October 2006 President’s Report

By Ira Pollack

This month I would like to give you some updates as to what’s been happening at the Museum, both inside the building and out in the yard.

Work progresses with the layouts in the Great Hall, and the newly finished display cases have been filled with early examples of model railroading equipment. On Tuesday nights we have a regular group of volunteers coming in to work on our exhibits. There is much camaraderie within this ever-growing group of modelers and of course everyone is welcome to join them with their projects. They generally meet from about 7:00 p.m. and work until about 10:00 p.m. It is very encouraging to see their enthusiasm and the progress that is being made on our varying exhibits in the building.

Our Library staff also meets on Tuesday nights and continues the large task of categorizing our ever-growing historic archive. This has, and probably will always be, a monumental feat. Now the library and the archive have started an annex in one of the CN passenger cars to help with the overflow of donations. This certainly shows that there is an abundance of donated items coming into the Museum on a regular basis.

Our birthday party room is clear once again for the upcoming cold season. We used it as a temporary storage area for our gift shop inventory this summer. Incidentally the birthday parties have turned into a great financial success for us with bookings almost every weekend. This has proven to be a relatively easy-to-run-event with limited people-power or volunteer needs.

In the yard we have four major projects going on with great success. The RPO car has been painted Tuscan Red over the last several weeks, the NYC wooden caboose is getting its sheathing replaced, the RS11 is being primed, and work continues on the CN passenger car, soon to be called the Party Car.

There are many different events, projects, and happenings going on at the Museum and, of course, I want you to be part of it if you can. We still have many voids in our operation and need your most appreciated help. In this month’s newsletter our editor has started a “help-wanted” column. This column will describe some of these very important positions that will help our organization continue to grow. Please come forward to help out.

In closing this month’s President’s report, I would like you to know things are doing OK at the Museum. We have been fairly successful this season with many new members, new projects in the yard being worked on, and certainly many great reports and compliments from guests visiting our facility. We must continue the good work though, keep our Museum growing, and keep the ideas new and fresh.