The Revelstoke Railway Museum is looking to catch the eye of the travelling public by rejuvenating the 1954 Caboose that rests on the tracks in the historic railway courtyard.
In 2016 the Railway Museum commissioned a report to see what the preservations standards should be and what the recommendations would be in terms of restoration projects which led to a reimagining of the baggage car in 2017.
Revelstoke Railway Museum Executive Director, Laura Young has been working diligently to raise funds to the tune of $12,000 to clean up the steel contraption.
“We have to sand blast it, get rid of the rust, prime it, external paint it. The inside will be a big job. It will take a lot of manual scrubbing. I will be pulling out the volunteer help for that.”
The caboose is rather dilapidated and while unique and wondrous to see, it could use a little love to get it up to the standards of the other refurbished rail carts. While the outside may be a challenger, the inside will take a lot of love and elbow grease to get up to the new standards.
Grant applications have been sent out in hopes to see $8000+ of the $12,000 cost, leaving roughly $2K to fundraise on the ground level. Once Young finds out what the total amount of monies brought in by the grants, then the fundraising on a smaller scale can begin.
As we are now moving into the warmer season, this project would ideally be completed in the spring/summer as the weather will allow for more volunteers to work outside on a regular basis to complete the task and bring the old caboose back to life for families to enjoy a walk down memory lane.
Young also has a plan to install an elevator inside the museum for those that have physical ailments of disabilities to reach the second level. Currently, there is no way of someone in need of a wheel chair on a regular basis to get to the second level and enjoy what is presented. The cost for the elevator installment will be approximately $80-85K, however, Young has already raised $50K and has started a Go Fund Me online campaign to help raise the additional $20K needed to complete the project.
The Go Fund Me campaign is at $1,570.00 as of right now and that does not include private donations that come directly to the museum rather than the online platform.
If all funds are raised, the hopes for competition for the elevator installation would be in the fall of 2018.
