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June 30, 2010

NRM Open House Update

A good work session was held today, with a lot of brush being cleared, and some cleaning inside the shop.? Due to a lack of volunteers, the shop WILL NOT be open July 1st.? The shop will be open July 2, 3, 4 10am to 4pm.? Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.?

?The rounhouse area was uncovered today, and can be seen towards the right of centre in the accompanying photo? After more than 20yrs, the shape of the roundhouse can now be seen.? A pathway has been cut through the brush and visitors to the site will be able to walk over and see where the stalls were, as well as the wall of the turntable pit.? NS 369 was also in the yard working today, and is shown below on its way back towards the US.? Both shots were taken from the midway point on one of the sand towers.

The roundhouse area has been cut down to allow visitors to see the location.

NS 369 is shown on its way back to the US.

June 29, 2010

NRM Tuesday work session

Brush cutting cleaning up the look of the site.

In our never ending attempt to clean up not just the shop area, but the site itself, we sent most of today cutting brush and weeds from the area.? the weedeater with steel reinforced knife blades is great for getting around things.? However, when it came right down to it, a brush cutter is required for the big stuff.? Since the crimials who broke into the shop destroyed our other brush cutter, we have now had to spend money that could have be used for equipment restoration, on renting a brush cutter.? This walk behind unit did a great job and really cleaned things up.? Half of the former turntable area has been cut as of today, and will continue tomorrow.? We will also continue cutting around the perimeter of the shop, clearing out the hard to see area.?

With the open house this weekend, we are trying to make the site presentable, despite some old junk trailers and such still sitting around.? So come out this weekend 10am-4pm July 1, 2, 3, 4 and see the new Niagara Railway Museum at 21 Warren St in Fort Erie.

June 27, 2010

Upcoming Open House

The Niagara Railway Museum is gearing up for its first ever Open House at our new home, the former CNR diesel shop at 21 Warren St. in Fort Erie, Ont., July 1st to 4th, 10am to 4pm daily. We will have our steam locomotive on display inside the shop, and we plan to have the Plymouth diesel outside with the cab open to visitors. There will be railway history displays inside the shop, including photos and artifacts. There may also be track car rides on a short section of track outside (provided by a private operator).

So come out and support Railway history in the Niagara Region. For more information, contact us at 905 357 6539 or info @ nfrm.ca

June 22, 2010

Mini Work Session Report ? Monday, June 21, 2010

Despite yet another wave of vandalism sometime? between 4pm Saturday & 7pm Sunday, which saw 2 more windows smashed, and other previously smashed windows destroyed even further, we will not let these criminals derail our plans!!? Our open house will continue as planned on July 1 to 4, and we will press forward developing our great attraction.? After almost 2 yrs, we finally moved our display cases out of storage in Thorold, to a new storage location near the NRM site.? They were kept off the site for now because of the recent vandalism.? We also moved some of our artifacts, including a hand operated track drill, dwarf signal, semaphore, and other smaller items.? Thanks to Guy, John, Mark & Ron for helping to move the cases to thier new location.? Our next work session is scheduled for this Wednesday, likely around 930am.? Work planned for hte day includes continued track construction, as well as some cleaning/clearing inside the shop to prepare for the July open house.

June 19, 2010

Work Session Report ? Saturday, June 19, 2010

Track 2, taken from the sand tower work platform is ready for spiking.

The 2 man track gang was out in force today.? Steve and I managed to get another 4 sticks of 80lb rail laid out, and ready for spiking.? We are now across the yard access road, and have built a small temporary crossing.? This will allow CN to cross our tracks, but we will replace it with a better crossing in the future.? The Plymouth now has all 4 engineer side windows removed, and they will be replaced as time and funds permit.? Still have 7 more windows to remove and replace, but these were the worst ones damaged in the vandalism attack.? The next work session at the Niagara Railway Museum will be Wednesday, June 23, 10am.? There will be people coming and going throughout the week, but if you want to be there when we are working, drop us a line to confirm.

Looking west down track 1 towards our new temporary crossing.

June 18, 2010

NRM site heavily vandalized

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

June 16, 2010

Work Session Report – Wednesday, June 16 2010

Despite a rainy day, a crew of 3 worked at the Museum site today.? John finished cleaning out the cab of the Plymouth, and it looks pretty good.? Should be ready for a coat of paint on Friday.? Steve?worked on clearing weeds from some other?track that is on?our leased property.? We’ll need to store our boxcars there when they arrive as we don’t have a connection to the shop off the west leg of the wye yet.? Of course, there is a chance we’ll have to move the boxcars by road, in which case, we’ll put them right onto?track 1 & 2 of the shop and move them inside.

Work is progressing slowly, but we are getting things done. Our next work session takes place this weekend.? A crew will be out there at 9am Friday, working on the track construction outside, extending track 1 to allow us to operate the motorcars.? Track 2 is also going to be set up, having the gauge rail spiked down so crews can finish the rest later on in the week.? Saturday will be much the same, track work, and some painting/repairs on the Plymouth to get it ready for display at the open house on the July long weekend.? Likely not anything happening on Sunday, but there will be?something going on out there Monday for the morning. ?Lots of things happening out there, and we have work for any skill level.? If you want to get involved, just drop us a line, or show up at one of our work sessions.

June 13, 2010

Plymouth gets a cleaning

A small crew was at the shop today, spending some time cleaning out the cab of the Plymouth diesel to allow visitors inside during our upcoming display. The loose flaking paint was scraped down, and the cab was vacuumed out. We hope to get a bit of paint on the roof before Canada Day, as people will get a chance to visit the cab and sit in the engineers seat. Next work session is Wednesday June 16th.

June 12, 2010

Work Session – June 12, 2010

Track 1 construction proceeds west

With the new NRM blog, updates on regular work sessions and progress will be posted on here with just major items posted to the News section.? Progress is constant at the shop, with work crews on site generally 2 days a week Wednesday & Saturday.? Construction is continuing on track 1, working out towards an eventual connection to the CN line, and where a turnout will be to reach track 2.? We are adding to the 140ft of track 1 already laid.?? The rail out from the shop is 100lb, but drops down to 85lb at the sand towers.? The view in the photo is looking west.? The track will start to curve to the right to where a turnout will connect with track 2, and eventually onto a connection with the west leg of the former wye.

The next work session will be Wednesday June 16th.? Work scheduled for that day is the construction of a crossing over the CN yard access Rd.

June 11, 2010

NRM joins the blogosphere!

Welcome to the new NRM blog!? Now that we have a location (not yet open to the public though!), we felt it was a good idea to change the way we keep everyone up to date. There will be lot’s more posts to come…

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