WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 46 Members and Apprentices are once again, giving back to the Rochester Community.  This time they are donating their skills to help restore old-time trolley cars that once ran on the City’s Rail System many, many years ago.  (Photos From WNYLaborToday.com & SMART Local 46)

(ROCHESTER, NEW YORK) – When it comes to giving back to the Rochester Community, the Members and Apprentices of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 46 are ready, willing and able to do what they can - when they can.

Case in point, back in October WNYLaborToday.com focused a spotlight on SMART Local 46’s Apprentices, who are involved in playing a key role in helping provide a local non-profit with a main cog need to assemble hundreds of devices that give the life-changing gift of mobility to disabled children (Go To: ‘Providing Disabled Children With The Gift Of Mobility’ - SMART Local 46 Apprentices Play ‘Key’ Role In Helping Provide Non-Profit Bella’s Bumbas With A ‘Main Cog Needed To Assemble’ Hundreds Of Devices That Give The ‘Life-Changing’ Gift Of Mobility’ - WNY Labor Today: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York)

Now, many of the Local’s Apprentices are back at it - giving of their time and skills at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum where they’re working to restore an idled trolley car that once ran the rails in Downtown Rochester many years ago.

Established in April 1899 (the Local is getting ready to celebrate its 125th anniversary in April), Local 46 represents 425 Active and 200 Retired Members, and provides the highest quality Craftsmen - described as pre-eminent Fabricators and Installers, to its Union Contractors.

The Local also has more than 100 Apprentices in its Training Program.

“We’ve been sending ten Apprentices at a time - about forty in all, and they are loving it,” Local 46 Training Director Allen Mort tells WNYLaborToday.com about the restoration work being done at the Railroad Museum. “They’re working on the car’s roof and their sheet metal paneling.  ‘This has been awesome - they’re working to preserve our local history.’”

Museum President Otto Vondrak says Local 46’s Apprentices are helping restore a trolley car that ran on the Rochester System from 1938 to 1956.

“We got it donated to us back in (1998),” Vondrak (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) said.  “It also has a wood interior and it’s been sitting here for more than twenty years.  Before Local 46 got involved, we were ‘fundraising to get the money to repair and it was being restored - incrementally.’”

“This ‘makes me feel proud,’” offered SMART International Organizer Warren Faust who joined WNYLaborToday.com on a tour of the Railroad Museum with Mort, Vondrak and Jonathan Perna, a Local 46 Marketing Representative. 

“‘You have to have a diverse skill set to do work like this and most people just don’t know we have it.’  ‘This is giving everyone a sense of pride and it ties in with the fact that we band together to help,’” Faust said.

Offering what it describes on its website (About Us - Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum (rgvrrm.org) as “the most unique museum experience in the greater Rochester area,” the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum is a non-profit educational organization that traces its roots back to 1937 as the Rochester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, the third-oldest chapter in the organization.

Its purpose - according to Vondrak, is to educate the public on the technology, history and impact Rochester’s railroad industry has had through the preservation, restoration and operation of railroad equipment - as well as the display of relevant historic artifacts and documents.

The mission of the museum is advanced through the preservation of rolling stock and locomotives, tools and equipment, documents and artifacts, photography and video.

In 1971 the museum group purchased an abandoned Industry Depot from the Erie Lackawanna Railroad with the goal of restoring it as a museum - and over the last 50 years, the organization has preserved more than 40 pieces of historic railroad equipment and built its own demonstration railroad to bring Rochester’s rich railroading heritage to life.

In fact, the museum operates and offers train rides every month from April through December.

Vondrak tells WNYLaborToday.com he is “super-excited” to have Local 46’s Apprentices working to help restore the rail cars.

“They’re ‘helping preserve the railroad heritage for all to enjoy.’  ‘And their expertise in metal-working was something we don’t have here.’  (Local 46’s Apprentices) ‘have the expertise to help get it over the finish line,’” Vondrak said.

The museum has spent more than $100,000 to date to help pay for the majority of restoration work that needs to be done, says Vondrak, who knows his non-profit is “literally saving hundreds of thousands of dollars” by the work being donated by Local 46’s Apprentices.

“‘They are doing it all right - the first time” he said.

Local 46 Marketing Representative Perna said: “It’s ‘baffling the perception (the general public has about what Labor Unions and what their Members do exactly) - and you just never get a good answer, but there’s a lot SMART does to help people.’  When people ask me, I say: ‘Sure, we’re going to get our Apprentices involved, because they care.’  ‘And our focus is to give people a better life.’  ‘If you’re not in a Union, you’re doing it wrong.’  ‘You’re missing out on the benefits.’  ‘I feel good for our Members and our Apprentices that we’ve given them these opportunities (to do good things across the Rochester Community).’”

According to Mort, some of those Local 46 Members/Apprentices who’ve participated in the effort include: Rand Warner, Earl Delong, Hunter Angarano, John Bertolone, Karl Biedlingmaier, Robert Dettore, Anthony Hayslip, Matthew Olek, Alexsi Ortiz, Cody Pascalar and Richard Andrew Ross.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper would like to offer our apologies to SMART Local 46 for taking sooo long to publish this Labor News Report.  We appreciate the patience of Local 46, Business Manager Troy Milne, Training Director Mort and all involved for hanging in there.  On that note, kudos to Local 46 and all involved for what you are doing to give back to the Rochester Community.  It is yet another tremendous example of the worth of Labor Unions and the positive impact they make, seen and unseen.  Nice job!