August 2011 President’s Report

Welcome to our DRM version of the fireside chat, one-sided as it is, but maybe you will give us some feedback. Hot, wet, cloudy, muggy, and just plain ugly weather has, as local volunteers know, made project progress and attendance tentative. Throw in a marginal economy and well, we have hope. So much for the gloom! Hopefully, by the time you read this we will have had a well-attended Danbury Railway Day and picnic.

As you saw in the July The Railyard Local the first pavilion is in place and is only in need of roofing material for which we are trying to find a donor. Anyone who may have a contact, please let us know. We can utilize either 90# roll roofing or asphalt/fiberglass shingles. On a similar subject, Gil, Bill, David, Bob, and yours truly have started on a pavilion #2 to be a destination point on the south side of the yard near our yearly Pumpkin Patch site, also known as “Roberts’ Park”.

We have received a substantial donation of O-gauge and G-gauge model train equipment from Nancy and Charles Cuniff of Danbury. In addition, the donation includes many structures, memorabilia, magazines, books, reference manuals, and videos. We cannot over-emphasize how much this donation will assist our Museum. Our thanks to the Cuniffs can only be a small sign of our sincerest gratitude for this very generous gift.

A recent letter to the Museum from a person that considered himself a long-term “member” (a search of 16 years of records of his name and address revealed nothing) critiqued what, when and how we published the newsletter, and what we did at the Museum. We always appreciate and welcome suggestions and input from our members and look forward to their receipt and the ideas they may bring forth. This letter contained suggestions that had, however, already been implemented months and years previously. Also, in commenting about timeliness of issue of The Railyard Local it should be noted that one “volunteer” does ALL of the work getting our newsletter out to our members. Thanks, Carolyn!

On behalf of the Danbury Railway Museum, Wade W. Roese