August 22nd was a busy day building new stairs for the various pieces of equipment at the shop. 3 crews worked on different tasks. New stairs were built for the Flanger, Boarding car and GE. There is still work to do on the handrails, but they will all be ready for our visitors at RailDays.
We are working on displays for inside the Boarding car, including the builders plates from TH&B X-755, the Jordan Spreader that was scrapped, pictures of the move, past and present, and the TH&B No Trespassing sign.
On August 20, 2020 the NRM successfully moved TH&B Carpenters Boarding car X759 from Fenwick to the Museum site in Fort Erie. It was a perfect day for the move and everything went fairly well. Had a slight hiccup in the morning which put us behind a bit, but things quickly improved after that and we were done earlier than expected. Loading the car was the slow part, as the stem winder handbrake stuck up almost a foot over the roof, so the front had to be lower than the back. There was some tweaking of the timbers to get it just right. All the brake rigging and air system was also still on the car which hung down almost to the deck. Once the car was loaded the wheel sets were placed on another trailer, the crane packed up, and away everything went.
The crane arrived at the Museum site first, wheels next, and the carbody shortly after. Everything was unloaded and put back together fairly easily, although one end of the car wasn’t quite sitting down into the truck bolster as far as it should. The car is still safe for our needs, but that will be addressed at a future date. One wheel set was a bit tight and didn’t roll very well. The car was pushed inside and with some movement started rolling better. It is now in place on the drop table and stairs will be built to allow visitors access to the inside.The Niagara Railway Museum Inc. would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to the Robbins Family for donating the car and other items to us. The car will be restored over time, but for now, it’s at least inside. Our plan is to add pictures of the original move to their farm, and the pics to our site. For the most part the car will be restored as close to it was as possible.
The Museum would like to thank:
Tom and Gerrit from Falcon Crane in St. Catharines for doing such a great job with the lift.
Colton from Pioneer Heavy Haul of Welland for delivering the car safely to the site.
Chris from Stewart’s Deliveries of Welland for getting the wheel sets to the site.
Milton from Attar Metals for bringing over the loader to shove the car inside the building.
And of course our volunteers that spent a very long day making sure this car got moved, Neil, Mike, John, Jim, Nolan, Ken Sr. and Ken Jr. All these people and companies shown above really made everything come together, and we really couldn’t have asked for better move.
Thank you everyone for following along with this move today, we appreciate your support and hope you’ll come out and see our new car.
