Vanderbilt Cup Races

The Black Beast helped open the Alco Heritage Museum in Schenectady, New York last Sunday. The event attracted over 3,000 people. Below are two news articles and Black Beast highlights.

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick

Timesunion.com June 1, 2012

ALCO Heritage Museum plans grand opening

ALCO Heritage Museum honors Schenectady's locomotive giant

Next Sunday, Schenectady and the Capital Region will welcome a museum honoring that hauling legacy when the ALCO Heritage Museum celebrates its grand opening with free tours, food and a host of political speakers.

The opening culminates a three-year, grass-roots effort to raise money and collect artifacts. Organizers acknowledge that this tough economy isn't conducive to such ventures as a new museum, but they also felt an overriding urgency, they say.

For the grand opening, a Long Island resident will display his immaculate 1909 "Black Beast" race car built at an ALCO plant in Providence, R.I. The car earned the cherished Vanderbilt Cup in 1909 by winning the 278-mile Vanderbilt Cup Race on Long Island.

The "Black Beast" will be here for only the grand opening, but permanent exhibits include ALCO's influence on popular culture (toy trains, art, collectibles, even a Van Halen album cover), "ALCO and the Civil War" and "ALCO and Defense."

dailygazette.com

SCHENECTADY : All aboard

ALCO museum grand opening to include open house Sunday

BY BILL BUELL Gazette Reporter

In their push to collect all the artifacts they can and prepare the ALCO Heritage Museum for Sunday’s grand opening, museum director Jim Cesare and historian Dave Gould, both volunteers, have uttered more than their share of oohs and aahs.....

Of the other large artifacts on hand for Sunday’s opening, the M-47 Tank, donated by the Pollard family of Altamont, will be on continuous display at the museum. The ALCO Black Beast, meanwhile, which won the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup, is being transported to the opening from Long Island by its owner Howard Kroplick. It will only be at the museum for the grand opening.

Black Beast Highlights

Photographed by John & Dottie Cuocco
 

Complimentary photos from the above slideshow can be directed downloaded from this Photobucket.com website.