The United Railroad Historical Society of NJ announced today that it has hired Kevin Phalon as its Executive Director. Phalon is URHS’s first paid employee in its 36-year history.

Kevin Phalon has served as President of URHS since May of 2020, and as a volunteer for the past decade. Phalon comes to URHS from a career in journalism, working as a photographer and editor for NJ Spotlight News on NJPBS.

Statement from Kevin Phalon:

“I could not be more honored to be given this opportunity and responsibility. I, like many others, have dedicated a large portion of my life to the success of URHS. By hiring our first employee, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to grow beyond what is possible with volunteers alone. A little more than a year ago, we never expected to grow so fast that we would need staff so soon, yet here we are. I cannot wait to see how else we surprise ourselves.

Past years have been tough for URHS, without a doubt, but we arrived in 2022 stronger than ever. After working for years to put the organization back on firm financial footing, today we are shifting our focus to the public. As a nonprofit, our chief responsibility is to educate. For us, that means running more trains, holding more events, and making more of our collection accessible to more people more often. These short-term goals are reasonable and attainable, and we look forward to making all of the above happen in 2023.

While URHS is proud of the work we do at our yard in Boonton, NJ, a separate, permanent location will always be our goal. A year-round, indoor, public museum and operating railroad are vital to the sustained survival of our collection. It is our hope that such a museum would bring together all the interests that have long sought a permanent location in this state, so that our combined efforts can better serve the public. Part of my task as Executive Director will be to take these aspirations and make them into clearly-defined, workable long-term plans.
URHS and its collection are in a better place now than they have ever been. This organization has an incredible amount of untapped potential, and I think we all have reason to be excited about its future.”

URHS was prompted to hire its first staff member by the demands of its highly successful Hudson River Rail Excursions program. Full-time staff will allow the program to scale up in 2023, resulting in substantial growth for the organization. The position will be funded entirely by program revenue, allowing donations to continue to be used exclusively for equipment restoration.

Phalon was elected president of URHS in May of 2020. In the ensuing years, he led the organization through pandemic-related and legal challenges. Phalon worked with outside counsel to initiate and win two legal actions which resulted in recovery of significant funds and property owed to the organization. Phalon also oversaw the recovery of more than $200,000 owed to URHS from the bankrupt Iowa Pacific Holdings.

In 2021, Phalon also led the establishment of Hudson River Rail Excursions, a highly successful program through which URHS operates public day trips from New York City with the New York Central Hickory Creek and Tavern-Lounge No. 43. URHS has sold out every trip since the program's inception and will be expanding its schedule significantly in 2023.

URHS hit several significant milestones in 2022. Fundraising, revenue, and volunteerism are each at their all-time high. The expansion of Hudson River Rail Excursions resulted in the highest ridership that the organization has seen in decades, a metric that has not even been counted since URHS ran excursions in the 1990s. In partnership with Railroad Museum of New England, URHS passenger cars added an additional 3000+ passengers on top of URHS’s own ridership.

URHS also completed the first phase of renovations to its new shop in Boonton, where it is now undertaking the restoration of the last GE U34CH locomotive.