BUFFALO, N.Y. — If you take Ohio Street you know, once you pass over the lift bridge, you’re greeted by Silo City.  As work is underway to renovate them into mixed use buildings, it caught the attention of Charlie Monte Verde.  

“What’s funny is whether you are this tall, or this tall, the grandeur of this doesn’t change," Monte Verde said. 

The redevelopment of his hometown prompted Monte Verde to move back from Chicago.  Not to mention his family owns Genesee Valley Transportation Company.  

“We were the second to last company to do the switching when the lake boats came on the river here, unloaded wheat and was milled into grain and shipped out on trains,” he explained.

So, an idea was born. It’s called the Flour-by-Rail Legacy Project.  

“The goal is to have three historic box cars and one historic locomotive was of significance to Buffalo,” he explained. 

This is where you come in, Buffalo.  There’s a GoFundMe for this first phase of the project.  The first box car to hit the track to Silo City sits on Buffalo’s eastside.  The cost to move it is $8,500.  

“The equipment is too old to come in via rail, so it has to be trucked in.”

This Buffalo Creek Railroad box car 3424 is in Rochester.  CSX has provided a $10,000 grant to help with its adventure down the Thruway.  Once complete, Monte Verde hopes it will be an educational and interpretive exhibit.

“We see the value in this, and the intrinsic ties to the community,” Monte Verde smiled. 

Ties that Monte Verde hopes this project will only make stronger.  

The hope is to have the first car arrive by April, with the rest to follow.