Its been extremely busy around the Museum the last month, and I’m a bit behind in posting updates. The October Model Railway Show is now behind us, and I’m pleased with the results. We are now looking forward to our next show on March 6th. Other shows we’ve been taking part in were the Woodstock Show in October, and the Ancaster TH&B Flea Market, which was one of our best Ancaster shows ever.

The Weekenders N scale layout.

Show floor nearing the end of the day.

We’ve also had some great donations, including a rare set of items from the Royal Train in June 1973 from the family of Murray and Morley VanAlstine. Murray & Morley were twin brothers.? They both worked for CN out of Niagara Falls.? They hired on, on?the same day, got their engineman papers the same day, and retired the same day. They were in Ripleys Believe It Or Not, and were also both part of the crew on the Royal train. The donation included 2 photo albums covering the brothers careers, a menu, complete set of train orders and other paperwork from the Royal Train.? We also have a set of book ends cut from a piece of rail showing the brothers on their last trip. This is a great addition to the Museum and the items will be on display in 2016.

The last run banner.

The VanAlstine Brothers on their last trip.

After many years of work, we have finally finished the largest part of our track construction, and now have 2 tracks to the shop which we will be able to move between. Our track crew was often only 4 people, but thanks to Wayne Ettinger of Trillium Railway Co. Ltd, we were able tocomplete the job easier as he loaned us the companies hydraulic track tools.? We pre set the spikes then drove them in with the spiker. There is still some work to do, just some fine tuning, but we expect to be able to get our final boxcar inside for the winter.? We also thank Bill Snow and Doug Campbell of Rankin Construction for donating 2 truck loads of ballast, and Milton and Clayton from Attar Metals for moving some ballast and adjusting our track. Clayton brought theskidsteer over to assist us with some basic work. Without the generous assistance they frequently provide, ?we would not be as far along as we are.

As a surprise to our members, our November meeting was held in a special location at the Niagara District Airport. Genaire Ltd has former CN flanger 56323, which was converted to an open conference room many years ago.? It is identical to the car we have, except where we have from the frame down, this car has the body we are missing. A big thanks goes to Lorraine Warner of Genaire for allowing us to have our meeting in their former CNR wood body Flanger. It was a big hit with our members, and it’s still being talked about as the best meeting spot yet!!

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