Hey everyone,

Railway Days 2017 is ongoing this weekend (Sept. 23/24). Yesterday was a very special day for everyone involved personally, as well as for railway preservation as a whole. Brian Manning (Chief Engineer, Chief Mechanical Officer) and a dedicated team of staff and volunteers marked the completion of a nine year restoration project on the parks 1920 Bucyrus 100 Ton Steam Crane. The crane which has sat dormant and slowly dying thanks to years of degradation (especially from pigeons) came back to life in late Aug. and was officially dedicated yesterday. Serving CP Rail for many years; it will now enter its second "in service" period helping to interpret a special part of history to a new generation.

Attached below is the link to some videos I took of the initial operations yesterday as well as the dedication speech by Brian. Of special note the crane was named in honour of the Heritage Park Engineer Gerry Brown who started the project almost ten years ago. Gerry was a mentor to many of us over the years as well as a dear friend. Sadly Gerry passed away 4 years ago having never gotten to see the crane under steam. However, I know Gerry was smiling yesterday from up high watching all the people in awe of this amazing machine!

Once again a huge congratulations to Brian and his team for an amazing restoration job and a Railway Days I will never forget.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... HhVE1sEINo

All the best, and I hope anyone interested can make the trip up next year to see this beautiful lady in person!

Kris

Very, very neat to see. Glad to see that someone is doing something with one of these fascinating pieces of machinery other than scrapping them.

Jason Midyette

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday from my iPhone.

Cheers,

Kris