The Alberta Railway Museum

by Herb Dixon

We were fortunate to have the 4H Clubs catering with hamburgers and hot dogs on long weekends.  They helped with the Gift Shop, cleaned up on the grounds and swept and mopped the floors as needed. They were organized under the direction of Leslie Majeau who is the regional Director for 4H in Sturgeon County. They were supported by several community organizers and used the Namao Agricultural Society concession trailer.

Victoria Day - Gloria Jackson and Niale Smith volunteered to be on site for each of the three-day weekends as well as many of the weekends. They ran the gift shop, opened and closed the displays and provided visitor reception. 6514 was in fine form, thanks to Ted Van Gunst, Jim Sexsmith, Dennis Pringle, Terry Wolfe, and Don Kashuba..

June 6  Children's Autism Services of Edmonton paid us a  visit and toured with 12 adults and 7 children.

Father's Day - an excellent day with many fathers and grandfathers, as well as kids and parents from the Children's Heart Society.

Canada Day - Parade at Gibbons for their 50th Anniversary.  Niale and Gloria were in the truck towing the float in the parade.  The hand car and the M14 speeder were on the trailer.  The truck was lettered "Alberta Railway Museum" The Yakimets family and Gloria's daughter, Sherry, were on the trailer, handing out brochures and waving to the crowd.  A very effective and folksy presentation.

Country Soul Stroll - July 18 & 19 - the self-guided driving tour brought in many visitors and resulted in two new members - Maria Vicente and Mike Bowen who came in out of the rain.

Heritage Day - Terry and Judy Wolfe were dressed in period costume for the weekend and lent an air of fun to the events.   On August 1 we welcomed Joe Milligan, the Deputy Mayor of Sturgeon County who spoke to the visitors in support of the 4H clubs and their work at the Museum.  An article in the Sturgeon Light recognized the 4H presence at the museum. In part the article reported: "Our hats are off to Surgeon County's eight 4H clubs who have been raising funds this past summer in an interesting way. The clubs agreed to pool their talents to run the concessions at the Alberta Railway Museum in Edmonton on the May, August and September long weekends, with the monies raised being equally divided between the eight clubs. Johnny's Store in Namao and the Morinville A&W partnered with the food concessions, which have been operated out of a trailer donated by the Namao Community Agricultural Society."  In addition, 1392 was operating which brought lots of visitors for an enjoyable day at the museum.

Labour Day - Train rides were again very popular with the attendance noticeably improved. A highlight of the weekend was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of St. Albert Station.  Stephen Yakimets arranged for anniversary cakes, a banner and the presence of the last station agent and his wife, Clarence and Helena Sadler.  We also had Ken Allred, MLA for St. Albert and Peter Sandhu, MLA for Edmonton Manning present. Hans Huizinga took them on a tour of the collection.

Regular weekends - Gloria ran the gift shop selling tickets and souvenirs, and Herb and Barry Wolfe ran speeders.

Great Edmonton Model Train Show: an annual event where we set up a booth and chat with the attendees.  Stephen Yakimets ran the booth, with help from Maria Vicente and Mike Bowen. This year the show coincided with Northern Lights - the Pacific Regional Convention of the National Model Railroaders of America. On September 19, Ernie Townend, Don Kashuba, Don Weymouth, Niale Smith, Jim Sexsmith and Herb hosted a tour of the museum by 17 registrants.

I wish to recognize the support of our members.  In addition to the above, Barry Wolfe took care of grass cutting and was trainman for switching as well as many of the train events.  Don Weymouth kept the mowers and speeders in operation. He also kept the backhoe in service with the help of Don Kashuba and Dennis Pringle. Niale Smith spent many hours on track work as well as making new signs for 73, safety signs for visitors.  He has a sign shop in the Bunkhouse and has manufactured new whistle signs for trackside and repainted the targets on the switches.  Sharon Fieber restored the electrical display in the baggage room.  She re-did the wiring on the headlights and marker lamps so that they present themselves as a great visual to the visitors.

Hans Huizinga, Barry Collis, Robert Kuziw and Phil Harris put in many hours working on Combine 7379.  The roof is nearly completed and various parts of the car have been restored. Phill Broadbent, Don Kashuba dedicated their skills to 7944. Dennis Pringle, Terry Wolfe, Ted VanGunst and Jim Sexsmith have focused on 1392 with considerable success.

Ken Jones, Norm Corness, John Riley, Mike Bowen, Maria Vicente, Ken Horwood all contributed greatly to a very successful year.