Railway shed on track at McLennan museum
Richard Froese
for Smoky River Express
A new wooden railway display shed at McLennan Railway Museum will soon be ready to store old transportation equipment.
“We hope to complete the work by mid-February, depending on the weather,” says Dennis Isert of Double D Carpentry, which started work last October.
Upon completion, the shed measuring 60 feet long and 16 feet wide, will provide a display area to showcase several historic speeders and other small railway cars being refurbished in the old curling rink.
Rich railway history
Two working speeders, two transportation speeders, two freight carts, two push cars and a hand car are set for display in the new shed beside the caboose and other passenger car.
Northern Alberta Historical Museum and Railway Society received a grant of $20,000 from the Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP) last year to build a new display shed.
“We plan to display and store the speeders this spring” says Aurele (Pinto) Rondeau, society president.
Estimated at $15,000 for the shed and $7,000 for landscaping, the grant provides more than enough funding for the project as the society has accumulated $10,000 in donations of cash in addition to securing donations of material, equipment and labour for the project and other enhancements.
“We figured that the speeders are about 80 years old and we want to restore them to their original state,” adds Rondeau, who formally retired in 1991 after working 39 years for the railway under Northern Alberta Railway and then Canadian National Railway.
“We have restored the speeders for the past three years – they were sheltered but deteriorating.”
Landscaping was completed last year on the site as the provincial funding help progress that component of the project.
While this new display will be an added feature for the Smoky River region centennial celebrations this year set for June 29 to July 1, it's also part of a plan to reorganize the museum before the Town of McLennan’s centennial in 2014 with historic artifacts and documents.
Inside, the society plans to redesign the museum to feature a kitchen and living area.
For more information
Anyone with items that may be valuable to the museum is invited to phone Claire Tanguay at 780-324-3970 or for the shed project, phone Rondeau at 780-324-2123.
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