The last few days of the month have brought a lot of activity to the museum.
Replacing the station platform is long overdue. So the CSVs (Community Service Volunteers) began the job of removing the railings and artifacts and dismantling the platform. In the meantime, Don Weymouth brought 80 planks from a lumber mill in LacLaBiche.  We got  a good price which encouraged us to get going. The planks were cut by the mill to fit the platform, coated with preservative and stacked ready for installation.  Thanks to Barry Collis, Phil Harris and Hans Huizinga

Some planks were salvaged from the existing platform and the rest were removed by  Keith Reed  who took them, nails and all, to a farm where they will be used in a fire pit for Halloween (I think!).

The crossing between the CN caboose and the water car had fallen into disrepair and was replaced by the CSV crew using planks taken from the platform.

A load of gravel was purchased to repair the west crossing at Soneff Junction so that it would withstand the road traffic.

We need to have storage for rail and track jewelry so new planks have been cut to fit and purchased from the LacLaBiche mill to put a deck on flat car NAR 15015. The rotted deck was removed by Doug Hunt and Mike Frail several years ago. 
Flat car NAR 16511 is being considered for deck repair as well.  It has steam parts, fence posts, hot water tanks, cabinets and fence wire stacked on it. When those have been removed we will use the salvaged planks from the station platform to finish the deck.  No new planks will need to be purchased. This will put two flat cars into service.

CSV crews will be working on:
Saturday, October 1
Sunday, October 2
Thursday, October 6
Friday, October 7
Saturday, October 15
Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Speaking of help, Stephen Yakimets represented us at the Model Train Show which is a yearly two-day function of the Mainline Model Railroaders Fellowship and is held at the Mayfield Hotel. Gloria Jackson, Cathy Garvey, Ernie Townend, David Stokes and Jim Munsey volunteered at the booth as well. Lots of interest in what we do and several registrants made their way to the museum to see our collection. 

Switching will take place on October 1 to re-arrange the collection in preparation for winter.

Welcome to new members David Schultz of Legal, David Howatt of Bon Accord, Erasmus Burford of Edmonton, James Hope of Lancaster Park and Julian Buchwald of Edson.  Philip Broadbent has renewed his membership. 

Just arrived! Thanks to AltaSteel, Edmonton for the donation of a trip hammer dated 1894.  It was in their former blacksmith shop and was surplus to their needs.  In addition the grapple for the 35 ton railway crane was also shipped. The crane is part of a large donation - which includes a 44 ton switcher. The latter two are to be inspected and moved by CN in the next few days. Thanks to Barry Collis for the photo.

This was an exceptional weekend - the weather, number of visitors and the opportunity to demonstrate some aspects of railway operation.

The train crew was Barry Wolfe, Jim Sexsmith, Terry Wolfe, Stephen Yakimets, Ken Jones, Norm Corness, Hans Huizinga and Ted VanGunst. These dedicated volunteers are an example of what can be done when teamwork is in place.

Gift Shop and train ticket sales were staffed by Gloria, Cathy, Amber, Rosemarie and Pat. They welcomed the guests, gave them site maps, sold tickets for the train and introduced visitors to the new stock in the gift shop.

The telegraphers were hooping up trains, processing train orders and explaining "antique email" to inquiring minds. Fred, Pat and Bob were among the volunteer telegraphers.

It is a great pleasure to participate in this restoration and interpretation business.  Many visitors were brought by  their children's interest in Thomas the Tank Engine. We have lots of Thomas stock in the Gift Shop and it moves briskly.

Thanks to anyone and everyone who helped in any way to make this final weekend of the season the resounding success that it was.

What next?
There is lots to do yet. All the work cars have been re-painted as well as five small buildings. Lettering the work cars will be the next step. Niale Smith has that job under control

The stock car (xCN 172755) and outside sheathed boxcar (xNAR 17092) are being scraped and painted by the CSVs (Community Service Volunteers). These cars will be lettered as well.

The wash car is to be spray-painted - in boxcar red like the other buildings with NAR, CN maple leaf, Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk and ARM logos on the parking lot side. Don will spray paint it, Niale will letter it. 

The new floors in the washrooms are being installed by Barry and Phil. A plywood sub floor goes down first and then the donated "Battleship" lino is glued to that.

Don has finished painting the doors on boxcar CN 509893 in Calder Shop. It is a beautiful restoration, has been painted and lettered and it is being re-loaded by Brad's crew.

The CSVs are scheduled to be on site on September 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.
They will be completing some work on the cars.

We continue to work on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Come for a visit and see what is happening and maybe give us a bit of help.

Herb