ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A series of fall foliage trains with opportunities to ride over the freight-only Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad will be operated in cooperation with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum on Oct. 18. The public will have a chance to tour this growing New York short line in style aboard the Fall Foliage Express.

Four trains will depart from the railroad’s southern terminal at Lakeville from the parking lot of the nearby Conesus Lake Sportsmen’s Club, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. The trains will be pulled by a pair of diesels from the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville’s fleet of Alco power. Museum volunteers will serve as car hosts and selling concessions on-board.

The Fall Foliage Express trains will run round-trip from Lakeville to Industry, just south of Rochester, and return. Tickets are available for sale at all Wegmans supermarket service counters, and seating is first come, first served. All proceeds from the trip will benefit the museum’s preservation activities and operations.

“We’re really looking forward to operating these trips, and we are very grateful to the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville for their cooperation,” says museum President Mike Dow. “Our volunteers have been working round the clock, and we can’t wait to welcome the public aboard once again.”

Passengers will ride in the museum’s refurbished Budd stainless steel coaches that were built to re-equip New York Central’s Empire State Express in 1941. As passenger service declined in the postwar era, the coaches were rebuilt for commuter service operating out of Grand Central Terminal. Upon their retirement, several coaches were purchased by the museum from successor Metro-North in 1987.

The coaches are stored on a siding alongside the museum property and the LA&L main line, where volunteers have been preparing the cars for the October excursion.

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum can trace its roots back to 1937 as the Rochester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Since the museum was established in 1971, the all-volunteer group has preserved more than 40 pieces of historic railroad equipment, including the 1909 Erie Railroad depot at Industry. In cooperation with the New York Museum of Transportation, the two groups form the only operating railroad museum in New York State.

For more information, visit www.rgvrrm.org/fallfoliage