With only 2 weeks to go to our first open house of 2014, NRM members were out to do some work in the office area.? Of course all this work had to be done around the crew from Dead Plumber Pictures who were out for the first of 2 weekends shooting footage for their next short film.? Despite rain, sun, rain, wind, sun, etc. on Saturday, they managed to push through for almost 12hrs outside around the property. Sunday they finished up outside before moving inside for the start of the interior footage. They will finish up their filming on May 3/4, and we will then move in and finish cleaning and getting things ready at the shop. They have been great to have at the shop, and we look forward to seeing the final results of all this work.

? Had to make up a few new signs to label some of the larger items on display. The 2 parlour car chairs (the sign will be changed), are 1930?s vintage, and a bit tattered, but still in decent enough shape, and very comfortable. Doug Wilson contributed the interior shot (CN Photo, Collection of D.N. Wilson)? of one of the CNR parlour cars with the same style chairs. The seats were at risk of being thrown out, so we took them on a whim, and we?re glad they are now part of our collection.? My thanks to Doug for his ongoing contributions to the Museum.? Work inside the shop was ongoing, and included a lot of smaller projects that needed to get done.? The display stand for the HO Niagara Falls Station model, which is a key component to the CN Steam Excursion display, was finished.? The model now needs to be finished off, and it will be ready to go. Ken Jones (below left) did some painting in the office to clean it up a bit, and more will be done as time permits.? We also added a few new lights to fill in the dark spots.? These will be replaced with new, permanent lighting after the open house, which will be more energy efficient, and safer for the artefacts. Some of the old communication wire hanging in the ceiling was taken down, and Aaron White (below right) removed the old breaker panels from the wall.? We have a new breaker panel which will be installed in the office area as we move forward with the new lighting.

The switch stand (below left) that we received from the Komoka Railway Museum last year was mounted on blocks and painted, and had a new sign added. We still have to straighten the mast, and once that?s repaired a switch lamp will be added. Since we won?t be using our Racine rail drill until we get back into the track work, it is also on display. With the arrival of better weather, it was time for our Canadian Flag to fly over the shop once again. Other work included finishing the second track on our small HO display layout.? Scenery still needs to be repaired, but it will at least allow us to operate trains for the open house. Clayton from Attar Metals also brought down their skid steer and laid out some rail onto the ties for our track construction. The NRM thanks Attar for their continued support and assistance to the Museum.

The Niagara Railway Museum open house is on Saturday May 10th & Sunday May 11th, 2014, 10am to 4pm both days.? The event runs rain or shine, and admission is by cash donation.? Come on out and see the changes we?ve made, the new displays we have created, and learn about the railway history of Niagara.