This coming long weekend is the second Open House at the Niagara Railway Museum Inc. The shop will be open Saturday to Monday, 9am-5pm daily. There will be artifacts, model train layouts, and other displays. The shop is open rain or shine, and is wheelchair accessible. the NRM is also taking part in the Fort Erie Friendship Festival for the first time. We will have a joint display with the Amusement Park Historical Association of Niagara. Come look for the white tent to check out both displays.

Please also be advised, the Gilmore Rd exit off the QEW is CLOSED. You may have to exit at Bowen Road (1 exit north, coming from Niagara), and turn left. Take Bowen to Thompson and turn right again. Take Thompson to Gilmore and turn left, and you’re back on track.

The first open house at the NRM for 2012 has now past.? We had great weather, and great displays, but the crowds were down.? For this event we had the entrance through the actual office of the shop, which will be the future artifact display area and main entrance.?The Southern Niagara Model Railway Club and Ontario Northland Railway Historical & Technical Society had thier displays and layout at the shop, and I thank them for taking part. We were unable to have any of the motorcars running for this event, but we are working on it for our next open house on the July Canada Day weekend.

Before our open house, I took a trip to Sandusky Ohio on the Victoria Day weekend, and went a little past to Bellevue Ohio to the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum.? The Museum wasn’t open, but I was able to see much of the equipment.? There was one locomotive in particular I wanted to see, Canadian built Wabash F7a #671, one of only 2 Canadian build Wabash F units in existence, both of which are in the US.? 671 sits right beside the NS mainline, and is in decent condition, but the rust is starting to show.

In restoration news, the doors of one hood of HEPC E-7 have been removed, sandblasted, and returned to the engine.? They are to be installed shortly, and are currently in primer paint, waiting for the rest of the hood to be finished.? HEPC steam engine #46 has also recieved some attention. On June 2, she recieved a new coat of flat black paint on the water tank.? Makes quite a difference, and will look great when the smokebox is painted.

Other work is progressing at the shop, such as painting of the door frames, and a general clean up of the area.? The old machinery that has been stored inside the office was removed before the open house, and has opened up a lot of space, which will allow us to plan the future. Thanks to Attar Metals for thier help with the clean up, and continued assistance.

Restoration continues at the shop, and we are always looking for new members, no skills required. Please email us for more information.

The first Open House of the year is approaching fast. This Saturday, May 26th, and Sunday, May 27th the shop will be open from 9-5 both days, rain or shine. Visitors will now enter through the office area at the east end of the building. Handicap access will be the big doors at the west end. All the major artifact displays, layouts, tables, etc. will be located in the office area, to allow viewing even if the weather is poor. The shop will be open for visitors to view the equipment, and get a better look at our facility.
Admission is by donation, and all are welcome. All proceeds support the Niagara Railway Museum Inc., a registered charitable organization under the Canada Revenue Agency. Please see our evenst section for a map to our location, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

The Niagara Railway Museum was part of the Canadian Council for Railway Heritage Spring Conference held at the Halton County Radial Railway near Rockwood Ontario.  The meeting was hosted by the Ontario Rail Foundation, and brought together various railway groups from across Ontario, as well as Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  The main purpose of this meeting was to introduce the CCRH to the eastern groups (CCRH has primarily been geared towards the Museums of Western Canada), and to hep create a unified front in the world of Railway Preservation.  We had lunch while we took a trip on open car #326 to the end of the line and back.  Lorna from Ontario Rail lined up some great sandwiches and wraps for the trip.  Dinner was a great BBQ, complete with a home made cake marking the event.  After dinner HCRY ran the cars for the guests, and gave a few of them a chance to take control of the car and run it down the line.

Attendees were treated to lunch on board open car #327 (left) and after the days events were done, given a walking tour (right) of Barn 4, the Adam Beck Centre, which has allowed HCRR to get almost the entire collection indoors.

The lineup of cars includes Small Witt TTC 2786, Rail Grinder W-28, and Montreal and Southern Counties #107. (left) Montreal & Southern Counties #107 still looks great, indoors in the new display building (right). 

London& Port Stanley interurban #8 and Canadian Pacific caboose 437123 wait for the next trip to the other end of the line (left).  Niagara railway Museum member John Weylie takes a look at Lake Erie & Northern line truck M-6 (right).

All in all, it was a great day, and a great opportunity to see what some of the other Railway Museums are dealing with.  Halton County Radial Railway were excellent hosts, and the tour was a hit with the guests.  Lorna and the Ontario Rail Foundation also did a great job setting up this meeting. Thanks to everyone for their hard work, and also to those who took the time out of busy schedules to attend the day.

      It was another busy weekend for the NRM.  We took part in the Ontario Narrow Gauge show in Schomberg, Ont. on Saturday April 21st. This is a small show, focusing solely on Narrow Gauge railways, and features some amazing layouts and models.

     Along with a small display, we had a small 5/8" scale layout
(O scale track is 2ft gauge), operated by Ken Jones on display.  It was well recieved, but I know what needs to be done for next year.  Sunday was busy as well with the Woodstock Model Train show in Woodstock Ont.  The show was very busy, and we talked to many people, promoting the Museum and our upcoming open house at the end of May.

      On another note, our friends at the Toronto Railway Historical Association have been hit with a major snag in the development of the Roundhouse Museum.  The site is located right in downtown Toronto, with the CN Tower, Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre, and Gardener Expressway surrounding it.  We wish them the best of luck through this unfortunate issue.  Please read the article at the link for the full story.

http://www.trha.ca/news.html

It's rather busy around the NRM shop this weekend.  Saturday saw the Jones's out and about, working on various projects.  First was our new permanent display board, which will live in the lower part of the shop floor.  The 4ft square display will feature photos and information about the shop, and the various railways around the Region.  The board is expected to be finished by the May open House.

In other news, with the first Open House of 2012 at the end of May, we have set the weekend of May 12 & 13 as spring cleaning weekend.  A skidsteer will be brought in, and any scrap, and non NRM items inside the shop, will be moved outside and taken off site.  The old machine shop equipment in the office area will soon be removed, which will allow us to focus on the rebuilding of the office portion of the shop.  Of course, there is still a lot of work to go before everything is done, but it's a good start.  There is a long list of things to do out at the shop, including scraping and painting, some building of displays, sorting of material, grass & site clean up, and just general maintenance.  Anyone who is interested in helping out, either through the week, or on a weekend, can contact the NRM and set up a time.

With the great weather this Easter weekend, I figured it would be a good day to go the shop and try to get something done.  There are a lot of little projects that need completion.  The thing is to find the one project that can be done in a relatively short period of time.  Today, that was the ex-CNR caboose stove which has been sitting in my shed for over 10 yrs.  There is some damage to the stove itself, but it is complete, and it really only needed a good cleaning and a coat of paint.  Each piece was wire brushed to get the surface rust, cobwebs, dirt, etc off, then was given a coat of flat black.  The base was painted silver, which is the colour it was when I received it. Plus, it stands out better when people are walking around the shop. 

The NRM has quite a few railroad signs as well.  While most of them are in storage, we do have some out at the shop.  I took 10 minutes today and mounted some of them to a 4×4 for display beside our crossing signal.  The round railway crossing warning sign is yet to be hung up, but will be by the May open house.

I decided to spend some time at the shop today, since the weather was so amazing.  My friend Chris Fox, from the Halton County Radial Railway came with me to take a look at the NRM’s Plymouth MDT40t. 

     HCRR just acquired a Plymouth MDT30t, for use as emergency power in case of a power failure, since they are an electric railway museum.

     While our Plymouth?s air compressor is being rebuilt, we are moving on with plans for the operation of the Plymouth this year, and that starts with new batteries.  We have the size, and we know the unit runs, so if all goes well, the batteries should be installed in 2 weeks. Still need a 12v alternator, and a few new pipes, but we should be close to running. While he was there, he took a look at our Fairmont A4d motorcar, which we have been trying to get started for use during the open houses since my Fairmont M19 will be down for repairs this year.  It was discovered, after trying to fire the Fairmont, that there was a starter issue. Chris removed the starter, took it apart, and found that the starter itself is no good.  Since our boxcars have yet to be moved, we don’t have our spare parts, so that car may have to wait for a bit.

      The NRM is still accepting donations towards our many projects.  Donations can be made right on our website through the secure server for canadahelps.org    Stay tuned to the blog for the most up to date information about the Niagara Railway Museum Inc.