Six new pieces of rolling stock — a CPR5500 diesel locomotive, a robot car, a coal car, a tanker car, box car and a double-track snow plow — will be moved into place at the Revelstoke Railway Museum on Wednesday.
A statement from Museum Executive Director Jennifer Dunkerson said this is the culmination “of years of planning to augment current exhibits by adding an early diesel locomotive and era-appropriate rolling stock to present a broader interpretation of our region’s railway history.” The exhibits enable the museum to chronicle not only the steam era but the impact of diesel technology on the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The equipment was donated by the Canadian Pacific Heritage Equipment Committee and has waited patiently in the Revelstoke division`s K-yard until the track was laid this summer in preparation for its transfer to the museum property.
The diesel locomotive, CPR 5500, was the first SD-40 model locomotive produced by General Motors Diesel Division in London, Ont., for North America and delivered to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1965. The SD-40 model is significant in that this was the second generation of diesel power. CPR 5500 received a Cultural Property Designation on December 15, 2003.
Following the diesel will be a robot car, coal car, box car, tanker, and a double track snow plow. As its name suggests, the robot car is a remote-control radio sending and receiving unit that housed equipment used to communicate between locomotives in a train. The coal car from 1969 is the first of the 349000 series of steel gondolas to be preserved in a museum setting. The significance of snow removal on the railway will be further illustrated by the double-track plow that will complement the single-track wedge plow that is already part of the museum`s collection. The newly added equipment will be displayed on 136 pound rails laid on concrete ties, another stage of development in railway construction and innovation to be included in the museum`s interpretation of railway history.
The move begins in the early afternoon. The public is welcome to watch.
