News Archive

May 25 2010

Working on the Railroad

By: Gary McCampbell

Keep looking here for new updates and hints of progress on getting the St. Johns Depot and CNR up and running again.

Jun 05 2010

The Depot and the cars are progressing>

By: Gary McCampbell

Amazing what a few days, a lot of work, a lot planning, well you all know the type of story that goes on behind the scenes of any project, major or minor.

The depot is almost ready, great strides have been made on the RPO (Railroad Post Office), plans for Fun Family Fridays are jelling and well things just are happening.

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Jun 09 2010

Working on the Railroad, ahh, it continues

By: Gary McCampbell

The crew will be hitting the rails again tomorrow as the weather looks really good. They will be going for the roof. A few half carlines have been made, the inside, underside of the roof will be removed in places and we look at what needs to be done to replace the carlines (rafters) so that we can put new roofing on and start figuring out what we need to do with the windows. There are 19 windows and airvents per sides. We will need to work out ways to put screens on the windows.

Let the fun continue.

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Aug 22 2010

Work continues

By: Gary McCampbell

Fun Family Fridays has one more turn on the stage with a progressive dinner, scavenger hunt, and singing and instrumentals by the Mint City Jammers.
So then we will be fully concentrating on the depot and rail car restoration.

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Oct 04 2010

Work Continues

By: Gary McCampbell

The RPO (Railroad Post Office) was button up for the winder, this past workday (9.30.2010). While we will still show it off from the inside, it needed to be set up for the winter.

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Oct 05 2010

October Events-Well at least on Sundays.

By: Gary McCampbell

Start: Oct 3 2010 - 1:00pm
End: Oct 31 2010 - 4:00pm

For the month of October, CNR will have the St. Johns Depot (train layouts and historical artifacts), the boxcar (filled with memorabilia)and the railroad post office car (filled with memories and hints of tasks ahead)open each Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm or later depending on the crowd.

The first Sunday, 10.3.2010 we had a steady crowd of highly interested and interesting families.

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Oct 05 2010

News article submitted: St. Johns Depot Sunday Activities: Memory Sundays

By: Gary McCampbell

TO: PRESS CONTACTS
FROM: JENNY MCCAMPBELL, 989-224-6134
RE: MEMORY SUNDAYS AT THE ST. JOHNS DEPOT
“I went through that door to board the train when I went off to fight in World War II,” said the elderly gentleman as he stood in the St. Johns Depot this past summer. As he went on to describe his experiences in the war, Jenny McCampbell, Co-Director of Clinton Northern Railway (CNR) Museum with her husband Gary, made it her goal to start recording these and many other Depot Memories for all to appreciate and learn from.

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Oct 10 2010

October 10, 10

By: Gary McCampbell

10.10.10 proved a good day for attendance at the St. Johns Depot. We had planned on being ready for interviews of people who have had experiences of using the depot to leave on trips and return or just seeing people on and off the trains. In particular we were hoping to see WWII vets and their families. Well in fact we saw a couple, were able to interview one and two others took papers home to fill out at their leisure.

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Nov 02 2010

Last Sunday of October

By: Gary McCampbell

Well, the last Sunday has arrived, as did just over 40 visitors to the depot rolling stock. As scheduled we had the depot opened each Sunday in October, from roughly 1 to 4 pm each day. I say rough as often we had to stay open for any where from a half hour to a full hour to accommodate the late staying visitors. Jen and I and the rest of the volunteers really enjoyed the enthusiasm of the visitors.
The children seem to be captivated by both the electric trains as well as the old wooden pull'em by a string train.

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Nov 07 2010

Best laid plans!

By: Gary McCampbell

OK, so we did not get to the planning stage for the winter that is coming on, as planned.

We did make some repairs to the RPO to keep the winter out. We; Jim, Travis, and myself, pulled two slats off the side of the RPO and discovered, much to our dismay, that we will not be able to just flip the TG boards 180 degrees-top to bottom, as the back sides are flat and slight beveled as I thought they might be. Yes, you woodworkers can laugh, but...

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