re Going

It’s incredibly encouraging to know that other communities near and far recognize the value of a ready-made railroad museum and have already expressed interest in giving our collection a permanent home.

We’re committed to finding a facility that allows us to continue restoring and maintaining our railroad equipment. All of the options we are considering are in locations that offer the opportunity to take our equipment out on the road to host events, educational programs, and public exhibits whenever possible, as well as continue to run Operation Toy Train and collect toys for local children.

As mentioned previously, we are also working to keep the Tri-States museum and its exhibits accessible to residents of Orange County, so Port Jervis’s historic artifacts aren’t too far for the city’s residents to experience them. It is likely that any permanent public display will be at a separate location from our storage and maintenance facility.

About half of our railcars are already moved off-site and are on their way to this year’s Operation Toy Train runs. They will be sent to a temporary storage location at the conclusion of those runs. In the meantime, we’ll be working with local towns, businesses, and donors to secure our new location(s) and get the rest of our equipment and artifacts safely out of Port Jervis before we make any further announcements as to our destination. 

How to Help

For a city whose identity is rooted in the railroad, the elimination of its preserved cultural resources and the planned redevelopment of its last major railroading landmark is a profound and preventable loss. TOYX encourages residents, visitors, and supporters to speak at City Council meetings and contact elected officials. The Port Jervis City Council holds meetings at 6:30 PM on the second and fourth Monday of every month at City Hall. Each meeting includes a five-minute public comment period for anyone who wishes to speak.

You can also reach out directly to the Council members, Councilman at Large, and the Mayor through the contact information posted on the City’s website. Tell them why this matters to you, why Port Jervis deserves to keep its history, and why TOYX should retain a lease on the property. We’ve provided a template for those who wish to write letters of support.

We are more than willing to establish a new long-term lease that benefits both TOYX and the City, preserves the turntable, and keeps this heritage in Port Jervis where it belongs. But we need your voices to help change the direction the City has chosen.

Otherwise, relocating 27 antique railcars (including four locomotives that need to move by truck) is a massive and expensive undertaking. We’re currently accepting donations to offset these upcoming costs.

Conclusion

For us, this isn’t just about trains or artifacts; it’s about people, community, memory, and identity. It’s about honoring the workers, families, and generations who built Port Jervis around the railroad.

We’re proud of what TOYX has accomplished here in just four years, and we’re proud of the support we’ve received from so many residents and businesses. We hope that, together, we can convince the City to rethink this decision before all of Port Jervis’s railroading history is whisked away by the very railroads we aim to preserve.

No matter the outcome, TOYX remains committed to preserving this history, whether inside Port Jervis or beyond its borders.