Cleaning out the mud rails.

It has been a fairly productive 2 weeks at the shop with help from various people.? Members of the Southern Niagara Model Railroad Club in Thorold came out on Tuesday night and cleared out the mud rails of the siding where our boxcars will likely be stored temporarily when they arrive.? This job alone took them almost 3hrs to clean out 40ft.? One of our new members, William Cormier has been cleaning up around the site, and has cleaned out mud, grass and debris from the concrete fueling pads in preparation for relaying the track

Fueling Pads

There has also been work going on inside the shop, mostly with the removal of windows that were smashed in by the vandals who hit us a month ago.? We do not yet have new glass, but we need to remove the old glass to make is safe for our members and for visitors.? There has also been work done on our newest arrival, HEPC E-7.? Paint is slowly being removed, and the engine cleaned up in preparation for painting, which could happen later this year.

E-7 with newly installed window covers.

The cab of E-7 has also been cleaned out as it was filled with sand and other debris from years of sitting around.? Unfortunately, for some reason, while it sat at NRE in Capreol, the step ladders on the sides were cut off (since last year).? These will be replaced in time.? While E-7 is not in it’s original configuration, it will be repainted to its original HEPC scheme.

In keeping with the mandate of the NRM, part of the process of restoration is to have thesite showing as it originally was.? Part of this interpretation is the uncovering of part of the original turntable pit.? This was done this past weekend, and about 12ft of the top of the pit wall is now visible to visitors to the site.? Part of the turntable pit, along with part of a roundhouse stall, will be uncovered so people can see what was originally on the site.

We also now have an Architect working on the plans for the reconstruction

A portion of the original turntable pit rail

of the office area, which will create the main artifact display room for the NRM.??? Jason Pizzicarola of Jason Pizzicarola Design – Architects Inc. (www.jpdesign.ca)?has offered to assist the NRM with these plans.

I extend my thanks to those who have been working so hard to make the NRM a reality, and we expect great things in the future.? Our next big event will be on September 11/12, 2010, at our second open house of the year.? This open house will be bigger than the one in July, and will feature our 3 locomotives on display, track motorcar rides, model train layouts, railway artifacts, and possibly some other local history displays.? The event runs rain or shine, 9am-4pm both days.? Admission is by donation.

NRM's new locomotive, ex-INCo #102 (nee HEPC E-7) sits in the NRE yard waiting to move into the shop for loading.

After a very gruelling 18hr day for me, I am pleased to report that the NRM’s 3rd locomotive is now safe and sound inside the Fort Erie shop.
INCo #102 (ex-HEPC E-7) arrived in Fort Erie at 530pm Thursday.? The crane however, didn’t show up until after 8pm. We quickly unloaded the trucks, and moved the crane and float with the locomotive to the other side of the tracks.? Yes, it was unloaded in the dark.? Peter from PRW brought a 60ton Grove crane for the lift, which was a bit hairy at times, but it all worked out in the end, and after a bit of tweaking, the body dropped onto the trucks quite easily.? A lot of work was done this week to prepare for the move, from going to Capreol prep E07 for the move, to the NRM crew at the shop.? Track 2 was cleared out to accomodate E-7.? Steve, Ray, John, William, and?Ken spent time working on track 2.? Steve,
Ray & William also returned?Thursday afternoon/evening to help with the move, along with Ken?Jones Sr.?& Garry.? Beam excavating sent over a brand new Cat backhoe (6.5hrs on the unit) to help with the move, and the guys that came with it, Jeff & Paul were a great help, as they also pitched in during the actual lift

NRM's new loco, ex-INCo #102 (nee HEPC E-7) is moved into the shop by NRE's 25 tonner.

to hep get E-7 to where it needed to be.? This is the second time Beam has offered a machine to us, the first being when 46 arrived, and it was very much appreciated.? The crew at NRE in Capreol were great to work with.? The engine was jacked up, the trailer backed under?Wednesday night.? Don Villeneuve, Owner of Villeneuve’s Steel Wheels brought the body of E-7 down early Thursday morning.? My driver John, ?arrived at 650am Thursday morning, loaded my pick up onto the float (it died Wed. night) then loaded E-7’s trucks, the pantograph & steps, and we were on our way.? John?was a great help during the unloading?as well.? This move never would have been?possible if not for the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum & Heritage Centre in Capreol who managed to hold off on scrapping the unit untl we could actually acquire it.I had started dealing with Bob Michelutti some 4 yrs ago to have them hold off disposing of the unit.? Thankfully, they were willing to work with us on this, and it has paid off in the end.

Renumbered/relettered, HEPC E-7 is up on jacks, waiting for the arrival of the float trailer, to take it to the NRM.On the truck and ready to go. The body of E-7 is ready to leave Capreol for the last time, heading to the NRM shop at Fort Erie.

I am very pleased with how things went, and am very thankful to all who came out to help with the move, and the preperations that went into
getting E-7 to our site.? With the arrival of E-7, this completes the Hydro Locomotive Trilogy (so to speak) and now gives us a very unique display of 3 hydro units from 2 of the most famous power projects in Canadian history.

On the truck and ready to go. The body of E-7 is ready to leave Capreol for the last time, heading to the NRM shop at Fort Erie.

Thank you again to everyone who helped out. It was a lot of work, but we can be proud of what has been accomplished.? Now, get some rest, and I’m sure I’ll see some of you on Saturday as we have quite a bit of work to do, including door repairs, and a massive cleaning of the cab of E-7.

Ken Jones

President

Niagara Railway Museum

Jeff from Beam Excavating operates the brand new Cat backhoe, lifting E-7's pantograph and steps off the float to allow the trucks to be placed on the rails.

With the trucks on track 2 beside the crane, Peter from PRW starts to lift E-7's body off the float. It is 1030 at night, and the engine was back together by 1115.

Despite more damage to the shop last week, it was still a productive weekend. Work continued on our 2 shop tracks, with track 1 compromise bars being changed to the correct weights, and track 2 has been gauged and spiked up to the start of the 80lb rail. The 80lb rail?will be finished up through the week. The problem now is we are running out of rail. We still need about 300ft of track (600ft of rail) to complete the tracks to where the switch will eventually end up on the CN. ?This includes 1 turnout to connect track 1 & 2, which is the track construction for phase 1.

NRM Site Track Plan

It has been a very long 3 days for the Niagara Railway Museum crew.? Members have spent many hours over the past week preparing the site for visitors to our first ever open house.? Grass & weeds were cut down, the shop was swept up (numerous times!) equipment was cleaned up as much as possible, along with being moved into display position.? While we don’t have an exact figure, we believe attendance for the 3 days was around 120-140 people, which for our first time, was pretty decent.? We had nothing but positive comments and well wishes.? We even gained new members because of it.? On Saturday night, July 3rd, we held a small night photo shoot at the shop, featuring our steam and diesel locomotives.? this was more of a test run to see what we could do.? The end result was quite well done, and my thanks to Jason & Louis for taking time to set up the lights for the shoot.? Dan Lint from our neighbour Border City Castings was good enough to bring his tractor out Friday morning to move 46 ahead for

display, and the Plymouth outside.? He also returned Sunday to move both locomotives back to thier normal positions in the shop.? My thanks to Dan for helping us out with the equipment move.? I also had my Fairmont M19 up and

running, despite damage from the vandalism attacks 3 weeks ago.? The car ran very well over the short stretch of track

we’ve constructed, and was well recieved by those that went for the short ride.

All in all it was a very good 3 days, and was very beneficial in gathering information from visitors, and even from neighbours that came over to see what was going on.? All the comments were positive, and while we didn’t have a lot on display, the open house was a success.? I send my thanks to all the dedicated NRM members who came out to help over the weekend, Dan Lint for the tractor, Louis Nigro for helping to arrange the tractor, and the lights for the night photos of 46.

Cogeco Cable 10 here in the Falls for doing 2 great stories about the Museum and the open house, and of course, no open house is complete without you, the visitors who came out and supported us in this event.

Keep an eye on the website, as there is still one more open house planned, likely for September sometime, when we hope to be further along with the building, and have most of our equipment on site.? As always, we are looking for people interested in helping?with equipment restoration, track construction, building maintenance, etc, and work sessions are usually held Wednesday’s & Saturdays, but can be changed to other days with some notice.

Ken Jones Jr.
President
Niagara Railway Museum

The CN Fairmont M19 & A4d, smashed together, prior to being pulled apart.

The rear windows have been damaged more than they were, and the engineers side windows were destroyed.

Sometime between June16 and June 18, vandals punched a hole in the brick wall of the NRM shop and gained entry.? While inside, they succeeded in causing extensive damage to equipment, including 5 windows on the Plymouth diesel, 2 windows on the Fairmont M19, and 5 windows on the Fairmont A4d gang car.? They also destroyed out brush cutter by shoving it into the pit, from the top of the work platform.? Of 9 cases of water we had there for volunteers, 2 remain, 4 were scattered throughout the shop and outside, and 3 are missing completely.? Both of our donation boxes were also destroyed, although they got nothing out of them.? This is a major set back for the Museum as we work to create a new attraction at this site.? Money that should have been spent on equipment restoration or building repairs will now have to be used to rebuild damaged equipment.

The upcoming open house on July 1st to 4th is still on.? We will do our very best to provide our visitors with a proper display, and show that these vandals will not destroy our goals!!? Please show your support for the NRM and come out to the open house July 1-4, 10am to 4pm each day.

Ken Jones

President – Niagara Railway Museum

www.nfrm.ca