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

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