On February 7, ELHS members Rich Behrendt, Mike Connor, Dale Madison, Tom Marshalak and Joe Schveder met at Cleveland State University (CSU) in Cleveland, Ohio to begin the first phase of the eventual relocation of the ELHS Archives into CSU's Special Collections area.

The ELHS Archives Shelving Construction team at CSU from left to right: Joe Scheveder, Mike Connor, Joe Juratov, Rich Behrendt, Dale Madison and Tom Marshalak (holding the broken team motivator in his hand

Under the guidance of CSU's Bill Barrow, Special Collections Librarian, and with assistance from fellow Nickel Plate historian Joe Juratovac, the ELHS team started at 9am to construct 36 all-steel shelf units and finished the task by 4pm.  Each unit is 7 feet high x 3 feet wide x 1 foot deep and contains 7shelves. The 252 shelves constructed will provide enough space for 504 standard archival boxes.

The shelving was constructed in 9 rows, four units wide, with cross bracing between the middle two units, thus allowing boxes to be inserted two deep from each aisle. This arrangement will accomodate all of the boxed material currently in storage.  Space will also be made available at CSU for our extensive collection of original Erie and DL&W Right-of-Way and Track maps.

The next step is the actual move of collection from storage in Mentor, OH. into the Special Collections area at CSU, which is anticipated to occur with the next 60-90 days.