On Saturday September 20th, 2008, a small gang of volunteers from the Niagara Railway Museum travelled to Aylmer, Ontario to remove a 300ft long unused siding at a feed mill. The track was donated to the NRM by Elgin Feeds, and arrangements were made to get the track out of the ground and ready for movement back to Niagara. The NRM crew consisted of President Ken Jones Jr., V.P. Aaron White, Ryan Grimes, Ken Jones Sr., and Jeff Smith.

It was a perfect day weather wise, and despite a 1/2 hr delay while the rented skid steer wouldn’t start at the rental shop (something that would haunt us thoughout the day), things went fairly well. We did our best to save as much of the other track materials as we could, but many of the bolts ended up being chopped off. The rail is a mix of 80lb & 100lb, with much of it being more than 70yrs old. Some pieces of the 80lb rail have some damage to their heads, but since we aren’t planning on using it for running rail, it will not pose a problem.

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The skid steer is crucial when moving around track materials due to the fact that a stick of 80lb rail can weigh upwards of 800lbs. It is needed to drag the rail over to the pile, and stack it neatly.

With this donation, we will have enough track length to store all of our current equipment. This will greatly aid us when we are ready to set up the museum site. We will still need to acquire ties and bolts.

The majority of Saturday was spent removing, sorting and stockpiling the track materials. Sunday morning was spent spreading and leveling the recycled asphalt we used to level the parking area where the track was. The skidsteer was used to backfill the low spots and fill in the ruts in the driveway.

The Niagara Railway Museum wishes to thank Wilf Saarloos, Owner of Elgin Feeds for donating the track to the Museum.

On Saturday July 7th 2007, members of the Niagara Railway Museum ventured north to the Private railway collection known as the Uptergrove Shortline Railroad. This trip, the first for 2007 served many purposes. It was originally a trip to help load our newly acquired Whiting 2TM Trackmobile, however, it turned into much more than that.

2 months ago, we spoke to a local businessman, who handles lift truck repairs, about moving the Trackmobile back to Niagara. Ted Lucas, owner of Lucas Liftruck Service in Thorold said he would gladly assist us with the move. The date was set, and we all arrived within 20 minutes of one another. The loading of the 2TM went well, and it was good to see that all 8 wheels rolled (4 road, 4 rail) despite the fact that 2 of the tires were flat. The transmission for this unit is currently being rebuilt by our own volunteers. While we were there, we also purchased a 400amp Miller welder, which Ted offered to load on his truck as well, and bring it down to his shop, along with the Trackmobile for storage.

The loading didn?t stop there. He also offered to take the air tank, steam dome, and coupler, on the truck, which saved us the trouble of trying to find out how to get it down here later. The members and board of the Museum would like thank Ted for assisting us with this move, and we are pleased that we are able to get more of our equipment down to Niagara for restoration.

Videos

Loading the Trackmobile (9.8 MB, Quicktime)
Moving HEPC 46 (20 MB, Quicktime)

We decided that while we were there, our resident welder and board member Steve Konig would weld some extra braces in the cab to help stabilize the cab for the eventual trip back to Niagara. Steve spent a few hours welding supports between the walls in the cab, along the coal bunker, and some spot welding on the floor and sides. At the end of the day, the cab was pretty solid, considering the amount of deterioration. We are hoping that the next trip north will be to load #46 and return her to Niagara.

The final item on the trip was to pick up another motorcar. Museum V.P. Aaron White decided that we needed a Sylvester Motorcar, a purely Canadian built car, in the collection. The Museum already owns 6 motorcars, and we felt that at this time, the acquisition of another car would not be possible. Aaron stepped up and said he would acquire the car and loan it to the Museum for display. The Sylvester, a model 21E, is in need of a total restoration, and will be another project on our list. The Museum cars are all Fairmonts, while 2 Fairmonts & a Woodings are on loan to the Museum. The new car will be the 3rd builder for display.

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