The Niagara Railway Museum, located in the former Canadian National Railway diesel shop in Fort Erie, Ontario acquired ex-CN Flanger 56323 back in December 2016 from Genaire Ltd in Niagara On The Lake. The car was used as a conference room at their facility at the Niagara District Airport, but was starting to fall into a state of disrepair (as wood cars often do when they sit outside). after some discussions, the family decided the best place for the car would be at the NRM, so it was moved on Dec. 9 2016. Some work was done in the early days, but not a whole lot (other projects taking priority). The pandemic shut down ended up allowing us to get a hell of a lot of work done, including the Flanger. All the boards on both sides were replaced with new tongue in groove boards. Both end decks were replaced, and the complete end railing was done on one end. All 4 windows in the carbody were rebuilt, along with new window sills. Both side cupola windows were removed to be rebuilt, with 1 being reinstalled in time for our 25th Anniversary event. Some parts for the steps/ladders were salvaged from our other flanger that was acquired back in 2011. The car was given a new paint job and received all new hand painted markings courtesy of a local sign painter who made all the patterns for the letters, and donated his time to the project. On July 14th the car was moved outside, and moved to a different track, for the first time since 2016. Phase 2 of the work will see the cupola and roof being worked on in this coming off season. The car is looking amazing, and I'm very excited to see it come to completion. Our other Flanger, 56452, has blades, but no body, while 56323 has the body, but no blades. Unfortunately it would require a lot of modifications in order to install the blades on 56323. The car will also retain it's empty interior, as right now, it is a very useful space for meetings and displays.

Ken -

The NRM members did an excellent restoration job. Congrats to all who participated!


Les

Turned lemons into really essential work, and moved ahead. Well done NRM! Nice to see a lowly flanger get respect and some devoted dollars. I enjoyed my tour of your museum back in 2018.

Well done! Very nice to see that you were able to rehab this before moisture and rot got into the wall frames.