Saturday, October 17, 2020

1990s Railway history supporters: Rolly, Ross, Wayne



Here are photos of a few people connected to the Sisyphean tasks 

associated with railway history preservation. 

To the best of my recollection, I am using the names of the museums as they existed then.



A general view of the 'station lead' at the archives building 
at the Canadian Railway Museum, St Constant, Quebec.



Rolly and I tramp by the Newfoundland Railway equipment.



Another view of some of the equipment.



At one point, new volunteers were being told that the Rideau Valley Railway was going to operate from the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, over the Scherzer and down to Otter Lake. Track equipment, such as this particular tamper, was borrowed from the CRM for the task of rehabilitating the line.



Rolly and one of 'his' old units.

*  *  *

On another occasion, at the Smiths Falls Railway Museum ...


My spouse found this partially exposed film in an old camera - life was very busy during this epoch as the Ontario health care system melted down. The photo finishing company identified the film as being 'very old' and wondered if she even wanted the results with its purple cast.


sample photo



Rolly, started his career on steam and he was a Life Member of the Museum.
Here is the secured-against-vandals ex-CNR 1112, shortly after its move.



Rolly is investigating the ex-CPR Wickham car with a Museum volunteer.



Many readers will recognize Ross Robinson - master of all trades at the Museum. Perhaps my own greatest contribution to the Museum was to spot a train order signal 'tower' in a junk pile. One of Ross's smaller contributions was building a new train order signal using the 'junk' as the model for a new tower. Then he built everything else necessary to have a functioning train order signal. Typically, he taught me some new skills so I could participate in its construction.

Ross also spent time working on Bytown Railway Society equipment at the (then) National Museum of Science and Technology. In winters, he was a visiting expert at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum at Campo, California. At one point, Ross told me that working with all this heavy equipment really broadened his professional outlook and opportunities.

Ross was also an experienced master at securing railway equipment from vandals. It was quite an education in applied physics to help him secure some of the derelict RVR coaches at Smiths Falls. ' ... and if they try to use a wrench on these welded nuts/rods ... it'll just spin.'

He noted that his US vandals were quite sophisticated and often brought their own tools. Way back then (before 'free trade' and the continent-wide hardware cornucopia provided by big box hardware stores), Ross took particular delight in foiling the San Diego vandals with Canadian Robertson screws.



Wayne Tassé joins our little group. 

Sometimes this business is almost literally Sisyphean. Over a couple of long work days - under Ross's supervision - Wayne and I lugged packages of fibreglass insulation batts upstairs and insulated the attic of the station. Wayne was an accomplished historian who published a number of meticulously-researched books on the early years of Canadian railway history. He was a also really nice guy to know and work with.