Unique fest celebrates local beers and trains
Rails & Ales, benefitting the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, allows attendees to ride the rails while enjoying a beer
One of Rochester’s most unique beer festivals, in one of the most unique settings is now gearing up for its fifth spring edition.
Rails & Ales, which takes place on Saturday, May 24, at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rush, combines some of the best local craft beverage producers with New York’s largest collection of historic trains, all the while encouraging attendees to catch a ride on the rails as it traverses between two different festival sites. And bonus, it’s one of the museum’s biggest fundraisers of the year. So you’re not only experiencing history, you’re supporting a really wonderful organization.
Tickets are on sale right now and I encourage you to act quickly to reserve your seat for train departure times. (Though you are encouraged to show up when the event starts at noon and enjoy the grounds and beverages before your first departure.) Admission includes a Rails & Ales tasting glass, too. The museum is located at 282 Rush Scottsville Road in Rush. The upcoming event is slated to feature at least 12 craft beverage producers, including Irondequoit Beer Co., Tub Town Brewing from Bath, Syracuse-based Talking Cursive Brewing, and some other local favorites. (For a complete list, make sure to follow organizer Otto Vondrak’s travels and musings at the Rochester Beer Blog on social media.)
Photo courtesy of the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.
Vondrak, author and curator of the Rochester Beer Blog (one of the most informative and fun follows on social media), has been volunteering at the museum for almost 30 years. His participation dates back to his student days at RIT. Otto is a past president of the museum and now serves as the marketing manager and organizer/curator for Rails & Ales. He works diligently every year to secure a really great variety of brewery, cidery, and distillery participants.
“The way I have the event set up, some of the vendors are at the depot and some of the vendors are at the upper yard and the train runs in a shuttle between the two locations,” Vondrak said. “Once you’re in the event, you can ride back and forth as many times as you want. There is no limit. Besides giving you a different perspective, it gives you a chance to pace yourself a little bit between the stations (the train ride takes about 10 minutes).”
There are even different trains to ride during the event. There is an open-air car with bench seating and then there is an enclosed caboose.
According to Otto, the genesis for the event came from similar events at different train museums around the country. And lucky for Otto, it allowed him to combine his two true loves — beers and trains. (In his day job, Otto is editor for two train magazines.)
“We’re not trying to be the largest beer festival,” Vondrak said. “We’re trying to be the friendliest.”
Here’s a brief history of the museum — because I love this stuff and because the group’s website does such a wonderful job of establishing that journey.
The museum dates back to 1937 and was the sixth new chapter of the National Railway Historical Society upon its founding. Wildly, the first historic rail equipment in its collection came in 1956 with the donation of a car from the recently-shuttered Rochester Subway. Car 60 is still part of the museum’s collection.
Photo courtesy of the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.
The group found its forever home in 1971 with the purchase of an abandoned train station that it purchased from the Erie Lackawanna Railroad for $1. That led to a decade-long restoration process and the arrival of many new pieces, including an old wooden caboose from the Chessie System and a diesel switcher from the Kodak Park Railroad.
The collection continued to grow and the museum added a two-mile rail system linking it to the nearby New York Museum of Transportation. And today, you can ride those tracks and really experience this history during the upcoming beer festival. (And a reminder: There is a September version of the event, too, that really bookends festival season in Rochester. So if you can’t make this one. Keep an eye out for that one.)
I love how Rails & Ales leans into its niche and showcases one of the region’s most underappreciated museums. (Which is saying quite a bit in a town that has some truly world-class institutions.) I know I’m gotta take my surly 3yo roommate out to Rush soon, because he is currently train, Hot Wheels, and monster trucks obsessed. (Not that my new-found Hot Wheels obsessive hunting is helping matters.)
Two trains will depart every 30 minutes during the event (you sign up for an initial departure time when you purchase your tickets). The first stop is at the museum’s historic 1909 Erie Railroad train station (that once served Monroe County’s Industry school) and moves along its private 1-mile-long track that will take you to the museum’s upper yard (where there are a bunch more train cars on display) and more beverage vendors.
And because ticket sales are capped at 300, the afternoon promises to be relaxed and is designed to encourage folks to explore the museum and talk to participating vendors. You can also visit the museum’s restoration shop during the event and explore the other train cars on the grounds.
(And I’d be remiss if I didn’t do this…)
All aboard for a good time!
(I’m not proud of myself, but sometimes it just has to be done.)
A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published nearly 250 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).
The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.