Over 2 weekends, museum members helped move some rather large items from the now closed Niagara Central Hobbies in St. Catharines, ON. Owners?Mark & Cheryl Lounsbury donated an ex-CNR baggage cart, the store’s HO layout and scaled down trolley replica coffee bar.

On November 14th, we were able to?move the HO layout and baggage cart to the museum. Manouvering the layout out the back doors, up the stairs and into the trailer was a tricky job. Many of the buildings and some scenic items had to be removed, but they have since been replaced on the layout for pictures. The layout is?temporarily sitting on tables, but will be put back together with?the end cabinets and?will take up residence in the office.? The baggage cart was moved in 5 pieces, and has also been reassembled at the shop.

November 21st was moving day part 2, when we moved the large trolley.? The trolley was built in 1974, on site, and has never been outside.? It was not meant to move, and it was certainly never meant to go through the front doors.? Mark was able to carefully remove the roof and our crew disconnected the electrical. Using heavy duty rollers, we were able to roll the body to the front door, only to find out, it would need to have a bit more removed.? The counter was taken off for the width, and we were able to sneak it out the front door and into the daylight for the first time ever. It took 9 of us to get the trolley out of the store and into the trailer. Needless to say there were a lot of people slowing down to see the car outside, and even those walking down the sidewalk stopped to take a look (of course they didn’t have much choice, we had the sidewalk blocked!).

It was a fairly slow trip to the Museum from St. Catharines, and thankfully the weather held out for the day. Our small Clark forklift came in very handy during the unloading, as we needed to spin the body 180 degrees to go up the ramp and into the front display area. Using the equipment rollers, we were easily able to roll it up the ramp and to the office door, where it just managed to fit through.? The body was moved into position against the wall by the entry door. The roof and counter (both removed to get through the door), have since been put back in place, as has the roof top trolley pole. Like the layout, the trolley will be worked on over the winter, including new electrical, and repairs to some of the minor damage sustained during the move.

Thanks to Mark & Cheryl for passing these items on to the Museum to allow the legacy of Niagara Central Hobbies to live on.? Thanks also to our members who gave their time over the 2 weekends to get everything moved out to the museum.

Come out and see all our new displays in 2016.

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