Virtual Railfan Tour - Thurso and Nation Valley Railway Car 27

 

Car 27 in 1970s condition.

I had just arrived at the office on Monday morning after a successful trip on the Thurso Railway the previous Saturday when I received a phone call from the General Manager who I had met that weekend. His opening words were:

"Mr. Churcher, Car 27, would you like it?"

I was stunned. But further discussion revealed that he felt they had no further use for this 1907 ex-CPR Superintendent's car and would like to donate it to the Bytown Railway Society. A few days later we had reached an understanding. Car 27 would need a lot of work and the company agreed to allow the BRS to come on Saturdays to work on car 27. It took some organization but for the next five years or so a group of volunteers would drive down to Thurso to work on the car which the railway had put into the shop for us to work on. We were given carte blanche to use the facilities of the shop.

The shop with #10, a GE 44 ton on  the left and #7, a GE 70 ton on the right 

George Viens contemplates his next job

The engineer's boots?

The engineer's bicycle?

This was a wonderful opportunity not only to rebuild car 27 but also to absorb genuine short line atmosphere.

We started work on one truck/bogie. It was wood framed and all the wood had to be  replaced. This took an entire winter. The second winter we rebuilt the second truck. The car had to be made moveable at the end of each work day so the railway could remove it. To make it quicker to remove the truck at the beginning of the day and replace it at the end a hole was cut in the floor above the truck kingpin. A chain was welded on to the kingpin so that by opening up the floor we could pull out the pin, jack up the car a little and roll out the truck.

It was important to replace the roof canvas. It was impossible to obtain canvas wide enough so two pieces had to be stitched together. White lead paint was difficult to obtain because of environmental concerns but we were able to find some in Montreal,

In the better weather we were able to work on the car in a siding. Here Neil Robertson lays out the items needed for an electrical overhaul.

One Saturday a group of us went down to the VIA shops in Point St. Charles to select a toilet they were donating to us. It was the right shape but we had to remove the trap so that it emptied directly on to the track in true prototypical fashion.

After each winter the railway kindly put car 27 on the back of a log train to allow us to inspect our work, This was the only incentive I could offer our volunteers - when the work on the truck is finished you can have a ride. Here the back part of the train is standing at the bottom of the big hill while the front part is being hauled up to Iroquois.