2008 News and AnnouncementsReport on the 40th Anniversary Celebrations August 30 - September 1, 2008. The museum was host to two of our elected representatives: Councillor Ed Gibbons, Ward 3, presented a citation signed by Mayor Stephen Mandel congratulating the Alberta Railway Museum on its 40th anniversary. He stressed our success over the years to make our collection representative of the railway history of Alberta and especially of the Northern Alberta Railways and this area. Ed Gibbons has made the most of opportunities to get involved in sports, business and the community. Over the past 23 years, he has accumulated experience in sales and small business operation and served as president of the Edmonton Minor Hockey Association. Ed's commitment to sport and the community helped him gain a strong reputation both within his neighbourhood and the city as a whole. This high regard was evident when organizers named their hockey tournament the South Clareview Ed Gibbons Hockey Tournament, and again in 1988, when Ed was named City of Edmonton Volunteer of the Year. From 1995 to 1997, Ed served as president of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues. Elected MLA in 1997, Ed served his constituents in Edmonton-Manning for one term. He moved from provincial to municipal government in 2001, when he was elected City Councillor for Ward 3. After being re-elected in 2004 and 2007, Ed has continued to contribute to his community through his work on City Council. Ken Allred, MLA for St. Albert, brought greetings from Lindsay Blackett, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Mr. Allred was elected to his first term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for St. Albert on March 3, 2008. In addition to his regular duties as MLA Mr. Allred serves as a member of the Private Bills Committee and as chair of the Standing Committee on the Economy. Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Allred worked as a professional land surveyor and adjudicator beginning in 1965. Throughout his career he has received numerous awards and honours including: * Gold Executive Award from SAIT, 1961 * Professional Recognition Award from the Alberta Land Surveyors' Association, 1991 * Champlain Award from the Canadian Council of Land Surveyors, 1996 * Honorary member of the Association of Nova Scotia Land Surveyors, 1997 * Premier- Service Award, 2003 * President- citation, Canadian Institute of Geomatics, 2007. Ed and Ken were taken on a tour of the grounds by Hans Huizinga, Irene and Herb Dixon. Ed and Ken saw the restoration work being done in "Rycroft", the restoration of the interior of "Fort Brabant", 7379s roof and were given an on-site explanation of the Museums mission and vision. They were most complimentary. The food concession was provided by the following community members:
From the final report of the Agricultural Society: "It was a very successful day and event. The enthusiasm from the guests and the many volunteers at the Railway Museum was infectious. Thanks for all the laughs and a fun time." The Railway Museum members are most grateful for the splendid cooperation from the Ag Society. We fully enjoyed having them there and their presence made the day a resounding success. Dave Stokes said it seemed like a big party all day! The following are recognized for their contribution: * Norm Corness, Conductor and one of the founding members also had his 1961 Austin Mini on display. My congratulations and gratitude to those of you who put out the extra effort to make this year a success. We changed our hours of operation from daily to weekends only. Without the overhead of summer staff, we seem to have been able to manage our finances fairly well. Announcements: * Casino is scheduled for November 2, 3 at the Century Casino on Fort Road. August 11, 2008 This was a busy weekend. On Saturday, Don Weymouth, Ted VanGunst, Jim Sexsmith, Don Kashuba were working on engine shop duties- notably 1392 and 7944. Steve Girard arranged for a compressor from the Cat Store. It was used in startup for 1392. Thanks Steve. On Saturday we enjoyed a visit with Mike and Wendy Bain from Castor. Mike is a colleague of mine from pharmacy days. They also spent some time with Hans and we donated to them the display counter that has sat in Shop 1 for years. It is of oak construction and requires refinishing and plate glass to make it a distinctive part of a museum setup. Mike and Wendy have restored many cabinets and display fixtures from Mike's Dad's drug store in Consort. The cabinet will make a significant addition to the collection. In addition, they have taken a significant interest in the railway display beside the grain elevator at Castor. It is perhaps the best freight display that I have seen. A special request from Mike: if any of you know where some pharmacy artifacts might be located, please let me know and I will pass the information on to Mike. He also made a significant cash donation. Don Weymouth and I were the guest relations members on Sunday. We had a visit from Margaret Losinski, daughter of Michael Losinski, a long-time CNR executive. Margaret has donated several items from her dad's estate, including the station clock in the telegraph office. Welcome to new members: * Josh Humeny from Fort Saskatchewan. He is a 3rd year apprentice electrician and has a great interest in the NAR. Josh would also like to learn more about railway operation- translated: he says he is ready to get his hands dirty. * Richard Bagnell from Spruce Grove: Richard is a retired British Columbia Railway conductor. He says he can be a switchman, but conductor is not on our volunteer list so we will have to fix that. Talent must not go unrecognized. Our visitors to date: 1746 The long weekend was a resounding success. We had 417 visitors and gave 360 train rides. We have had 1657 visitors so far this year. Gloria Jackson handled the visitors and reception with great skill. She maintained her gracious attitude, kept people moving and handed out the "loot bags" for the kids. Having 1392 in service was an outstanding event. Terry Wolfe, Ted VanGunst and Jim Sexsmith operated the locomotive and Ken Jones, Norm Corness and John Rushton were conductors. Niale Smith and Sharon Fieber carried out the brakeman duties. Visitors were impressed with our return to steam and the Edmonton Journal had a picture of 1392 in the Culture Section of Sunday's paper. Niale got the stencil "CNR Serves All Canada" applied to the south side of the caboose. He and Don Weymouth got the mobile air compressor working and now painting can move forward as the weather permits. Hans had both Combine 7379 and the Engineering car on display - the latter for the first time since its restoration. Hans is preparing the roof of 7379 for the rubber roof. Niale has stabilized the posters in the car displays. Invitations have gone out for the Open House on August 30th. Dignitaries from Alberta Government, Edmonton City Council, and mayors and councilors from St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan, Bon Accord and the County of Sturgeon have been invited along with other friends of the museum. Catering is being arranged through Twilight Catering at Namao. Don Kashuba has been very active in both diesel repair and publicity. He is making great strides in the open house publicity. Some progress is being made on assembling materials for the new display track at the end of the parking lot. Ties have been arranged, rail is on site and we are waiting for confirmation on a source of switch ties. Good news on the insurance front: the premiums have dropped again this year. Thanks to our insurance broker, Ed Coleman of Smith Insurance in Fort Saskatchewan the premiums have gone from $8858 in 2006, to $6603 in 2007 to $5,000 in 2008-9. We welcome new member Richard Bagnell. Richard is a retired British Columbia Railway Conductor. His skills and experience are a welcome addition to our membership. I am looking for help on Saturday and Sunday, August 9 and 10. We will be running the speeder for our guests and need an operator. Interpreters are a great help and we seem to be getting more guests with small families who are interested in "trains" Here is an opportunity to encourage interest on the part of parents and children to make this a family outing and learning experience. July 22, 2008 * 1392 is slated to operate on the Heritage Day weekend August 2,3,4, 2008 - thanks to Ted VanGunst, Jim Sexsmith, Dennis Pringle, Terry Wolfe, Don Weymouth * The August long weekend promises to be a highlight of the year with 1392 under steam after a long absence. Trains will still be operated on long weekends and tours will be offered on Saturdays, Sundays and long weekend Mondays Here is a summary of the activities of the first two weekends of the summer The Victoria Day Weekend We had a total of 642 visitors. This was due to the efforts of:
6514 was in service looking very impressive- all black with Alberta Railway Museum lettering on the nose inside a maple leaf decal and Alberta Railway Museum on each side in gold lettering - thanks to Niale Smith. Don Weymouth cut the grass, Hans Huizinga repaired some of the winter damage and we had a couple of Solicitor General Crews on site to clean up the shops, grounds and put out the benches and open up the cars. The museum is ready for operation on weekends. The new stock is out and priced. The cash register and the Interac machine are set up, new guide books are on the way and 40th Anniversary pins will arrive soon. Dave and Tina and Niale and Gloria will be away for the next weekend so I am requesting that we have some volunteers for the next weekend, May 24 and 25. We will need someone to operate the speeders, open up the display cars and provide information for visitors. I am very impressed with the quality of work done by the volunteers and your dedication to making this, our 40th Anniversary year a success May 24-25, 2008 We had a total of 22 visitors. Don Weymouth, Sharon Fieber, Hans Huizinga and I were there on Saturday. Velma Pringle spent the afternoon in the gift shop- re-arranging stock, cleaning, pricing and generally organizing things. Velma has considerable experience with the gift shop in the Fort Saskatchewan Hospital. She gave some good advice and put her expertise to work. We are putting on a special sale of white and grey T-Shirts. We wish to move them out and recover some of our investment. Sharon re-routed and organized the electrical supply to the cash register, Interac machine and sales counter. What a relief to get rid of the tangle of cords. We finally got the waste bin emptied on Friday (Don was there until 1630). So the driver and truck came in, picked up the waste, got a key and moved the bin. Now we can get the waste removed on Tuesdays on Waste Management's regular schedule, without any of us being there. Saturdays and Sundays are not on the pickup route. Don gave several speeder rides along with his inimitable tour information. Hans spent several hours raking up the garbage still remaining, leveling the service road where the truck left deep ruts in the soft ground, and digging drainage ditches toward the culvert that Larry Zacharko put in the road south of Shop 1. (We had a deluge during last week!). Velma and Sharon were there on Sunday, along with Stephen Yakimets, Don Weymouth and me. Stephen replaced some light bulbs and gave speeder rides. He is a great host. Sharon is working in the Baggage Room in the station to get all the lights working in the signals display. The display was installed by Derek Persson in the early '90s and has not been upgraded or had the bulbs changed since. My compliments to all of the above for their good humor and willingness to make the museum a destination. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: There is a great selection of coffee-table books for sale in the gift shop - railway history, nostalgia and special interest. Some new and some used and some out of print. You will be pleased to see the variety. They are for sale for a donation - Make us an offer. Maintenance of Way Building As the rails progressed west from Eastern Canada and spider webbed across the prairie landscape, towns were born and villages created. These new settlements were surveyed and constructed on railway land at regular intervals from siding to the next passing siding. The sidings were every 9 miles and a station, coaling facility and water tank were located at every second siding. Such was the case with the Calgary & Edmonton Railway. Towns arose from these plans, hotels were constructed across from the station along "Railway Avenue" and "Main Street", and stores would follow. These would serve the townsfolk, passengers, and occasionally the train crews. The maintenance of the right of way was the job of the Section Gang. From the Jigger, the four-man handcar to the motorized speeders, it was their job to check the track work from one to one and one-half hours prior to the passenger trains or very important freight service. Minor repairs could be quickly made from the speeder, but with major problems such as washouts or unsafe trestles, a stop order would be quickly followed by the repair gang. The ingenuity of the work gangs was stretched as they shored up sinking tracks with brush and logs or made a corduroy road of logs on the right of way and dumped sand and gravel on top to create a roadbed base for track work. The section crews operated from the towns and villages along the line. The City of St. Albert was one of these. The line constructed for the Edmonton & Slave Lake Railway and absorbed by the Canadian Northern Railway, moves in a large S curve from Edmonton west to Athabasca and then to Entwistle. The land in St. Albert, donated by the Grey Nuns in order to get train service, supported the Class Four passenger station and section men- maintenance of way sheds. These were constructed in the standard drop siding and gable roof fashion with doors to allow two speeders to be housed inside. Later samples of these can be seen in action in the movie "The Railrodder" staring Buster Keaton. As these buildings deteriorated, the CNR replaced them in the 1960s with ready built trailer style units. Many towns had the same style of units comprised of one trailer 10'-0 wide x 22'-0 long with two overhead doors to accommodate two speeders plus some room for storage, tools, and repairs. Other similar size units became the office with a toilet, washbasin and hot water supply as well as a heater for both sides. Both units were a pair to be butted together for MOW service. The St. Albert units were numbered 16 A & 16 B. Mounted on two 5" x 8" wood skid beams, these light weight "ATCO" style trailers are skinned on three sides with the new 3/8th chipboard ASPENITE panels and clad with vertical yellow painted light aluminum panels. The joints are covered with aluminum bats to conceal the staples of the siding material. The roof is tin clad and sloped towards the eaves trough on the long sides. The buildings are insulated on the exterior walls as well as roof and floor. The office side has interior paneling of Masonite with the dark hardwood look. The plywood interior walls on the speeder side also have vertical wood strip bats as joint covers. The same is for the ceiling vinyl covered plywood. These units were distributed by the way freight to various locations. Ted Van Gunst remembers the trailer loaded flat cars parked at a station site and skid beams hooked into the stake pockets of the flat. With gentle persuasion, the units were pushed unto newly prepared foundations, butted together, and secured. This whole operation would take less than one hour. Larger division centers would have a bunkhouse trailer attached to the MOW unit. This would lengthen the string to 44'-0" and provide accommodations for the gang. Stony Plain is one of these sites. As the technology advanced, the motorized speeders were replaced with Hi-Rail trucks equipped with rail mounting attachments. The ability to travel both on the road and track has made not only the equipment obsolete, but also these MOW trailer units. Thus, we have acquired a structure of modern history Editor- Note: The St. Albert Historical Society donated these units to the Museum. The author, assisted by Ted VanGunst, Sharon Fieber, Mike Frail, and two contractors moved the speeder sheds from St. Albert to the Museum over a period of several days. An enormous amount of work was done to prepare the site, get the sheds ready for transport, and finally set them in place. The track connections were installed and one of the Museum display speeders is now in one of the stalls. The short connecting rails from the sheds to the main track are stamped with their date of manufacture in the 1870s. Any information about the source of these rails would be most welcome. 1) "Talk to Elderhostel on Railways" by ALAN VANTERPOOL, 1999, Pg 2 2) "Ribbons of Steel" by Ena Schneider, 1989 Detselig Enterprises Ltd., Pg 104 - 105 3) "The Muskeg Limited" by Peter Lacey, 1993 Fiesen Printing, Manitoba: Pg 14 4) "The Railways of Edmonton" by ALAN VANTERPOOL, 1997 BRMNA publishers, Pg. 29 ARCHIVES We are located at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) in a dedicated office with access to our own computer system. At the same time, portions of our documentation are being transferred from our computer to the PAA database as the files are completed. The hours available for volunteering have been expanded. Except for Sunday and Monday, the hours are 0900-1630 daily including Saturday. Anyone wishing to volunteer should contact Ernie Townend(780-487-5917 ) or Hans Huizinga (780) 473-9045 for orientation and instruction in the tasks to be undertaken. George Faulder has begun cataloguing his technical collection, which he has donated to our Archives. This will be a unique library within our collection. Herb Dixon, Executive Director, Alberta Railway Museum and Archives
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