Vince Ferretti keeps the trains chugging along

Corning Employees ​​​​Vince Ferrettii, right, and Steve Colby ​​volunteer at the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum in Newton, North Carolina. Our employees invest themselves in the communities where they live and work. Our Community Impact & Investment employee programs lets employees maximize their impact to the causes that mean the most to them. 

In April, Corning celebrates Global Volunteer Month by paying tribute to employees who demonstrate exceptional commitment to volunteerism. Our first profile this month focuses on Vince Ferretti, a Dollars for Doers Bonus recipient who serves as board president of a narrow-gauge rail museum in North Carolina.

To any visitor of the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum in Newton, North Carolina, Vince Ferretti is an ever-present fixture.

“I'm a jack of all trades. You might see me outside weeding or inside renovating a bathroom,” said Vince, Standards Engineer Manager, Manufacturing Technology & Engineering. “I might be fixing a train that just derailed on one of our model railroad layouts, or helping with restoration of a real caboose.”

A Corning employee for over 30 years, Vince serves as board president of the only narrow-gauge rail museum in the southeastern United States. He contributes well over 300 hours of volunteer service per year.

“When you see a grandparent with their grandchild walk into the museum, especially the model railroad center, and you see them both light up, I think that’s awesome,” said Vince, a Hickory resident. 

Vince became fascinated by trains at a young age, when he ran model trains with his dad and brother.  He still has his dad’s 1947 Lionel train set and his first Santa Fe set from Christmas 1972 when Vince was seven.  Both sets have all the dings and dents of well-loved toys. 

As Vince grew up, he set aside his train hobby for a while. He developed an appreciation for volunteering in several capacities. With encouragement from his wife, Bonita,  whom Vince calls a “super volunteer,” he helped with the local theater and various other nonprofit groups. Vince also volunteers as a clown at local hospitals.

In 2015, Vince set up his old trains around the Christmas tree after many years of leaving them in storage.  One visit to the train store reignited his love of his childhood hobby. He soon realized he could pair two of his passions by volunteering at the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum, which had recently opened to the public.

The museum makes use of an old train depot, saved and relocated by city officials and citizens. Its exhibits feature    narrow-gauge train tracks, which measure between two and three feet in width, narrower than standard train tracks throughout the U.S.

Narrow-gauge train tracks — which cost less than standard tracks to construct — were once especially popular in the South, including in Catawba County, where the museum is located. These tracks served as the local economy’s circulatory system, with raw materials and finished products traveling back and forth, helping Hickory become known as the “Furniture Capital of the World.”

By the beginning of the 20th century, many narrow-gauge tracks had been replaced with standard gauge tracks, which were popular in the Northeast.  Eventually, narrow gauge became an endangered species in the U.S., kept alive mainly by the handful of museums that preserve history by refurbishing and displaying old cars, cabooses, and train equipment.

When Vince joined the museum in 2016, he started running operations and led the development of the model railroad center. He and others quickly expanded the museum’s hours of operation from two hours per month to two days per week.

In 2018, the museum’s board elected him president, a mantle he has held ever since.

Under his leadership, the museum has continued to refurbish train cars and cabooses, transforming them from dilapidated wrecks into gorgeous exhibits, such as a recently acquired 1948 Amtrak Diner originally from the California Zephyr line which runs from Chicago to San Francisco

“We’re trying to turn that car into a rental event space with catering. Just imagine - a catered black-tie event in a railcar for 35 people,” Vince said.

The museum also features a large model train area that kids and adults enjoy. Steve Colby, Engineering Services Director, Carrier Networks, Corning Optical Communications, also volunteers at the museum. He’s currently working on a model railroad layout depicting the local area in the 1950s.

Some of the train equipment and memorabilia has a unique tie to Corning, including the lanterns that guided train operators.

"Corning glass was used as early as the 1870s in lanterns because the railroads had a real problem putting fire in a lantern when below freezing and the glass then breaking,” Vince said. “So, Corning created a glass that could withstand the temperature change and also invented easy-to-see colored glasses like reds and greens for the signals.” 

Vince has built up this knowledge and expertise over his many volunteer hours. But for as much time as he has put in, Vince gets back even more.

“It’s great that you can give back and have fun at the same time,” said Vince.

He also makes sure to use Corning resources to maximize his impact. Aside from applying for and receiving grants for the museum from Corning, Vince also logs all his volunteer hours in the company’s Dollars for Doers program, which matches every five hours of volunteer time at an organization with a $75 donation to the nonprofit, up to $1500 per year. Employees like Vince who log 100 volunteer hours per year are also eligible for a Dollars for Doers Bonus, which provides an additional $150 cash grant to the eligible nonprofit of their choice. 

“I max it out every year,” Vince said. “As you can tell, this is all a passion for me.”