The past 3 months have been somewhat busy as far as acquisitions goes, but slow as far as finding a home goes.? Our display at Canada Day was once again well received, and made us a bit of money in donations.? We have however had some significant donations recently.? A donation of railway lanterns and oil cans came in late July from Lorraine Warner of Genaire in St. Catharines, and helped fill out some of the collection.? Oddly enough, the NRM did not have any of the lanterns that were donated.? They are all in very good condition, and some will be on display at our railway show, and other functions starting this year.? The lamps were from the CNR, PRR, and MCR, and included switch and marker lamps, and CNR steam locomotive water & oil cans. There was also a replica Canadian Pacific Railway passenger car drumhead cover, which will be displayed in a case custom built by Genaire.

Judy Fortune of North Tonawanda donated some very old GTR time books from Niagara Falls.? It seems the oldest date we can find is 1892.? the books are in fair to poor condition, but when the museum is running will be displayed for all to see.? Time books were used for the crews to sign in and out of, and many of the crews that came through Niagara Falls in the early 1900’s are in this book.? Judy said her father saved them from the dumpster and gave them to her, “just in case they were of use one day”.? Well, they are of great use to us, and thanks to her father, we have a part of the railway history of Niagara back.? The photo below shows some entries from November 1915.

Jeff Smith of Simcoe has donated an old CP Express baggage cart.? Through the years, someone tried to paint a wood grain look on the top, but the CP Express is still visible on the sides.? We have also managed to purchase some new photos of CN at Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, taken in 1958.? Some of these shots will start appearing on the website shortly.? Our collection of larger artifacts is constantly growing, and we are running out of places to store our items.? As always, we are always looking for leads, in the Niagara area, for a permanent home for the Niagara Railway Museum.

On behalf of the Niagara Railway Museum, I extend our thanks to all who have donated artifacts to us, and we can assure you that they will be properly displayed for all to see.

Ken Jones Jr.
President