THE ASSINIBOINE VALLEY RAILWAY     3001 ROBLIN BLVD., WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, R3R 0B8 E-MAIL  iceman@swedenfreezer.com                      Phone 204-837-1305                       or 204-786-4882 or                        cell 204-782-7090

• Bill Taylor - President and chief of nut production.

• Len LaRue -  Vice-President. In charge of machining and medical control of nut ingestion.

• Vic St-Germain - Vice-President in charge of engine house and surplus control of nuts.

• Dwight Kjartanson - Vice-President in charge of signals and control of nuts running reds.   

• Mary-Lou Taylor -  Vice-President. In charge of nut roasting and other culinary skills.    

WELCOME TO THE AVR'S GROWING WEB PAGE. TAKE A LOOK AROUND. CLICK ON THE TITLES BELOW TO GET TO OTHER PAGES. IF A LINE IS UNDERLINED THEN IT TAKES YOU TO ANOTHER PAGE OR A PICTURE. DROP US AN E-MAIL AND TELL US HOW YOU LIKED OUR WEB PAGE.

BY Bill Taylor May 16th., 2012

THE ABEL BOOK COLLECTION FOR SALE

THE ABEL MAGAZINE SALE LIST

MAP OF TRACKAGE 19/01/08           AVR RULES                   WHO ARE WE?

PUBLIC OPEN RUN DAYS  17/03/2012           OUR HISTORY WITH PICTURES 13/03/04

LOCOMOTIVES AND ROLLING STOCK 01/04/12  THE DINNER TRAIN 13/09/11

HOW TO FIND US           OTHER RAILROADS WE HAVE VISITED   20/02/12

THE CHRISTMAS LIGHT RUN 20/02/12         OUR MEMBERSHIP FORM

 ENGINE HOUSE 02/02/08                MEMBERS  01/04/12 

FUN RUN DAYS 26/03/12

 AUGUST  JOINT 2012 MEET                      BADGES & PATCHES FOR SALE

OLD NEWS 23/01/11    OLD NEWS 2011 31/04/12      AUGUST JOINT MEET 2012 

REGISTRATION FORM

CHRISTMAS AT THE TAYLORS                 MEMBERS ONLY

YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIPS ON THE AVR

Public Open Houses are the 2nd weekend of the month, June, July, August, Sept., and October.  The 2012 Schedule of events is posted.

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CAR 3108 AS SHE IS TODAY DEDICATED TO HARVEY SCRIVENER AND PRESENTED BY CALEDON PROPANE FOR USE ON THE AVR

 

On Jan 6th 2012 the Assiniboine Valley Railway celebrated a great mile stone in the history of the club. We gave a train ride to our 200,000 rider since public rides were offered in 1996. In this days we had 800 feet of track and only one train. Currently we have 1.3 miles of track winding through the forest and can operate four complete diesel trains and in the summer our members can operate up to six steam engines. In the above picture Nathan Penner is our special rider followed by his mother Martina Penner. As a prize the young lad was presented 2 rail passes and 2 pairs of holiday glasses. On Jan 5th, 2012 the AVR celebrated our 15,000 rider for this Christmas season with a picture and a complimentary 12 ride pass. The young man in the picture is Noah Wiebe, followed by his mother, Angela Wiebe and grandmother, Elsie Biswanger.  Congratulations to all. AVR 2008 AUGUST MEET PICTURES  ONE OF FOUR NEW LOG CARS NOW COMPLETE AT THE AVR. BILL WAS THE FOREMAN OF THE PROJECT.  THE STEEL BOX CAR # 474 IS COMPLETE. ROB WAS THE FOREMAN ON THE PROJECT 5427  TAKING SHAPE. VIC IS THE FOREMAN OF THE PROJECT. NEW ARRIVAL AT THE AVR CHECK ROSTER CANADIAN PACIFIC 5303 AND 4 CARS THE AVR is a non profit club and we welcome new members who have an interest in small railroading. We are looking for interested model builders who would like to take on or help with structure building projects for the AVR.  THERE ARE OVER 150 PICTURES IN OUR HISTORY WITH PICTURES. TAKE A LOOK... NEXT WORK SESSIONS WILL BE  Wednesday & Saturday afternoons.     Prepare equipment for TM,   Work on new car building, Switch repairs, Replace bad ties, Other projects that need attention. Lay a layer of ballast on Old Fort spur. Extend Dog house.  Repair brakes on gondolas. Cut some trees. Cut up and treat 300 ties for track in front of station.  CLICK BELOW FOR SOME CURRENT PICTURES ALL PICTURES ON THIS PAGE WILL END UP IN OUR HISTORY SECTION WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED OTHER PICTURES. 2365 THE PACIFIC CONSTRUCTION PICTURES 2365 PACIFIC PASSES TEST AT TRAIN MOUNTAIN 5427 CONSTRUCTION PICTURES (UPDATED JAN 29, 2010) CPR # 2816 STOPS IN WINNIPEG OTHER RAILROADS WE HAVE VISITED (UPDATED JAN 27TH, 2009) WHIT JOHNSON AND 2856 AT AVR BOX CAB # 25  (BUILDERS PHOTO) AVR REFRIGERATOR CAR (BUILDERS PHOTO) WINTER VIEW AT FLAMINGO GULCH 6109 GETTING NEW COLOURS   OUTSIDE BRACED BOX CAR  202 IN HER NEW COLOURS  STOCK CAR CONSTRUCTION  (BUILDERS PHOTO) FOUR LOG CARS  (BUILDERS PHOTO) AVR 2008 AUGUST MEET PICTURES AVR NEW OUTSIDE BRACED BOX CARS (4) AVR NEW ORE CARS (6) Send us an E-Mail and let us know how you liked our site.

Saturday Bill completed the install of the last 4 grab irons and 10 ladder rungs.  Twenty nut castings were put on and the remaining parts of the upper cars got their coat of shellac. Frank arrived and cleaned up nine new cast journal covers and glued them on and he straightened up a number of lower sturops that were not straight. Richard and Gordon continued their labour of putting away Christmas display including 20 track arches and wrapped trees. Dwight did some survey work with Ed on replacing the track in front of the station. Ed machined 16 air tank end details and glued them on. Fred helped Bill take the six ore cars out of the engine house and he moved 202 out and got the cars put on the station table. Bill put a coat of shellac on the underside and frame of the 6 cars. Wayne made up the grab irons for the two stock cars and with Fred went out with 3001 to deliver several loads of display material and to get Wayne some practice on a diesel. Len had completed the machining and assembly of four pairs of couplers and then made up two additional centring assemblies for the next pair. Vic worked on 5427's tender hatch and also re-assembled the station door passage set now that the replacement handle has arrived. Bill put away the trains and set up the floor and frame of a stock car for brake detail and king pins. Dwight did some switch maintenance.   Sunday Bill drilled out the coupler bolt holes and mounted five pairs of couplers on ore cars. The lettering was set up for the cabooses.   Monday April 16th. Bill mounted the brake castings, sturups and king pins on the first stock car frame and floor. Next task was to sand, mark, scribe and file the four roof panels for the new stock cars. A task that a year ago took three week was done now in one day. Vic arrived and completed the installation of the water fill hatch on 5427. He and Bill put 5427 together back on its storage track.   Tuesday Bill completed the computer generation for the car lettering and took it to the decal maker for vinyl letters. During the afternoon the second stock car floor, frame assembly was completed.   Wednesday Frank picked up the heavy steel bar for bolsters that will be needed on the four cars he is working on. Gil and Bill discussed paint procedures for the ore cars and wood cuts for the stock cars. Bill put a log car on the shop table and drilled out four brake housings and glued in the chains. The rods were made and all parts were painted. The first brake wheel was installed on one car and scratched paint was touched up. 3001 was taken out and the two short flatcars and one gondola was taken to Duck Lake storage. The three new outside braced box cars were brought back and spare building materials were unloaded. Cars were stored on track 2 along with a gondola to have brakes checked for TM.   Thursday Bill picked up safety hooks and drilled the 24 holes in the ore car end sills and screwed in the safety hooks in all 6 cars. Next task was to paint the underside of four of the cars.   Friday Bill touched up paint on a log car and installed the brake wheel and linkage and painted two ore car bottoms. Gil cut up wood for the stock cars and helped Bill move a log car out of the engine house. Bill used 202 to get a triple stack of log cars from Duck Lake and put one on the table and did needed touch-up and installed its brake wheel. Ed helped Bill move the second car out and put two cars in the engine house and they both got touch-up work, brake wheels and replacement of five lost journal covers.   Saturday Bill sanded and installed the three detail parts to the valves on two log cars and painted the second underside coat of paint on all 6 ore cars. Vic and Barry came to check on railroad progress. Gil arrived with cut wood for stock car sides and ends. Richard and Gordon took the last three loads of Christmas displays to upper storage and then re-spiked 30 feet of rail at Old Fort siding. Bill and Wayne moved the log cars to track and took all four to Duck Lake storage and put logs on each and stored away. The two then put trucks back on the 6 ore cars and put three on the lift and the others on tables. Ed put the first coat of paint on all six insides. Dwight repaired and checked switches and calculated how many ties would need to be prepared to do the track in front of the station. Vic measured the hose for 5427 between the tender and a TM tank car. Bill and Gil discussed some tree removal and sign repair. Richard and Gordon put the trains away. Bill did more touch up paint on ore cars now that they are upright and painted the new journal covers. LOG CARS UPDATE   Sunday April 21st. Bill moved four ore cars out of the engine house and stored in the station dog house. The four log cars got extra logs. A stock car base unit was placed on a set of trucks and two ends were scribed and nailed and glued in place. Four three inch and four five and a quarter wood strips were scribed for the top and bottom sides and nailed and glued in place. Rides were given to grand kids. So nice to be snow free.   Monday Bill drilled, filed and mounted the end sills on the first stock car. The four corners were cut and marked for holes. After marking the hole locations a punch was used to locate the hole. Using the drill press all holes were drilled. Using the dremal all flash was removed. The corners were placed in place and all pilot holes were drilled followed by nailing in all small nails. Some angles and two zed braces were mounted like the corners. See progress on New Stock Cars.   Tuesday Bill cut and nailed and glued an inside top frame for the walls of the stock car and a support shelf from side to side over the door for electronics if we install them and to add strength to the slatted car. Completed the last corner and upper angle iron and door framing. Gil cut up a supply of the 5/8" slat material.   Wednesday Gil prepared the 60" long 5/8" slats for the stock cars and measured what was needed for the roof frames. Bill drilled upright Zed pieces and door angles marking and punching for 204 drill holes then using the drill press drilled the needed holes followed by sanding the pieces and doing the 204 pilot holes and nailing all pieces in place. Twelve 60" pieces of slat material were sanded and cut into 24 - 23.5" lengths which were spaced and nailed into the car.   Thursday Bill fabricated two more angle Zee bracing supports and nailed them in place and cut and marked a third.   Friday Gil continued to work on roof framing and Bill measured and cut and drilled 5 more angles and nailed on three. The 10 grab irons were installed and all nails got a coat of shellac.   Saturday in the morning Bill completed the install of the last two angular Zee braces and using the Dremel cut off all protruding nails from the inside of the car. Phil had to make fixture changes to the mill in order to continue with the job of manufacturing switch points. Frank used the belt sander to clean up detail castings for the stock car.  Vic had a short propane hose made up with fittings to connect a TM tank car to 5427 and then went looking for a suspected propane leak on one tank car. It was found and will need a new valve. Car 105 was then put on the saw horses for brake inspection and repaired as needed. Bill assisted by putting a layer of silfos on a damaged copper line. Len arrived with the last pair of couplers and Bill installed them on an ore car. Dwight continued to do switch and signal maintenance. Richard took the leaf blower to Winch spur and cleaned out the organic material and Gordon with 3001 picked up the two ballast hoppers and filled them four times at our ballast pile and delivered them to Winch were he and Richard spread them on the spur. Richard smoothed the ballast out and swept the track between loads. Gil got a load of six foot treated tie material and sawed up 150 fifteen inch ties for the station track replacement project.  Wayne used his chain saw on a downed tree along the north trail and then had to re-locate the electrical box and overhead line to a post installed for the purpose. Bill and Wayne started the first of eight car side ladders for the stock cars. Richard, Gordon and Bill put away the equipment. Bill retrieved the damaged ASH GROVE and CHARLESWOOD station signs and sanded off the old lettering and cleaned them up and put on a first coat of paint on both sides.   Sunday Bill started machining the gusset castings and strengthening plates and nailed them in place on the stock car along with bolt detail along the bottom. Phil S and Steven pulled out their Pacific and installed tubulators down the flews. Bill started to build the first ladder and put a second coat of paint on the signs..   Monday Bill completed the first ladder and built two more and fastened them onto the stock car. Twenty nut details were sanded, ground and filled and glued onto the grab irons and all remaining gussets and plates were filed, trimmed and installed. Gil continued on the roof frames. Bill discovered the south tunnel gate was left open and four deer were chased out. The next Nutty Report was started. The two signs got new letters deco paged on with a coat of Virathan.   Tuesday the signs got another coat of Virathan. The last ladder was made and installed. The last two Zed supports were cut, drilled, sanded and nailed onto the "A" end of the car. The door track for the hatch on the "B" end was made up using 1/4" channel and four wood doors were cut for both cars. The inside and outside of the car got a coat of shellac.   Wednesday Bill made up the hatch frame for the "A" end. Gil worked on the roof frame. Both Bill and Gil took all six ore cars to the steaming bay for spray painting. Vic sprayed all six cars with Bill and Gil assisting with fetching and preparing. The operation was cleaned up. Bill painted the inside of all six cars and did some touch-up then loaded them back on the track and took them on their first around the railway trip and stored them in the south dog house track and put the other equipment away.   Thursday Bill picked up the lettering. Gil worked on roof frames. Bill completed the install of the hatch door on the "A" end. Gil and Bill put two ore cars on the station table and Bill put lettering on one side of two cars. The re-furbished Ash Grove sign was put back in location.   Friday Bill completed the vinyl lettering on ore cars 240 and 250. In the afternoon Gil brought over the first stock car roof frame with the deck fastened on. He and Bill removed the completed two ore cars from the station table and put two other cars in their place and Bill put the lettering on cars 260 and 270 both sides. It is taking one hour to letter each side. The stock car got paint on 3/4 of the sides. Bill worked on the next copy of the "Nutty Report".   Saturday May 5th, Bill completed the "Nutty Report" and moved four piles of leaves from in front of the station. The trains were taken out and Gil helped Bill change ore cars on the station table waiting for lettering. Phil M. spent his time working on the mill making switch points. Vic worked on the tank car replacing a valve. A new hose will need to be made up. Richard and Gordon went around the railway and collected all the garbage that had accumulated over the winter months and then with the leaf blower went to prepare the Old Fort spur for some ballast work. Wayne spent his time making up two of the ladders for the next stock car. Gil completed the second roof unit for the stock car and fitted one on the first car and then transported a load of tie material for cutting. Dwight with assistance from Ed made needed calculations on what track panels will need to be made for replacing the track in front of the station. Bill cut up all the lettering for the last two ore cars and lettered one side of one car. Bill also made repairs to the broken brake wheel on Peter's original stock car and then made the corner brackets and mounted the pair of roof top grab irons on the stock car roof.   Sunday Bill completed the lettering on all six ore cars and spent the afternoon printing 38 copies of the "Nutty Report" and putting them in envelopes. Later the first stock car roof got its roof walk support brackets nailed in place.   Monday the last 11 "Nutty Reports" were printed and 15 dues due letters were prepared. Bill made some fine tuning to the roof and cut off protruding nails with the Dremel tool. Gil cut up the larger door pieces and more moulding strips and roof walk slats. Bill measured, cut, filled the top moulding for the stock car and cut off the nails. Next task was to take the "Nutty Reports" to the post office and finished the day by laying out and marking the parts for the first of four side doors.   Tuesday Bill nailed all the parts together for the first stock car door and started on 50% of the second door. All wood parts for all four doors were cut to length. 1/4" by 12 inch angles have run out and we will need 8 more pieces to complete the second car. Also 1/4 " flat strips times 16" have run out and 8 pieces will be needed for car #2. All other steel pieces are in good supply. The roof of car # 1 plus one door got its coat of shellac and the door track and door track support were installed.    Wednesday Bill put a coat of shellac on the roof unit and completed the first coat of paint on the stock car inside and out and did the inside of the roof unit. The second door was completed and all got a coat of shellac. The roof walks got a coat of paint. Gil came to check that all wood parts were cut correctly and they were. Gil has done a good job in the wood department. Len took a pair of couplers off ore cars as they were binding and machined them and returned them to service. Bill painted the top surface of the stock car roof. Small detail parts were ordered from Branch Line products to add extra details like door trolleys etc.   Thursday Bill put the final coat of paint on all sides, ends, roof and doors of the first stock car.   Friday Bill spent part of the morning doing club admin jobs. In the afternoon the roof walks were nailed in place and the stock car was lettered. The door were temporarily fitted and some trim pieces were cut and added.   Saturday May 12th, Bill started to scribe, file and sand the ends and side pieces for the second stock car. Gil spent the afternoon straightening the rails through our two tunnels. Vic continued test fitting parts for the tank car. Richard and Gordon continued with their spur track up-grade with new ballast on the Old Fort spur and a start on the South Duck Lake spur. Frank sanded and cleaned up the flash on the gusset and support pads for the second stock car. Dwight designed the panels needed for the track in front of the station. Bill and Gil moved the stock car to the station and put it upside down on saw horses so painting could be completed on the underside. Bill put all trains away after testing ore cars on three runs. The car being upside down allowed missed detail to get painted and the whole under side given a coat of shellac and a first coat of paint.   Sunday Bill put a final coat of paint on the underside of the stock car and replaced the trucks. The second car got its ends and sides glued and nailed in place. As 202 was out and the ore cars needed a good test Bill went around the rails about a dozen times and lubricated the tracks as well.   Monday Bill glued and clamped the stiffening timbers on the inside of the car just under the roof line and nailed in the cross support and machined the two end sills and screwed them in place. Vic arrived with John and our order of 10 pairs of couplers and fittings for our cars with brakes. Bill cut, filled, sheered, pre-drilled and nailed on all four corner pieces.   Tuesday Bill put all 1/2" angle around the top of the stock car and put on the door angles and added all 12 slats to one side. The brake wheel shaft bracket at the bottom of the first stock car was fabricated and installed.   Wednesday Bill cut, measured, punched, drilled and sanded four zed braces for the second stock car. Phil M. started up the Suburban and fabricated by cutting, grinding and welding a short train rack that will hold #25 and a hopper car for St. Croix. Bill cut and drilled out two coupler pivots and put the springs into a pair. Gil worked on cutting the surplus wood out of the door on stock car 725. We all got 2365 out of the engine house and Bill steamed her up and went around the railway testing the left injector and steam brake. She was left wet for the Fun Run on Saturday. Gil and Bill rotated the stock car and moved a set of couplers from an ore car to the stock car and putting the new couplers in the ore car. Bradley assisted Bill by removing the four back seats from the van and Bill anchored down the locomotive rack ready for St. Croix and Train Mountain..  AVR NEW ORE CARS (6) .  New Stock Cars

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