What's new in Middleton???

[John MacDonald]

I am a volunteer at the Middleton Railway Museum, formerly called Memory Lane. Lots of things have happened in the last year at the museum. I be willing to get you all up to date.

John MacDonald

[stem]

I'd love to hear all about it. I've been working with the board since I first talked to Ron Johnson and created and continue to donate and operate the Memory Lane Site for the museum. Then I created the DARDPI to support documents and images from the museum. I also created the Facebook page for the museum and continue to oversee it.

I've been super pleased to see the current board and staff cataloging and sprucing up the exhibits. You are accomplishing the FUTUREVIEW mission as well as breathing life back into the museum at a critical point and I have nothing but praise for you folks. Anything else that I can do as the digital part of you team, just ask.

I have one ask back. Will we have access to the scanned images so we can put them on the DARDPI site under the museum's section there?
http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... way_Museum

[John MacDonald]

Steve: I appreciate your enthusiasm for access to the scanned images for the site. At this time we are scanning to preserve and protect. Our 1st objective was to upload to ANSM Server for all to enjoy. And then to create interest, we had Sarah upload pics/docs to your/our Facebook page. We feel that has been a success to a certain extent. I/We would like to hear more about the site you are asking about for scanned images. And any positves/negatives for uploading to the site. We can make the decision together.

A few of us stepped up about 14 months ago to save the Museum, not knowing much about Future View. Although the Board knew Ron Johnson, us new comers did not. I myself am a retired career railroader from CP in the BC Interior. A career which started 1n 1977 as a labourer on an Zec's Extra Gang at the backtrack at Yoho Siding, and completed in 2010 as a Multi Yard Process Manager in the summer and Road Manager in the winter based out of Golden BC. With a whole pile of stuff in the middle, like Brakeman, Conductor, Locomotive Engineer and more....What I have found so far in the Middleton Station is an incredible amount of not just pics but operations How To Books and hand written Journals and and day to day records from as early as the 1890s. We may not live ling enough to scan and document all there is. There is no way Mr. Johnson knew all that he/they had collected or it would likely have been shared with the world earlier. There are many many trunks filled with docs/pics and the attic is knee deep as well.

Most of the models were worn out and/or broken. We now have a team of 3 with a work area created in the Freight Shed dedicated to HO, and G scale restoration. 250 feet of G scale track has bee restored and is in place in the fenced yard.

We have a person dedicated to Archiving Books. Once a book has been recorded, if it is a tabletop or magazine for example, goes into the "library" off the ole waiting room. If the book is Operations, for example the exam books for Loco Engineers from 1912 or old timetables etc etc, they are in the Operations room next to the waiting room.

We have a person, Sarah, who scans the Pics n Docs onto the laptop we purchased last spring. Hundreds so far.

We have a guy who just looks after the station and also now restoring HO set up.

I want to build a tool house within the Freight shed to display tools speeder etc. We have just recently found Cps plans for tool houses from around the year the station was built.

We have found the bits n pieces of the Semaphore Signal that used to be handled but the station employee from the bay window area and want to restore that. We have the bits n pieces of the 1917 era Operator's desk, Morse Sounder, Origional Smith typewriter, on and on and on.....we want to restore the bay window desk to 1917.....working desk.

We now use 3 1936 vintage Black Desk/Wall phones as our only phones, all restored last summer.

Enough for now????

It's a monster project, but one that must be done. The stuff is worth it.

[stem]

Thank you for the terrific update. A real CP railroader at the throttle is not doubt helping things along immensely as you obviously know the value of the artifacts there. I know Yoho as well as my Uncle lives in Creston so it was a point oft passed in my travels.

Our DARDPI.ca site is both a forum on one side and a wiki on the other. Let me explain that the wiki software allows us to upload, collect, organize into categories and display images and articles with descriptions and arrange thing topically. One photo often fits into multiple categories. To date the wiki has 3347 images on 5121 pages that all told have had 4,486,775 views.

We have relationships with many museums who let us display their D.A.R. images on our site as well as many notable photographers and collectors who do as well. We treat all images with the utmost respect giving credit always where credit is due. The following link is for the Memory Lane Railway Museum showing how we have treated the imagery already received before you were there. Each image has links at the bottom showing what categories and pages that image has been included it. We worked very closely with the previous boards on both the Museum website and the Wiki and the trust relationship we had concerning the museum's artifacts and display and credit of them was always very good.

Link: http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... way_Museum

A complete list of all contributors and their images are in this section. The museums are in the collection sub category.

Link: http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... bliography

As for Ron Johnson, wonderful man. He cared and he did it all out of his pocket. Hopefully you've seen the video of him. If not, you should watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6yV_3ISdRA

As for your electronic team that you are just getting to meet, there's a handful of us that do most of the editing and uploading and writing of articles on the wiki, which is well read as you saw from the stats above. The wider community opens up on the forum with residents from Truro to Yarmouth each of which has a unique expertise of their area and are often engaged in discussions that reveal history and recollections of the D.A.R. that we eventually incorporate into the organization and descriptions on the wiki.

Good example is the recent conversation about circus trains on the D.A.R. A previously unexplored and undocumented area that we will start to build a history on as we learn more about it.

So please take some time, and you will need quite a bit actually, to plumb the depths of the DARDPI wiki. We also have a sister wiki on the Halfax and Southwestern too!

Ideas that have gone by the by but that you might consider again:
A computer kiosk in the museum that allows access to the DARDPI wiki for staff and visitors to answer questions on various topics of interest on the DAR.
A TV with a running video made from Paul Charland's train simulator layout of the DAR that stretches from Windsor Junction to Annapolis Royal. Paul is currently working on version 3 which will extend it to Digby. He has screen shots of it here on the forum. Optionally, a PC that could run it for staff to set up and play with. But for visitor enjoyment and a demonstration of what the DAR looked like in operation a video would probably be much less trouble.

Link: http://www.dardpi.ca/Forum/viewforum.php?f=15

[SamuelMClark]

Steve, I've already got a computer setup and working for them to use Paul's DAR train sim on, which I need to re-look at come spring before they open up for the season, and I need to do some more testing to get Paul's version 3 working and possibly get that put on there too this coming spring.

I've also suggested the PC setup to John for having the DARDPI site up and running on though, they would need a newer computer for that as the computer that's got Paul's DAR train sim on is running Windows XP, and they would need to get internet installed in at the Museum, though that might be something John you could try and get from the government since things has changed to being more of a museum.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Samuel,

v3 probably is going to take close to a year I would imagine. Cornwallis is almost finished, then it will only take a few weeks to get to Digby, but Digby is going to take a good mouth alone.

I'd stick with v2 for now, that's still Windsor Junction to Annapolis Royal and just running an RDC between the two should be almost three hours.

Paul

[stem]

Wow. I didn't know that Samuel. That's terrific!

[stem]

It is wonderful to see and beyond anyone's imagination that the museum would be able to acquire so many quality 1:1 scale pieces of rolling stock!! Hats off to John and the rest of the crew because we all know it has to be a team effort.

At the same time, the acquisition of photo and memorabilia fonds is quite amazing too!

I just had to say thank you to all at the museum for such extraordinary work bringing it to another level.

[John MacDonald]

Hey Steve n All:

Yes it does require time, knowledge, and teamwork to get to where we are today. But saying that, there is always room for more. More members/volunteers are always encouraged. Are more projects planned for the future? You can count on it. More rolling stock? Uh Huh.... 2 Steamers with Tenders, a diesel and a gas switch engines....Vulcan and Plymouth, a box.....and a turntable that needs to be installed.....and of course no train is a train without displaying markers to the rear, so I'm thinking a caboose or two are needed.

Please check out this website for more info, videos etc https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/

John

[stem]

Caboose most definitely! Thanks for the comment John. Again, terrific work to the museum team and we're all full of anticipation wating to see what's next!!!