By early October, 2013, we were ready for an open house. All
the rooms were finished and flooring was installed in all the
major areas. During these final phases of construction, Gwen
and a friend, Nancy (wife of one of our volunteers), were mak-
ing craft items to be sold in the gift shop. We set October 18th
as the official ceremony day. Local officials from St Jacobs and
Woolwich Township made short speeches to a group of invited
guests. Frank’s wife, Gay, now in her early nineties, cut the offi-
cial ribbon, and trains started running. We then opened to the
public for most weekends up to Christmas.
We shut down in January and February to get our “night
scene,” a favorite of the public, up and running. Since the wires
to the buildings had been cut during the dismantling, Craig
worked on identifying which wire in each building went to
which room. (We had made a chart of all the structures when
we first installed the night scene.) With the structures back
in place, and their circuits labeled, volunteers now ran tele-
phone cables from the drum’s terminal strips to various loca-
tions under the benchwork connecting the buildings, street
lights, etc.
21. The city of Wellington glows in the distance, while
the industrial area of Eastport occupies the foreground
during our very popular night scene.
21
