JOSEPH MERLI

Mr. Merli worked on displays at the Altamont Fair and at the village’s archives and museum; he helped with the restoration of the historic train station for the Altamont Free Library. But, most central to his mission in life was assembling the Canal Street Station Railroad Village with a locomotive, a diner, a general store — all to illustrate the values of a bygone way of life. “We need to stop thinking about our own little selves and start thinking about preserving these symbols of how our nation was built for our future generations,” he wrote. in 1967, at the age of 16, he opened his own shop — Joe’s Bodyworks. By 1976, he changed his company’s name to Horseless Carriage Restorations and its focus to restoring antique automobiles.