Report for Thursday 5 August to Sunday 8 August

Thursday, 5 August.

We had a long meeting of the volunteers in the section house. John Weir
briefed us on the plans for the upcoming Railway Festival on August 28
and 29. Anne will send out minutes of the meeting.

Tom Travis painted the ladder brackets and stantions second coat. He also
painted the new wood on a crank rod from the velocipede in the MWR that
Ross restored during the week.

Ross did more sorting in the archives.

Others were busy on site but I did not take notes. You should send me an
email each day about what you do and I will include it here.

Sunday, 8 August.
Anne and I met with Bob Moore to discuss the placement of fill that we may
receive over the next few weeks. Some of the site will need to be
cordoned off for safety reasons. Also some rail and ties at the switch
will have to be moved to make way for the trucks.

Doug K weed whacked down past the combine. There is a terrible mess in
the low area next to the combine track that we need to fill in soon. How
to clean this up will need input from everyone. Most of this was there
when we bought the property.
Doug also placed ties into pallet crates supplied by Bob Moore. We will
need to make more of these, pallets are behind the garden shed.

Ross was not in a good mood and his day got worse by the minute. First
he assembled the 4 ladder brackets and then moved them and the six
stantions into the combine car. Doug K helped with this.

I tried to get the Woodings railcar going. First I found the wire to the
fuel pump had no voltage, a jumper fixed this temporarily. The wiring in
that car is a shambles, there are loose, unterminated and cut wires
everywhere. With fuel it started but would not idle. Attempts to adjust
the carburator only led to skinned ankles jumping from inside the car to the
front before it died. I removed the carburaetor and will have it
rebuilt in Ottawa.

The door jam on the mens stall almost fell off, this repair required
a trip to the hardware for 5 inch long screws, drilling out the original
holes
and installing the new screws. I will have to drill another hole at the
bottom when I can find a drill.

I tried to replace the deck faucet in the upstairs kitchen, was thwarted
by the need for special pipe adapters. Next week maybe.

Al Westland was measuring for the final rails for the switch, He will
rent a saw on Thursday and we will get this done. He is looking for the
2 boxes of cutoff discs.

Brian was painting the herald on the left side of the tender.

Ross removed one of the broken tops from the model 417 caboose stoves
and tack welded it back together with special cast iron rod. The top has
been sand blasted and with some filler and paint will make a pattern for
casting 2 new ones which Ross will have made at a foundry and donate.

That is it for this week. Apologies if I missed some action.

Ross Robinson

Report from July 29 to August 1st

Once again this report is late.

Thursday Brian was seen painting the Canadian National herald gold
lettering on the station side of the 1112 tender.

Doug may have been working on the switch. Al was absent.

Ross with help from John Weir and his tractor and Carl's muscles moved 5
loads of stoves and teletypes to the house. We also moved some smaller
items such as the turbo generator from the 1112.

Friday we moved another 2 loads of TTY to the house and a trailer load
of stretchers and other small items. Ross then spent the afternoon
cleaning the corner of the express office and starting to sort the paper
goods. 2 work tables have been set up and the process of de-moulding the
paper goods has begun.

A new rear gate has been approved by the board, work will commence in
September. I will try and post a 3D drawing at the sign in table,
drawing courtesy of Anne's husband Neil White.

Brian finished the herald by painting in the red background. Looks terrific.

Brian and Doug pressure washed the wooden locomotive ready for staining.

Sunday, Tom Travis from the Hoosier Valley RR Museum in North Judson IN
dismantled the 4 new ladder brackets and applied the first coat of
yellow paint, and also to the six safety railing stantions.

Ross continued sorting in the express office.

Doug K and his son Anthony applied a coat of sealer/stain to the wooden
train locomotive, until they ran out of stain.

Rian M and Ross put 45 lb. felt paper and a ridge cap of old roll
roofing on the roof of the garden shed. This will buy us a bit of time
before installing the steel roofing. Ross would like to see a barge board
installed on the shed. We will have to move the pile of tie plates
beside the shed for safe access, we can make some more pallet crates for
these. Ross put the roofing material on the combine platform into the
car and 2 pails of roofing cement.

Apologies if I missed others working on site.

Ross Robinson

Report for Thursday July 22 thruTuesday July 27th.

First I should point out that the dates on most of the July reports
are incorrect. I failed to turn my office calendar to July from June.

Thursday was spent moving items out of the container to make room for
John Weir's tractor. It now barely fits inside. Several loads of wood
were moved to the shed, a lot of other stuff was relocated in the
container, the long ladders went to the shed. We moved the scaffolding
into the boxcar behind 1112, in the process we found 4 stoves that
belonged in the archives section of the house so these were moved with
the tractor. There is still a lot of organizing left to do in the
container and that boxcar. This took up nearly the whole day. Workers
were, John W and his tractor, Bill M, Brian K, Ross R, Al W.. William
Seabrooke and Tom Caine helped and then went off to clear up scrap
siding and cut down weeds behind the shed.

At the end of the day the 3 motorcars on the breeze way were moved to
the front and back platforms to make space for the model rail exhibit
to be held on Saturday.

Gee sorted thru the recently returned accessioning sheets. A bit more
work and they should all be in proper order, then we can enter the
basic
info into a database.

Anne and the students cleaned up the room in the tower of the station,
moved a filing cabinet full of photos across the hall into a storage
room. They plan to repaint this room.

On Saturday Doug K, Al W, John Weir and Rian M shifted the track at
the entrance to the shed over a few inches so that Car 23 will not rub
on the door post. On Sunday Doug was cleaning up the site.

On Tuesday Tony dumped a lot of concrete fill in the hole at the end
of the shed track so that we can extend it a few hundred feet for
switching cars out and into the shed. He also got the rails at the
switch cut. This is a major contribution to getting the switch
finished.
Maybe we will yet be able to roll 23 out at the Railfest.

During the week Ross fabricated an air distribution manifold for the
compressor and sand blasted the fan and water pump body. He is
searching
for parts to complete the re-building of the pump.

Noel White, Anne's husband has produced a beautiful set of iometric
drawings of the proposed rear gate, for presentation at the next board
meeting. If this is approved we will get at it as the existing gate is
falling apart and would be a waste of resources to replace it as is.

Hope I got the major items into this report.

Ross Robinson, with input from Doug, Tony and Brian.

Report for July 14 to 17, 2010.

Monday July 14th.

Anne put her horticultural skills to good use and cleaned up the flower
gardens at the station, removing a truck load of branches and trash. She
also trimmed the bushes. Bob Moore was weed wacking. At some point
during the week Tony made the pile of cuttings disappear.

Thursday, July 17

Anne started the day with a meeting to map out responsibilities for
festival preparations and for the two days of the event.

Artist John Cullen came and looked at several lettering jobs that he has
kindly offered to do.

To clear the breezeway for this weekend's festival and for a G scale
event to be held at the museum in two weeks, as a group effort we moved:
the mainline hand car to the Cadillac shed track and the handcar
in the breezeway to the mainline track;
the two baggage carts from the breezeway to the front of the station;
the unused interpretive sign stands into the fowler boxcar;
the arc welder into the express room;
the fuel drum under the fire escape to beside the tool shed;
the lumber under the fire ecape into the restoration building;
the steel roofing for the garden shed onto the ground;
the horse drawn plow into the mainline automobile boxcar; and
the three speeders into a line against the fire escape (bonus -
no more tripping over the chains);
two trolley carts down to the end of the main line.

George cleaned and tested the two bar-be-ques and moved them to the
breezeway. They are stored, less gas tanks in the baggage room. The
tanks are in the garden shed.

Tom moved a steel staircase from the container to beside 1112's cab for
visitor access. Alan cleaned 1112's cab interior and replaced some dead
light bulbs in the cab and he treated the headlamp to a brighter bulb.
There is space to store the stairway in the breezeway.

To start clearing enough space in the container for John Weir's tractor,
a second steel staircase was moved from it to under the breezeway fire
escape, and the track saw was also removed and chained under the paint
car near the switch project.

Alan cleaned inside the orange CN caboose and it is now ready to be
opened to the public.

Ross fixed a problem with the toilet in the ladies washroom by replacing
the kinked supply tube and a loose bolt to the floor.

Ross tried to repair the leaking faucet in the kitchen, it will need a
repair kit. Unfortunately the mini hot water tank in the kitchen didn't
like being disturbed and started to
leak. It had to be shut off. Ross will replace the relief valve.

Gee thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, including the inside of the fridge.

Ross returned two repaired screens for the end doors of the front track
caboose and took one from the back track caboose home for repairs.
Vandals at work.

Brian cleaned up the restoration building and removed everything from
alongside car 23 to give a clearer view of the car. He installed two
safety ropes at the edge of the platform along the length car 23. It's
safer but not perfect, so children will still have to be watched carefully.

Bill helped for a while, then went home to finish the safety rails he is
making for the hand car that he completely rebuilt last winter.
These will be installed on Friday so we will have 2 cars on two tracks.

Mike changed the mainline speeder's oil and cleaned and adjusted its
carburetor, reassembled everything and tested the engine. It will not
run at a constant speed, so we cannot use it this weekend.

John Weir and others continued to clear weeds from the two tracks.

Tom brought another box of books donated by the CSTM and he indexed and
catalogued about a dozen of them. Ross accessioned the newly donated
first aid kit, it is now installed in the blue caboose.

A ring of antique railway keys, including Grand Trunk and CNR, was
donated to the museum today. Too bad there's no way of knowing if the
CNR keys are Canadian Northern.

All of the accession forms, and some gift of deed forms were returned to the
museum under cover of darkness by a person "known". Tom is very
impressed by the level of detail recorded in the forms. We are now
planning how to get the basic information into a data base so we can do
searches in order to locate artifacts.

Ross had several locks re-keyed and the pins in others replaced to
increase our security of the collection and to reduce the level of
frustration with the shed lock.

Anne gave the museum's interior a good cleaning and Noel (her husband)
and Carl cleaned pigeon
droppings from the platform. Anyone for pigeon pie?.

Anne and the students are working on signage for the festival. The
students were kept busy between visitors with cleaning the station interior.

Gary brought his lawn tractor and hand mower and spent several hours
mowing. We must make an entry at the track gate so he can get his riding
mower over the track. A load of fill is required from the back 40. Also
we need to get him a gate key. Ross will do this.

The students painted the picnic table that was pressure washed and
scraped last week. We moved it into the breezeway out of the sun. They
also painted a bench, the wall repairs beside the men's washroom
entrance, and the gift shop door.

Ross moved one load of artifacts from the express room to the new
archives. A canvas mailbag was moved from the Fowler boxcar to the new
archives.

Ross delivered two small window A/C that he donated. One is for the gift
shop, one for the house upstairs.

Lunch of pizza was donated by Anne and Tony. Yummy.

Brian Kelsey.

Report for July 10 thru 13, 2010

It has been a very busy and productive week at SFRM.

On Thursday morning the volunteers met with Anne in the house. Purpose of
the meeting was to brief Anne on what the volunteers are doing and to
hear her plans for the museum and her plans for managing the enterprise..

We were introduced to Tim Penner who will be taking over setting up a
new website for the museum. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant to get him
informed of our past websites and what we would like to see on the new one.

Gerry installed a bypass switch on the breeze way lights. It is located
in the left cabinet where the meter is. Please use this switch to turn on
the lights when not turned on by the timer. Please DO NOT adjust the
timer, we have had to replace it three times as persons turn the dial
backwards and this strips the gears. He also replaced the broken switch
on the pendant light over the operators bay table, and installed a light
over the desk in the archives storage room in the house.

Some more track work was done.

A retired railway employee dropped by and left a donation, a first aid
kit from a caboose and some papers. He wants to volunteer.

On Friday Doug purchased a new play mat for the children's play area and
installed it. Very colorful.
The wooden fence blew over in the wind, a common occurance.

On Saturday Doug and the gardener lady worked on the flower beds near
the station.

On Sunday with the help of Tony and his small backhoe and the trailer we
were able to move the frog and points from the back 40 to the new switch
site. We now have to get a rail saw going, and a drill. Tony also
removed a tree from the station flower beds, and a tree in the way of
the track extension. He also pulled out two steel fence posts that we
had tried to remove by hand.

Bob Moore was whipping off grass around the property, and along the main
line. John Weir was also cleaning brush and grass from the line. Doug
and Bill M were seen trying to get the museums whipper going, seems to
have some problem with the gas feed. Sent out for repairs.

Bill M and Brian were back at the door of the paint car, the one door is
now repaired, one to go. The car now looks respectable, soon it will be
painted and lettered.

Doug K was removing weeds, small bushes, trash from the big flower beds
at the station. The site is now looking better thanks to everyone who
has worked at this in the heat wave.

Ross sanded the drywall repair at the wash room, now ready for painting.
He installed a door hook on the front yellow caboose and has taken two
door screens to his shop for repair. There is also one on the yellow
caboose on the back track that needs repairs. Vandalism.

Gee continued to put acid free shelf paper on shelves in the upstairs of
the house. Next week we will put a push on cleaning up the upstairs of
the house. There is a lot more shelving that can be erected to hold
books and magazines.

Al Westland continues to work on the switch. Now that we have the frog
moved some progress can be made quickly.

John Weir also gave tours and opened up his dental car to the public.

A load of library material was moved from the orange caboose to the
house. With some cleaning the car can now be opened for the public.

The students prime painted the repairs to the gift shop door.

Brian started the herald on the RHS of 1112's tender.

Ross Robinson

Report for Saturday and Sunday July 4th.

With input from Doug Kolish.

Doug worked on cleaning up the front garden both days. He brought 6
buckets of fill from the Town landfill for the garden and removed a bush
that was
deemed to be in the wrong place. The flower pots and stones were moved
to the garden shed area. The gardener lady was in on Saturday as well.

On Sunday Gee and I were there. I put another coat of drywall compound on
the wash room hallway corner, this will need a third coat before
painting. I also filled the holes in the outside of the gift shop door
made by vandals two years ago, some sanding and this will be ready to paint.

The heritage plaque needs another coat of Tuscan paint.

I brought the round shirt display stand back from storage to the gift
shop, the students will hang up the T shirts for better display.

I moved the bucket of parts and the alternator from the old air
compressor to the shed, then sorted out the parts. I will make the
distribution manifold at BRS in the next few weeks. If we can locate the
water pump removed last year I can get the compressor going. This will
be handy for operating the spike driver, sandblaster and spray painter.

I finished the day cataloguing artifacts in the house. Gee was weeding
around the house flower beds. Left at 2 pm as the heat was getting fierce.

Ross Robinson

Report for June 30 and July 1st and 2nd

Wednesday June 30

Grant and Mary Whittaker, from Merrickville, brought their own riding
lawn mower, push mower and trimmer and mowed the lawns. The museum has
not looked this good in years.

Ross has secured a donation of seeds for giant sunflowers that we can
plant in October. We should also plant some short annuals under them.
Could be spectacular.

Thursday July 1st.

1. Bill adjusted and lubricated the gears on the mainline hand car. To
test it, he had it up to 79 miles an hour. He was pumping so fast he was
little more than a blur.

2. George M. weed whipped the caboose line and elsewhere around the
property. The museum site is beginning to look quite respectable.

3. Doug and Alan were installing ties under where the # 7 switch will go
on the caboose line/restoration building lead.

4. John Weir was conducting tours. Brian gave tours of the restoration
building to a couple of families. Alan had a long conversation with a
couple from Barry's Bay.

5. Brian and Bill were installing more replacement boards in the paint
car (automobile boxcar) door.

6. John wants to bring his tractor to the
museum sooner rather than later. To that end, we will start to clear
enough space in the front of the container to store the tractor.

Friday July 2.

1. Alan installed the numbers on the front of his live steamer locomotive
displayed in the children's room. He also installed an interpretive
panel under the display cabinets.

Alan also brought out an early
1900's Globe school desk that he generously bought last week for the
museum's replica school car project. The museum now has three antique
school desks and a fourth that needs repairs. Duncan duFresne has
offered two more, bringing the total to six. About fourteen desks are
needed for the project.

2. Alan, Ross and Brian trailered a half dozen nine foot ties to the
restoration building lead work site. Alan with the aid of a track
jack and a steel bar lifted the outer rail going to the shed over the
adjacent rail and lowered it down. A bit more aligning and this can be
re-spiked. We are very close to needing the frog and points moved.

3. Ross cleaned up and patched a water damaged area on the wall to the left
of the men's washroom door. It will need another coat of drywall
compound and there is paint on hand to complete the job.

4. Tom worked on indexing eighteen railway books donated last week by the
Canada Science and Technology Museum. The books were duplicates at the
CSTM and Ryan Manson got them donated to the RMEO.

5. Doug worked on the track lead but had to leave early.

6. Bill pressure washed pigeon droppings on the platform and pressured
washed a picnic table and some barricades so they can be painted by the
summer students. As this works at removing old paint we will do this to
the cars before we paint them. Some scraping will also be required.

7. The summer students cleaned and then painted the building's bronze
historic plaque with
CP maroon. What a difference that made. They will second coat it today.
Then we will use a palm sander for polishing the lettering.

8. Ross, Bill and Brian took two trailer loads of artifacts from the
express room to the archives. There are 3 stoves and 4 teletypes to
move, then we can see what other large items lurk in the corners. Some
pictures were moved in the process -
the first of the paper artifacts to have been decontaminated for mold by
a prolonged exposure to alcohol fumes. Don't worry, it was methyl
alcohol. We wouldn't waste the good stuff. Absolutely thrilling news -
the missing 1940's pressed steel typewriter table was found under some
other furniture stored in
the house.

9. Ross removed the propane cylinder that had recently been placed in the
section house, because for reasons that are obvious, there's are laws
against keeping propane cylinders in enclosed buildings. It is in the
garden shed.

10. Bill and Brian moved the two heavy fold-up tables from the express room,
and set them up in the board room for Thursday's meeting of volunteers.
Earlier this spring, we removed the two tables from the children's area
because they are of a type that recently caused a fatality at a daycare
center in Ontario when a toddler pulled one over on himself.

11. Brian brought twenty of each of two John Cullen coloring sheets for the
children's room. He used photoshop to remove advertising and a coloring
contest from the sheets. One of each of the two coloring sheets was all
that we could find after the children's room was taken apart last year.

12. Bill and Brian brought a supply of screws, a few tools and a pressure
washer from the tool car to the restoration building, so they can be
used. They moved a track drill from the express room, to the tool car
for storage. The tool car is too far away for us octogenarians,
septuagenarians and Sexagenarians, to be considered an active tool car.
It is more a storage car.

13. At the end of the day we received a visit from two people scouting for
sites to shoot a major 1940's era movie. They want to use the station
platform and they will contact Anne about it. We gave them suggestions
for some other locations that they might be able to use that are in and
around Ottawa. They are looking for an old factory with tall ceilings
and floor to ceiling windows, to simulate a locomotive factory. It has
to be within about an hours drive from Ottawa. If anyone has any ideas,
let Anne know and she can pass it on when they contact her.

14. Gee Gee went to Ogdensburg NY and picked up a shipment of heavy
steel padlock covers. Now we can secure the cars against the vandals.

Ross and Brian.

Report for Sunday, June 27th, 2010

I picked up a pile of sheets of steel roofing from a place outside
Metcalfe with Brian's help and delivered them to the museum. They are on
the back platform. I will order eavestrip on Monday. Then a new
permanent roof can be installed on the garden shed.

Bill M installed the safety guard rails on the hand car on the front
track. With help it was moved to the front of the line up of speeders so
it can now be used to give rides.

Ross managed to repair the lock on the platform side of the MWR doors.
He found some long oversize machine screws and turned the heads down to
fit the holes in the lock faceplate. Fortunately the thread in the old
mortice lock was not so badly stripped that the screws would not hold.
Locktite was applied to make sure the screws will not work loose again.

Allan and Ross moved the 4 pieces of heritage rail that was on the front
platform around to the end by the express office. Eventually these will
be stored indoors. We also then moved a baggage cart to the side near
the MWR entrance and placed the display suitcases on it.

Ross repaired the gate by the entrance to the shop, glued in a piece of
wood broken by vandals.

Allan and Doug K were working on the new switch on the shop lead. We
took the trailer to the back 40 and with 5 of us managed to load two 16
foot ties for the head block. These were dropped off on top of the rail
near where they will be installed.

Ross swept up in the new archives storage room. He also entered the data
on the registration form for two artifacts, finally the process has
begun. Only several thousand left to do. The next step is to move the
stoves and teletypes over from the express room.

Gee continued with "weeding" the flower beds at the house.

John Weir was giving tours of the blue caboose. We now have three
students on staff for the summer.

Anne and Freddie dropped in to say hello.

Ross Robinson.

Report for Thursday June 24th, 2010

Again we are indebted to Brian for most of this report

Alan got eight more ties loosened to prepare for shifting the
restoration center lead into a better direction.

Tom sorted and catalogued in the library.

Bill installed diagonal bracing and did some floor patching in the
section house archives room. Once we sweep the floor and spread the
lemon pledge we can start moving artifacts. He also did some badly
needed tidying up in the restoration building. It had gotten to be a
shambles in there.

Gee placed archival paper on shelving upstairs in the section house and
weeded the flower garden on the right side of the house.

Bill and Brian moved a filing cabinet that had been removed from the
section house, and moved several racks that are not being used in the
gift shop to storage over the express room.

Brian replaced 12 missing and rotten boards on the station side of the
paint car. Maybe we can get this car painted this year, and lettered.

Ross reinstalled the ticket window grill, several missing outlet covers
in the MWR, did a bit of cleaning up in the gift shop storeroom moving
tools to the shed and some large boards to the archives storage. Anne
will finish organizing this room later. Ross also replaced the missing
handles on the gift shop door and put a new latch set on the sink room
door. He also moved around some of the displays on the walls and put up
the donation request plaque donated by Eva Lange years ago, it is now
over the strong box in the MWR.

Anyone looking for the aluminium step ladder, it is in the lobby at the
top of the basement stairs. I am thinking of putting a big hook in the
wall of the stairway on which to hang it. Comments?

Bob Moore has returned from England and is back at the museum. Last year
he made a template/ jig to make the curved three dimensional wooden
corners for the passenger car roofs. He dismantled the prototype and
painted all the pieces to seal the wood. We are thinking of making a
mould/ jig and making these out of fiberglas, they will never rot and
can be used with the EPDM material as a covering.

Over the years I have been asked many times to repair some item, usually
attached to the building. A lot of it never gets done simply because I
forget about it. So I have made up a Request for Maintenance form,
copies are on the shelf with the sign in book. Fill them out and I will
try and get them done as soon as possible.

I am trying to solve the problem with the track side door lock on the
MWR. Be patient, this is a unique type of mortice lock that cannot be
replaced. Saturday I will make some special screws at BRS and Sunday I
may get it fixed. If not the lock will have to be removed and brought to
my shop.

We took the trailer to Metcalfe with 16 foot long planks installed,
along with a scrap filing cabinet. Sunday morning Brian and I will go
and pick up 7 sheets of steel roofing 16 feet long being donated for the
garden shed. Tony has screws, the 1x3 are in the shed lumber rack?

Anne and Tony were on site most of the day, interviewing students for
summer jobs. She also met with some of the new volunteers.

Ross Robinson.

Report for Sunday June 20, 2010

We had another successful day today. Brian and I completed the drywall
work in the house, the seams on the party wall are all taped. I will
bring up some corner beads next week. The cabinets were moved to their
final positions and the vapour barrier on the front wall was taped with
Mylar tape. Left to do, put the diagonal braces on the 3 walls, cover
the trap door and patch a bad floor at one corner, sweep and we can move in.

While we are working at the house we should finish framing the door to
the upstairs before removing the surplus lumber. Then we can install the
two doors, there are lots of doors from the house stored in the basement
of the station. Once we are finished renovating the house we can get
back to finishing Nolans and onto the car roofs. Thanks from me to
everyone who has helped get the house in shape.

Anne and her husband Neil dropped in, and we met their son Freddie.

Doug Kolish and his son Anthony were busy moving rails and digging out
rotted ties on the shop lead. Al Westland helped them, and he measured
the frog and points that are going to be installed on this track and has
found some short rails needed to connect up the frog to the existing
track work. We hope to get the frog moved next week.

Gee spent the day weeding the gardens at the front of the house. This
has become so overgrown it is almost like logging. There are a number of
perrenials there that given space to grow will look good.

Someone needs to water the new flowers at Nolans station.

John Weir was kept busy giving tours. There seemed to be a steady stream
of visitors.

The 1940's era steel typewriter desk that was removed from the operators
bay into the house 4 weeks ago seems to have vanished from the house.
Does anyone know where it went? It is an artifact and needs to be
returned or at least accounted for.

Ross Robinson

Update for Thursday June 17, 2010

We had a really productive day today.
The alarm company arrived just as Brian and I were opening the front
gate. The alarm is now installed and working. Four people have codes and
keys, Ross, Tom, Tony and Anne.
Bill M and George M framed up the remaining 3 short walls at the ends of
the shelf rows. Brian and Ross installed drywall on the party wall, the
entrance foyer, and the side of the staircase, with help from Bill and
George. 16 sheets were installed, there are a few small areas behind the
stairs left to do on Sunday. Once we put up a door the area will be
secured. At some point in the future we will install a door at the
bottom of the left stairs, open the party wall at the landings and
remove the unneeded right staircase. Bill and George also installed a
few furring strips on the ceiling. Remaining to be done is Mylar taping
the seams at the front wall, installing 1x4 diagonal braces on the three
outside walls to provide for shear when the siding is removed for
replacement, and a bit of taping of the drywall. We got a lot more of
this done than I had anticipated.
Mike tried to start the green CN Wickham car, it turns over but will not
fire.
Allan and Tom arrived at noon, having attended the graduation cerimonies
for Algonquin College Museum Techs, two were former summer employees of
the museum. Tom worked in the library.
After lunch Tony arrived and introduced us to Anne White.
We moved a lot of furniture in the house, and took filing cabinets to
the main building. We also moved two very large cartons of plastic
storage bins into the paint car, temporarily.
The blog is now up and running
Ross Robinson.

Work group report for June 10 to 14, 2010

Again most of this was supplied by Brian K.

Alan, William, Mike and Brian (with Ross on trailer duty) moved about 20
ties to the restoration building lead, for the track work required to
move the CP caboose into the building. They also got rid of some rotten
ties from the lead. Some of the better rotten ties were put at the
William Street entrance for making ornamental gardens next year. Note
that most of this work outdoors was done in a constant drizzle. Everyone
was wet.
Sometime during the last week, Doug spiked a lot of the track leading into
the restoration building. It should be noted that Tony has sanctioned
what we are doing. In fact, he wanted the CP caboose moved into the
building years ago and is happy that we are preparing to do it. Tony
cautioned that no rolling stock can be moved without first notifying the
museum's insurance company. The insurance company regularly photographs
the position of all the rolling stock to monitor that nothing has moved.
This doesn't apply to speeders, hand cars and the trolley.

Sometime during the week, Mike got the mainline speeder running well. He
cleaned the carburetor and maybe replaced the fuel filter. He should be
trained to take passengers for rides so he can enjoy the fruit of his
efforts. Also we should try and make peace with John M and get him back
to do rides on weekends.

Alan and Brian chained the mainline trailer to the trolley. Since there
was no lock, a bolt was used to secure the chain. The wrenches used are
squeezed in the workbench vise in the restoration centre. On Sunday Ross
found a lock in the shed, gummed up, it has gone to his shop for cleaning.

Mike spent some time evaluating what has to be done to get the Wickham's
running so the engines won't seize up. A battery was found and Ross
brought a charger on the weekend, it is in the archives storage room on
the table
behind the door.

William and Brian moved the trailer that was wedged against the tool
car away from it and placed a tie over the track to secure it against
coach 5802. A step ladder was placed just inside the tool car door.
Using the trolley to climb in and out of the car is dangerous. It was
the cause of an accident that could have been serious.

Bill was trying to repair/replace some rotted boards in the platform. He
is planning on a proper floor at the entrance to Nolan's station.

Gee continued with weeding around the section house, and papered some
shelves for the library. Ross ordered more shelf paper from Carr-McLean,
as a donation. On Sunday she did two more shelves. Also we put some
prints in a large plastic container provided by Tom C with alcohol to
try and kill off the mould, we will see how this works on Thursday.

Gerry finished the wiring in the house, adding another accessible outlet
for the storage area and rationalizing some light switches at the bottom
of the stairs. Ross will supply the missing cover plates. Gerry then
looked at the two lights in the baggage room, turns out the problem was
just burnt out bulbs. Ross replaced the bulbs on Sunday and put the
shades back on. Gerry replaced the timer for the breeze way lights, and
started to install a bypass switch in the cabinet with the meters so no
one needs to touch the timer to turn on the lights. The switch on the
pendant light over the operators table is broken, needs replacing.
Ross delivered a custom made ceiling thimble for the stove pipe, with
eight sides to reflect the eight sided shape of Nolans. He also
found a suitable pipe with a key in the archives and this is in Nolans.
May need two elbows to finish the install.
With the help of William S we moved a lot of furniture in the house. There
is still a large desk and two tables to move before we can finish
building the walls at the end of the shelf units. Tom Clark tried to
open the lock on a scrap green filing cabinet with no success. On Sunday
Ross managed to get the drawers out. On Sunday Ross cleaned
up in the house, taped the vapour barrier seams and around the outlets,
ready to install 1x4 diagonal braces. Ross will pick up some more 2x4 to
finish the framing.
Ross removed the model train layout that is going to Tom T, and
delivered it on Monday.
He also took many bags of garbage to Ottawa for disposal.
We found the missing grille for the operators bay window, it will be
re-installed next week.
Al W has completed his display of steam and diesel locomotives in the
baggage room.
On Sunday Al and Doug worked on spiking down the track to the shed. Now
we need to bring the frog and points to the site. Doug has a solution to
this problem. Also on Saturday a gardener showed up with many donated
perennial plants, and started cleaning up around Nolans. Doug K will
keep them watered.

John Weir has been giving tours to visitors, as we still have no
interpretive text for the displays.
We now have a blog set up for this group, we will post the back issues
and then each week will add the newest reports. We can also add photos.
More info on this will be sent to you in a few days.
Ross Robinson

Fwd: Report for May 6 - May 16

Work group report for June 3 to 8, 2010

Much of this report was contributed by Brian Kelsey.
Doug K continued, with some help, to clean up the track to the shed. He
cut the grass and removed a lot of rotten ties. Steve Hunter appeared and is
still insisting on re-locating the track.
Doug and Bill M removed the old rotten entry step platform at the red
caboose and raked the fill level. Nice effort to clean up the site and
make it safe. Bill also dismantled the large unfinished model railway
layout in the house. This will free up space needed to store items still
in the left side of the house. He also took apart some old display
stands and salvaged the good wood to the shed.
On Monday the 30th May Ross bought new planks to make seats for Nolan's
station. They were glued together, cut to width and thickness planed.
They were delivered on Thursday and Bill M will install them.

Mike Jewett changed the Speeder's oil, tuned the engine a bit and
conducted some trial runs. It has some stalling problems. He will
clean the carburetor. Mike discovered that the back of the Cadillac
shed has been broken into since the major vandalism event. He secured
the back doors with a chain and Alan nailed a 2x8 plank across the
bottom under the back doors. Mike and Ross returned the hand car that was
down on the siding at the tool car back to the station away from the
vandals. Ross donated a tarp and bungee cords to keep water out of the
speeder. There is a pile of old wood from the destroyed passenger trailer at
the switch that should be cleaned up before someone gets injured there.

Brian and Bill set up scaffolding on the RPO and examined the worst part
of the west facing lower roof. They also looked inside the car. The
car is in worse shape than thought. The upper roof will receive plywood
patches and a tarp . Some car lines will have to be made for the lower
roofs as there is no wood left to attach anything to. (This is
reminicent of the combine when we did the roof in the early 1990's).The
floor appears to be of all wood construction and may be completely finished
(it has some holes) and the interior is full of trash. Because of the
uniqueness of the
car, it is probably worth saving. But for now, all we can do is to try
to stop the rain and snow from getting into the car and cosmetically fix
up the exterior.

Brian and Bill inspected the interior of 5019 and it looks pretty dry
inside. We have to put window covers back on. We need to find some way
to keep the vandals from kicking the covers off, long bolts and 2x4 on
the inside?

Brian and Bill inspected 5032 and 5042. They couldn't get into 5042.
Bill agrees that these two coaches are still salvageable and would make
wonderful display space. No work can be done on the cars while they are
so far away, so arrangements will be made to have them brought up closer
to the station.

Alan installed the lighting for the steam locomotive display. This will
be great display when finished. Brian is working on labels? for this.

I believe Mark Tilford examined the train layout for the children's area
and will organize its repair.

There were meetings in the blue caboose about the August Rail event and
maybe the July one as well. Between meetings George Margita helped Ross
move stuff in the house.

Brian gave John Weir a vendor application form for the October Rail Fest
event at Algonquin College. John will look after it.

A junk pile was started near the back of the container. When the pile
gets big enough, we will get a dumpster and fill it. There is more wood
junk in the house, and Ross will take 8 bags of garbage to Ottawa and
dispose of it.

Sometime during the week Tony took a truck load of junk to the dump and
emptied the trash barrels on the platform. Thanks Tony, this really
helps us keep the site clean.
Tom Twigge, general manager of the Halton County Railway Museum visited.
Brian made stencils in the original livery for his museum's CP Caboose
436123 that is under restoration. We showed him around the site, had a
long talk about mutual problems and solutions. Their bigest problem
seems to be with the town, they pay outrageous taxes for virtually no
services as they are 20 miles from the town center, out in the country.

Tom Caine was on site, he helped tarp the speeder. Not known what else
he did.
Gee Gee continued putting archival paper on the new shelves in the
upstairs of the house. Books and artifacts should never be placed on
bare steel shelves, especially not without proper humidity control.
Ross and Gerry finished the wiring in the left side of the house. We
will have a light in each aisle between the shelves and in the open area
where the stoves and teletypes will be stored. A new wall was
constructed at the side of the stairway and the old corridor wall
removed, opening up more storage space. Still to do is construct two
more narrow support walls at the
ends of the aisles at the front of the house. In the near future I want
to put a temporary beam
and 2 jack posts in the right side at the front to support the second
floor where Tom is installing library shelving. Eventually these can be
replaced by doubling or tripling the floor joists.
In the near future Gerry will replace the timer for the breeze way
lights and repair some of the in-operative lights inside the former
baggage room. We seem to be having problems with the wires burning off
at the sockets even though the wiring is rated for much larger lamps
than we are using. We will monitor this problem and take corrective
action as needed.
There is a large blue lounge chair in the house and several desks that
need to disappear. Anyone need these? Maybe Tony could sell them in his
store? Once this stuff is moved/removed we will be able to drywall the
center wall to secure the archival storage area.
I called the alarm company about installing the alarm in the house, but
no one has called back. I will try again on Thursday
Ross Robinson

Work group report for May 22 to 28, 2010

I do not have any input on what was done on the Saturday.
Sunday May 23, small group on site. We had about 30 visitors, and a
visit by a group driving old cars.
Brian Kelsey painted the combine belt rails yellow and later on will
put stripes under the roof edge. He also painted the grey on 6591 on the
cab sides and on the RH engine hood and the front. Now looking a little
less disgraceful. Ross solicited a donation of a gallon of the proper
purple paint for the top of the engine, from Bytown RR society. Brian
also painted the patches on the roof of 5019 so it is all the same color
as viewed from William street.
Doug Kolish and his son's Daniel and Anthony painted the west side of
the RPO and the east side of 5018 with black paint below the belt rail,
which camouflages the rust holes. Stripes will be added to match the
dental car.
Allan put up the display case for the G scale diesel locomotive, this
was all trashed a year ago so he is starting over. He also has mounted
the case for the steam loco and has installed display lighting for these
cases which turn on with a
motion detector. Very impressive.
Mike Jewett worked on the Wooding's railcar. As gas will not flow
uphill, he installed a donated used electric fuel pump on Thursday, car
now runs fine. Al donated a fuel filter which has yet to be installed.
Brian returned the window for Nolan's with new glass installed. Ross
installed the window. He also measured for the wood required for the
bench seats and the door trim and will get this next week to his shop.
The boards
will be glued up in his press clamps, thicknessed and cut to rough size,
then delivered to Nolan's and Bill can install them. Later Ross will
make a liner for the coal bunker and install the flue pipe for the stove. He
will fabricate a proper ceiling thimble for where the pipe passes thru
the ceiling as these are no longer available.
Gee spent the day on Sunday removing weeds and trash from under the
steps of the house, and cutting several button weeds in the flower gardens.
Ross moved a pile of trash from the house to a pile next to the back of
the container. When we have enough we will take it to the dump. One load
of artifacts was moved from the express room to the house, we can
now get the door to the express room closed without having to climb over
many objects.
John weir is installing Lexan panels on the outside of the dental car to
keep vandals from breaking the windows. At the same time he is doing
maintenance on the sash.
George Margita was consulting with John for the railfest. BTW John
solicited a nice donation from Rideau Lumber towards this event.
Bill repaired the damage to the red trailer inflicted by the latest
round of vandalism. I was told that the mate to this trailer was
destroyed by vandals several years ago, the frame is still somewhere,
maybe as time and resources permit we should re-construct it. We are now
ready to give rides to visitors on the front track. Doug and others will
have to get the back track to the shed re-laid before the August event
so we can use this track with a handcar.
Allan continued to work on his loco display.
Tom Caine scraped and primed the air tank on the big air compressor. We
have to get the water pump back from Jason Marshall. We are now
convinced he also has the registration log book and the gift of deed
forms at home and these must also be returned.
Brian lettered the draft gear inspection on the end of the dental car,
the end the public first sees. He also painted the grey around the
lettering on the RHS of 6591 and painted the cab numbers on 1112 and
started the gold stripes on the RPO.

Doug K was seen painting stripes on cars on Friday.
The display case on loan from Tom Clark was moved into the gift shop as
well as the round shirt hanger. The gift shop operator should be advised
that anything in there she does not need will be stored, just put them
in the MWR and we will put them away.
On Friday Ross and Gerry Doris worked in the house. We removed the Howie
partition walls and the wiring in them. The center wall supporting the
floor above which has the library shelving was reinforced and passages
created between the future shelves that will be moved from the express
office. We will extend this wall to the front of the house to support
the office area floors above, and later I will install a beam and
jackpost in the front of the RHS. We have about 2 hours work left to
finish framing the new wall beside the stair case and the wall with door
opening at the bottom of the stairs, then we can remove the last
partition wall. New lighting between the shelf rows is almost completed.
Then we can drywall the partition down the center of the house to secure
the archival storage area. Once the alarm is installed we can start
moving the collection, about 3 weeks from now.
Doug and Bill removed the rotted out platform at the red CP caboose and
level out the ground. Bill then assisted with the walls in the house.
Next Thursday I need some help, muscle, we have to dismantle that
mountain railroad model, and we have to move some desks out of the left
side of the house. Tom Clark will come over and open the lock on a
filing cabinet so we can move it and an empty one to the storage area
over the express room. BTW Bill has the lock on this door working now,
some part had moved inside the lock and he put it back in place.
Ross Robinson

Work group report for May 20, 2010

We had a very successful day today. The following was accomplished:
First we unloaded my welder onto the platform, got it going. Bill and I
repaired the broken hinge(s) on the platform gate and re-welded the
broken handrail support at the bottom of the fire escape. I left the
machine in the archives in case some other job has to be done in the
next few weeks. I also copied down the model and serial unit number from
the big welder and will try and find a circuit diagram.
Bill and Ross installed all the platform fence at the entrance to the
gift shop. Some fiddling was required to level the sections so the gate
latch would work correctly, and Bill had to straighten one of the legs
that was bent. Some idiot had broken off the threaded studs on the
bottom of all 8 verticals that provide the clearance at the bottom so we
temporarily replaced them with lag screws and old bolts until we have
time to make proper replacements. Yet to be re-installed is the sign
advising parents to keep their children under control, it is in the gift
shop by the door.
Bill Seabrooke spent hours cleaning up the flower garden by the portico,
aided by Gee. Mike Jewett repaired the spark system on one of the
lawnmowers and cut the grass at the entrance and by the house.
More work is required to make the site attractive, and we need a good
riding mower if we are to keep then grass under control.
We did a major cleanup of the downstairs of the house. Old junk
cabinets, shelves, other scrap cabinet/shelf units were cleaned of nails
and piled on the entrance platform. We need to get this trash hauled to
the dump, along with the barrel at the breeze way. We now have the front
half of the left side empty and can consider moving some large stoves
and TTY machines in there next week. Many boxes of paper records, books,
and other stuff was moved upstairs for Tom Caine to sort out. We also
cleaned up a lot of trash from the right side. There are some display
cases and other material in the house that needs to be moved into this
area next week. We also moved two bookshelf units that came from the
former library upstairs and a knocked down shelving unit. A model
railroad layout and 4 very heavy parlor car chairs were moved from
upstairs to the space over the express office ceiling. Many thanks to
Doug and Rian Manson for this, with help from Mike
A large pile of planks was moved to the shed along with 8 cartons of
cedar shingles, by George Margita, Ross and Brian. These shingles have
travelled a lot of miles there, originally they were left over from
replacing the roof, were in the house, then moved to the shed years ago,
then migrated back to the house. I moved them to the shed 2 years ago,
then they got back to the house, and today they went back to the shed.
Question is, ?Will they stay there? And for how long???
The badly damaged model train layout that was in the MWR for years was
brought down from the storage over the archives by Mike and Rian and
placed in the Baggage room. We need to put some short legs on the three
modules, then repair the damage, and get it going so the children can
see the trains going around. Maybe we can inspire some of them to get
Daddy to buy them a train set, and we should be prepared to sell them
some cars, track and cheap starter locomotives in the gift shop. We
found a pile of new boxed HO gauge cars in a heap behind the door of the
room over the express office and these can be boxed up and sold in the shop.
Gee and Rian spent several hours looking for the missing Deed forms and
the registration book, without success. We were told that Jason Marshall
has these at home, and we should insist they be returned post-haste,
along with the water pump off the big air compressor engine. Gee also
put up some more small signs on the barriers, and cleaned the floors. We
need a stock of toilet paper before opening day as there is none in the
ladies room.
Brian Kelsey spent several hours putting the protective covers back on
one of the coaches that the vandals had knocked off. He re-fastened the
plastic inserts into the panels so there is a bit of light in the car.
He also painted the yellow stripe along the bottom edge of the combine car.
Rian brought another chair over from the house to complete the display
of the dishes. We need to wire the barriers together and to the building
trim to keep them from being moved by visitors. This is the only way we
can enforce the ?three foot rule?.
George Margita repaired some minor damage to one of the MWR display
cases, and put in security screws at the four corners. One other case
needs screws installed at the corners.
Al Westland installed the two show cases for the locomotives he donated
in the baggage room and plans to install lighting for them.
At the end of the day Mike and Ross tried to start the Wooding's rail
car. There appears to be spark but no gasoline is being delivered to the
carburator. There does not seem to be any fuel pump and the gas will not
go uphill without help. The similar Wooding's unit at CSTM has a vacuum
operated pump, I will check all this out on Saturday and report on
findings at the next work session.
Ross

Work group report for May 6-16

Here you will find an update of what the troops on the ground
accomplished during the last 2 weeks, so that you and the board, should
you wish to inform them, are made aware of what we are trying to do at
SFRM. It may not be all encompassing as a lot happens that I do not see.
1. Gee and I spent most of Thursday 13th searching through the
papers in the upstairs of the station, in the former express office and
in the house. We are looking for three items that must be located BEFORE
we can make any meaningful start on accessioning the artifacts.
First we need to find the registry book which has the numerical index to
the artifacts already accessioned. So far this is missing. It would be
very difficult to completely re-establish this registry from the
artifact tags.
Second we need to find the gift of deed forms which is the only way the
museum can prove ownership of each and every item. These are also
missing despite Ryan telling me where he last saw them.
Third there was a bundle of completed accessioning forms, dating back
to the early years of the museum. Some were completed by a person
unknown, some by my wife in the 1990's, some by Robert Vaughan, possibly
some by Pam Brooks. These I located dumped unceremoniously into a carton
with a lot of administration papers, and I have moved them into safe
storage in a filing cabinet upstairs in the house.
The incredible mess on that site is discouraging, especially as I know
how well it was once organized. Whether we can recover from the damage
inflicted by a few out of control volunteers in the last two years
remains to be seen. Let us all hope that we can do this, but it is going
to take years to go through all that stuff and re-organize it.
2. Two weeks ago I found the door to the walkway at the top of the
stairs was unlocked. On asking Al Westland about it he said the lock had
been broken for years and that Tom Clark had left it that way several
weeks ago. The thumb turn on the inside was missing along with the knobs
for the latch. I went to the Habitat re-store on two occasions and
purchased another mortice lock and handles, which Al installed after
quite a fight with the hardware. Tom Clark supplied a replacement thumb
turn. This job was completed on Sunday the 16th. The door is now locked
and meets fire code regulations for an emergency exit.
3. At the same time Bill Moulton undertook replacing the mortice lock
and handles on the door into the storage area over the express office.
He had a lot of chisel work to do, this is now installed but there is a
problem with the innards of the lock which will be corrected this
Thursday. When we went there on Sunday 16th to look at the problem I
forgot there was a motion sensor in that room and triggered the alarm.
Sorry about that.
4. Weeks ago Al told me the washroom exhaust fan was not working, he
had replaced the motor but could not remove the old pulley. I supplied a
gear puller and set screws for the new pulley and the fan was working
when I left on Sunday 16th. Gee continued looking for the missing
paperwork and doing some preliminary sorting. I measured for drywall,
doors and door frames, etc for the downstairs of the house. I will send
a separate document on this subject in the next few days. I also moved
about 15 cartons of books to the stairs to go up next work day.
5. After a short discussion we decided to restore the operators bay
to the way it would have been when CnoR operated trains past the
station. We moved the #24 stove to the express office, moved the desk,
put the unneeded and non-authentic typewriter table into the archives,
and most importantly we put the safe back over the beam and jack post
installed years ago in the basement to keep the floor from bending under
the weight. We moved the station restoration display board into the
waiting room, it needs a table added with the photo books on it. We also
moved a display board over to the track tool display and put up the two
interpretive panels that are a part of that display. And I found the
washroom signs outside in the rain and put them back up so the public
can find the rooms without asking staff.
6. We were unable to move the Tom Clark display case into the gift
shop without a key. We did what we could to prepare the site for opening
day. Brian and others moved winter project materials to the shed, moved
two heavy fold up tables to the express office as they are a known
hazard to small children, who can pull these tables over onto
themselves; there have been at least one report of a resulting death.
Lumber with protruding nails on the site was removed. The rolling stock
was checked for further damage, none was found
7. Brian and Al spent several hours giving visitor tours, we had
about 30 visitors. Some made donations in lieu of admissions.
8. We found the $650 diesel loco that Allan had donated several
years ago, and the trashed display case in the house. It will be
re-installed in the baggage room on Thursday. Allan was prepared to
donate a steam engine to match it, worth $1000, the display case for it
is missing, and he is having second thoughts about making the donation now.
9. I tried to get the welding machine going without success. It
appears to have been damaged internally starting the 6591. I am trying
to find a circuit diagram and may be able to fix it. In the interval I
will try and bring my shop welder, if I can find help at home to load
it. We need to repair the damage to the gates etc. at the entrance and
to repair a broken weld on the handrail at the bottom of the fire escape.
Now before opening day, the grass needs to be cut again. Bill cut it
last week with his own mower, (and received no thanks) but rightly
refuses to do it again. A mower needs to be repaired as an interim
measure but we need a good riding mower. The board should find the
funding for this.
The flower beds are a disaster, they need weeding at the very least,
some flowers would be a nice addition.
Move the display cases into the gift shop, even if the shop never opens.
They are in the way where they are. Also there are some more cases in
the house if you need them.
Plans for this Thursday.
Assuming some helpers come and we can get into the building:
1. The model train layout that was formerly in the MWR was trashed
and badly damaged when it was moved to the storage area over the express
room. We want to revive this and put it in the kiddy room, so first we
need to retrieve it, then we have to find someone to repair it.
2. With some soft soap and calling in of favors I hope to get Ryan
back for the day to help Gee look for the missing paperwork. This may
not come off as Ryan is furious about the destruction of the displays
and the trashing of a lot of work he had in progress with the artifacts.
3. I want to clear out some of the space in the house. I will bring
my trailer so we can move items. We want to do the following:
Move the boxes of books etc. at the stairways up to the library area.
Move the parlor car chairs that are upstairs in the house into the area
over the express room. This is light stuff and can be placed around the
perimeter.
Move two bookcases and a pile of shelving upstairs to the library. Tom
Caine has been busy erecting more steel shelving for the library and for
storing paper artifacts.
Move the photocopier from the combine car into the first floor of the
house. Maybe it can be repaired.
Move surplus filing cabinets from the house to the over express room
storage.
Move the two filing cabinets currently in a passenger car to this
upstairs storage. Eventually when we get the floor reinforced over the
express room, and a plywood floor installed these cabinets can be used
for storing the old museum records currently piled in a heap at the end
of the corridors upstairs in the house.
Start moving large items from the express office into the house to make
some work space in the current archives. Mostly stoves and teletype
machines. and some packing cases.
Other tasks we may discover need doing.
As I do not need my trailer in Ottawa for a while I will leave it there.
I will lock it to some immoveable object out of the way.
Two other points. We have to stop parking in the area adjacent to the
platform. This looks bad, like a badly organized used car lot. This is
also a hazard to small children. The back gate must be kept locked,
park over by the Croydon building. Anyone who is too lazy to walk over
should stay home.
And another point, the new ASSA lock should have been installed on the
door from the platform to the operators bay. The alarm panel is right
there, and in inclement weather we will not be tracking dirt into the
display areas. Just my nickels worth.
Ross Robinson

Welcome to our Work Group blog!

Hello, and welcome to our on-line blog.  We hope to share details of our restoration projects with you here.