August 2008 News.Pub
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WCRA NEWS AUGUST 2008 COME TO STEAMFEST! SEP. 20 & 21, 2008 MINI RAIL DAYS AND MEMBER PICNIC AUGUST 17 WCRA News, Page 2 GENERAL MEETING NOTICE The General Meeting of the WCRA will be held on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 1930 hours at the Rainbow Creek Station in Burnaby, Willindon at Penzance. Entertainment will be a DVD “Gears In The Woods”. ON THE COVER Announcing SteamFest! Royal Hudson #2860 greets our 1934 Chrysler Airflow at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park—a pre view of just two of the many attractions planned for Steam Fest 2008, which will be held September 20 and 21, 2008. More inside—page 20. AUGUST CALENDAR • West Coast Railway Heritage Park open daily 1000 through 1700k • Wednesday, August 6—Deadline for items to be included in the September 2008 edition of WCRA News • Tuesday, August 12—WCRT’s “Vancouver Island’s West Coast” tour departs • Tuesday, August 19 —Tours Committee Meeting, call Bernie at 604-325-0923 • Sunday, August 17—Mini Rail Days all day at the Heritage Park, many guest engines will pull trains, everyone welcome 1000—1700. • Sunday, August 17—Members’ Picnic at the Heritage Park, come and enjoy a free dinner and the company of your fellow WCRA members, 1730—1900. • Saturday, August 23—Giant Garage Sale at West Coast Railway Heritage Park, 1000— 1400 • Tuesday, August 26 —WCRA General Meeting, 1930 hours, Rainbow Creek Station in Burnaby, BC The West Coast Railway Association is an historical group dedicated to the preservation of British Columbia railway history. Membership is open to all people with an interest in railways past and present. We are a non-profit British Columbia society, registered as a Canadian charity. Individual membership in the WCRA is $50.00 per year, family membership is $60.00. E Members (electronic newsletter, $15 savings) are $35 individual and $45 family. (Outside Canada, please remit US $) Other categories are: - Junior Member (age 18 and under ) $ 25 - Sustaining Member $100 (tax receipt) plus membership type regular fee - Life Member (one time fee) $700 individual life / $1,200 family life All memberships include the monthly newsletter, Heritage Park admission, mini rail rides and discounts on food and merchandise. The Association holds a monthly meeting on the last Tuesday of the month at 1930 hours in Burnaby at Rainbow Creek Station in Confederation Park. Apply through www.wcra.org or mail to WCRA, PO Box 2790 Stn. Term., Vancouver, B.C., V6B 3X2. WCRA News, Page 3 EDITORIAL WE COULDN’T HAVE SAID THIS ANY BETTER In times past we have commented about the need to be careful as we build and develop our core collection, about how things just get dropped off at our site without our acceptance or consideration about whether or not they fit our plan, or whether or not we will be able to care for them properly. This is a very real issue for all of us who preserve railway heritage, and this recent editorial that ran in TrainLine says it better than anything else we could have written ourselves about taking a critical look at our collections an being sure they are manageable for the long term.. YA WANT AN ELEPHANT? - by Dan & Karen Ranger, TRAIN I am reminded of a conversation I once had with the late Walter Gray, of the California State Railway Museum, in which we discussed how a museum considered what it preserved. One of Walt’s comments was about a circus going by a farmhouse and a guy asking if the farmer wanted an elephant. “Why sure, I do” replied the farmer. After he got the elephant and put it back of the barn, it came to him, “Now what the heck do I do with it?” Aside from Walt’s humour, there is a very telling message here that is beginning to show up in the railroad artifact collecting industry. “What do we do with it?” Well, we “keep it” so the public gets to see it. Fine, now do we have the funds to restore it? To maintain it? And more to the point, does the public really care that we have it at all? Yes, we care. You and I do. Because we are railfans that, with a somewhat glassy eyed view, care. But in the real world, do other people, the ones we hope will pay to see “it” or give us grant money to preserve “it” care? In general, the hard answer just might be “probably not”. Take another look at what is happening at the California State Railroad Museum, the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, and others not so publicly in the glare of the spotlight. If one has a piece of equipment that will take $250,000 or more to restore, does one then end up with another $250,000 piece of rust. An do enough of our paying customers care? These are serious questions that our industry needs to examine and, maybe, get a little cold blooded about. It might mean the difference between saving something—or losing all of it. Don WCRA News, Page 4 ASSOCIATION NEWS FROM THE JUNE GENERAL MEETING The General Meeting of the West Coast Railway Association was held at 1930 hours on June 24, 2008 with Colin Dathan chairing the meeting and 30 in attendance: • President’s report – Jim Brown for Don Evans, updated re funding received and other activities during June. • Finances – Jim Brown, May has been a very good month for revenue; but profit and income are down from 2007 due extra expenses. • 374 Pavilion – Jim Brown, Vancouver Jazz festival at R/H Community Centre next week – 374 Pavilion should benefit. Summer Student now onboard – work Mon to Fri; Attendance up since student start and should remain so as a result; Gift shop now open – revenue $350 to date. • Heritage Park – Susan Steen, Vancouver Millionaires Hockey Alumni will be at the BC150 event. They are looking for a space for their archives and are considering WCRHP. Summer Staff has now started – Nicole Etherington and Nathan Pinfield; Will meet on Monday with BC Museum of Mining to see how we can co-ordinate activities of both organizations more effectively. • Heritage Park Construction – Colin Smith, Canron now has firm date for start of steel erection August 5th; Mechanicals have been sorted out and now have improvements which will benefit its operation later - like more efficient in floor heating • MiniRail – Jeremy Davy; Bookings for Portable coming in slowly, Attended Chilliwack Interchange 2008 June 14 & 15 and Surrey RCMP Div 1 Block Party in Whalley on Jun 19. Total rides given 732; Next Schedule S. Delta Baptist Church July 16th/17th. • Membership – Jeremy Davy; Total membership showing slow growth; Memberships usually increase in Summer. • Events – Bernie Tully ; Chilliwack Interchange 2008 (NMRA Regional convention) June 14th/15th – 1600 visitors in addition to Delegates. Sale of Surplus Books = $460.00 • Collection – No report • Tours – Bernie Tully; Colin Dathan gave a report on the Train/ 2 Ferry Tour on which he was a guest. The tour was very good in all respects; The 5,000 piece mail drop done last week has already resulted in 14 bookings; • Special Items; The Shane Yellowbird Video shot at the Park on May 6th will be shown on CMT Jun 25 @ 4:30PM and Jun 29 @ 7:30 AM. • Trackside Report: Ryan Cruickshank and Bill Marchant gave their Trackside Reports – both with humor.. • Guests; The 2 guests were introduced and we welcomed. Bruce McKay – attending for first time in several months • Raffle paid the rent plus a reduced pot for the winner. • Events Calendar – Read & available in the newsletter. • Entertainment - DVD featuring the Electric Era of the Milwaukee Road to its end WCRA News, Page 5 SPECIAL NOTE – The Royal Hudson Requests your assistance: Member Joe Naismith brought a large number of historical videos to the June meeting with the intention that they be sold and the proceeds donated to the Royal Hudson Fund. Through an oversight, the fact that they were for sale was not announced and some members may have assumed that they were free as a sizable number of the videos were gone by the end the meeting but very few dollars were in evidence. We hope those of you who have the videos are enjoying them but would appreciate it if you would make a minimum $5.00 per item donation. The money can be given to Jeremy or Bill Marchant during the evening. Thank you. (J.D.) WCRA TRIVIA # 235 - by Ryan D. Cruickshank What is the oldest major metropolitan railroad station still standing? (for answer, see Credit Lines) MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS Memberships dated 06/30/2008 have now expired, and if your membership expired 04/30/2008, this will be your last issue. Please check the label on your newsletter and renew today. Remember that renewals are being accepted for memberships with the E–Newsletter—check page 2 for current membership rates. Is your email address current???? It is particularly important that those of you who have registered for access to the Members Only area keep your email address current in the Server. Each time a new issue is posted the Server sends a notice to the email address you supplied when you requested access. Because the undeliverable messages from a Server do not bounce back to it I have no way to be proactive. If you have changed your email address, or think the one we have is out of date because you do not receive notices, please send your current email address to Jeremy at [email protected] and the server will be updated as required.