RV Volunteer Friends

On April 21 a group of 34 volunteers arrived on the grounds of SCRM with their RV’s with a plan to help complete an extensive list of projects. The RV Volunteer Friends (RVVF) was founded on December 30, 2022 by Jeff and Susan Spencer. The RVVF group consists of people they met and worked with during previous RV volunteer projects. Most of the RV Volunteer members travel across state and even the country to join the team on a project.  They have completed eight projects and have six more planned in 2024. Museum member and volunteer John Cole had worked with RVVF at the Pioneer Museum in Minden, NE last year and convinced them that a trip to So Cal in the spring would be a great idea.

Much of what the group did were maintenance projects – repainting our Disney Ticket Booths, building, installing, and painting over 900 feet of picket fence, repair and reroof speeder sheds, clean, scape and repaint many of the buildings on the property. They trimmed trees and plants, installed watering systems, and painted many of the railroad signals and signs.

In Town Hall the group removed about 1,200 square feet of carpeting, then discovered layers of padding and plywood which covered 1,200 additional feet of carpeting – most likely laid before the building ever came to the museum. They then installed a beautiful and durable bamboo floor and floor molding.

The Middleton Museum baggage cars, which sit right along the track were not easily accessible in the past. There is now a wonderful walkway which goes from near the museum entrance up to the cars, new stairs to get into each end of the cars, and a viewing platform so that visitors can watch as trains come and go.

The Harvey House exhibit has beautiful new signage designed and painted by RVVF which has already brought in more foot traffic.

Two new photo op stands were created and painted by the group. The signals and signs in the signal garden were painted, and a new sign created to identify the place. In Carbarn 1 most of the skylight panels up high on the wall of the structure were replaced.