Last night was our May hybrid (in-person and online) meeting and was attend by about twenty plus folks. Many of us started off with a large group at Ricky-Jo’s sharing a meal a great stories. We whisked through the business portion of the meeting and got straight to the presentations. We had four digital shows and one slide show.

We were treated to an excellent show by Andy Panko highlighting the history of the of NS&T main line through Merritton including maps, diagrams and photos. He also covered the history of the Michigan Central line through St. David’s including the story of a cement plant built on the side of the escarpment, again with many photos. He also outlined an upcoming hike planned for mid-October featuring many historic rail sites in the Niagara Falls and St. David’s area.

We then had a wonderful presentation by Glenn Cherry of his recent trip into the US to see and photograph CPKC’s Hudson steam engine 2816 on its tour through western Canada and down into the US. This was followed up by Tammy’s super presentation which overlapped Glenn’s also covering 2816 with additional photos of American short lines. Then Ricahrd Guitar, one of our ZOOM attendees, shared some of his digitized slides of railway scenes from the 1970s.

Finally we had a slide show by Steve Armstrong which featured some very artistic shots of steam excursions from the 1970s. All in all they were all excellent presentations.

The Longest Day is coming up on Friday June 21st where, those that wish to, will gather on the Laking Garden bridge for breakfast and the morning rush of trains. Our BBQ is also planned for July and a GO trip is planned for August so it should be an enjoyable summer. Our next hybrid meeting is scheduled for Wednesday September 25th at the Lock 3 Museum and over ZOOM.