Stephen Yakimets

Hi Everyone: Thank-you to everyone who attended our first ever virtual Annual General Meeting over Zoom at the end of January. I was pleased that the technology worked, giving us the opportunity to get together as a group and attend to business. At the AGM, Hans Huizinga and Stephen Yakimets were re-elected to the Board of Directors, and Brian Ducherer and Wayne Telcs were elected to the Board. Both Wayne and Brian were CN employees, and have many years of…

I am writing this on the Thanksgiving weekend, and I am most thankful for all our volunteers who do all sorts of wonderful work, both at the Museum proper and behind the scenes. It’s definitely fall with the cooler weather, the honking geese flying over, and the fields in the area cleared of grain. On the topic of grain, the most recent addition to our collection encourages us to “Take an Alberta Break visit … Edmonton”. The grain car was shuffling back…

Hi Everyone: I realized it has been some time since I sent out an update on happenings at the Museum, and there has been a lot happening, even though we are closed to the public. Our Calder shop, named after CN’s Calder yards, is now more of a Northern Alberta Railways shop. NAR steam locomotive 73 is on the south track, currently getting a face lift with new paint on the boiler, cab, and tender; a new headlight; and overall…

Hi Everyone: It is the end of June on the calendar, but at the Museum it feels to me as if it is late April. Normally we would have had our opening May long weekend, Father’s Day, and would be preparing for Canada Day. It feels very odd to walk around the site without encountering any visitors. I miss the little kids covering their ears as 9000 whistles for the crossing, the kids shaking with excitement as 1392 comes pounding…

Normally the volunteers and summer staff a the Alberta Railway Museum would be preparing for our opening day for this upcoming May long weekend. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 situation, we will NOT open to the PUBLIC for the 2020 season. The Board of Directors has discussed this at length, specifically the challenges of having our visitors socially distance themselves, the need for ongoing cleaning and sanitizing, and the practicalities of having visitors in limited numbers. As well, many of…

Hi Everyone: I hope you are keeping safe in the time of COVID-19. We have suspended all volunteer activities at the site. We have a rotation of volunteers (thank-you Barry, Lukas, and Terry) who stop in daily to ensure that all is well and that the cats are fed. As you may have observed from the news, no one has answers on when life will return to “normal”. The Board of Directors will continue to monitor updates from Alberta Health…