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August 31, 2024

RailDays and other projects

This weekend is a busy time as we gear up for RailDays on September 7 & 8. Today was all about getting the office area ready for guests and displays. The day started with a bit of rain, but Allan was out and managed to get the new door motor installed on the south door. This work was able to be done with help from Pat at Beam power & Utilities Ltd (www.beampower.ca). Pat brought the small bucket truck out for an hour, and it was very much appreciated. The motor still needs a bit of fine tuning, and wiring, but will soon be back in service.

Elsewhere, the rest of the crew was working mostly in the office area, cleaning, moving things out of the way and just generally getting the room ready. The office area will be used at RailDays for new Museum displays, a couple of model railway vendors, and some historical groups. Our small crew of 6 accomplished quite a bit today, and we even wore Nolan out. As mentioned, a lot of the work was just cleaning, but also Mike, Neil and Jim were working on fixing the shield on the signal, which was damaged when it was removed from the pole after being on display at the former Memory Junction Museum. Ken wired up a new control for the signal so it can now be used as a hands on exhibit. Needs a bit of tweaking, but it will be ready for RailDays. Last weekend, Bill Thompson also dropped off some Great gorge Route items, enlarged copies of brochures and postcards. Not sure how they will be displayed yet, but we will find a way. We also had a donation today of older maintenance and operating manuals, ranging from diesel locomotive manuals to different types of Stoker manuals for steam engines. The HO scale model of the CN Fort Erie scale has finally found a new home in the office display case.

Thanks to Ken, Neil, Mike, Jim, Nolan, Allen and Ken for looking after our visitors, and getting the work done. More finishing touches being done on Sunday, including painting the signal and setting up the tables.