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Ottawa streetcar No. 696 will celebrate her 100th birthday next year and, truth be told, she’s broken down and showing her age. She was, after all, born in the reign of Robert Borden, during the First World War, and was, quite literally, ridden hard and put away wet.
But Rhéaume Laplante believes there may be a dance left in the old dame yet, and if he and his small army of volunteers are successful, Ol’ 696 will be gussied up and spritely in time for Canada Day 2017, rolling out as good as new on shiny steel tracks — maybe at Lansdowne Park, Laplante hopes — with rebuilt motors and heated seats, restored windows and doors, a fresh paint job and shiny new light in front.
Laplante knows that the task in front of his team is daunting: 696’s restoration began in 2000 as a five-year project, and here we are, 16 years down the line and there’s still so much to do.
“But you should have seen what it looked like,” he says, pointing to 696’s cannibalized remains that sit off to one side of Bay 1130 at OC Transpo’s Colonnade Road garage, where a core of about a dozen regular volunteers, plus many more seasonal, part-time and court-ordered helpers show up on Fridays and Wednesday evenings to help get her back into shape.
Laplante seems to be grasping at water when asked to estimate how many person-hours have so far gone into the overhaul. “Twenty-thousand?” he guesses.
Six-ninety-six is one of only two remaining cars from the 600-series; 33 cars built between 1913 and 1917 by the Ottawa Electric Railway Co. (The other survivor, No. 688, currently serves as a cottage home on Lac Barnes, near Ladysmith, Que., north of Shawville. Its owners donated some original windows when they renovated their once-mobile home).
Streetcar 696 shortly before being retired in 1958.
For four decades, until she was retired in 1958, 696 plied the rails of Ottawa, most notably carrying picnickers to Britannia Beach, a favourite weekend getaway spot.
But by the late 1950s, Ottawa’s rails were in terrible condition, and the Ottawa Transportation Commission, the forerunner of OC Transpo, recognized it could save almost $1 million annually by ripping up the tracks and using buses exclusively. The last streetcar to serve Ottawa riders — No. 831 — pulled into the barn for the last time on May 1, 1959, and was later sold for scrap.
By then, 696 was already a year off the streets. She was eventually bought by the not-for-profit Canadian Railroad Historical Association, and in 1963 was moved to the Canadian Railway Museum, or Exporail, in Saint-Constant, Que., south of Montreal. There, she was covered by a tarp and left under some eavestroughing for 30 years.
“That’s the worst thing you can do,” says Laplante, who worked at OC Transpo until his retirement in 2011. “You cover it up and the moisture stays in and it rusts and rots.”
The frontplate of the original streetcar 696 couldn’t be used in the restoration, but is kept as an historical artifact.
She was returned to OC Transpo in 1989 and spent another decade in a similarly neglected state before workers there were asked if they were interested in restoring her. Work began in 2000, and Laplante became project co-ordinator in 2004.
Apart from the regulars who show up twice weekly, Laplante’s crew has been augmented by Rideau High School students looking to complete their required 40 hours of volunteer time, and, over the years, as many as 100 wayward youths sentenced to community service by provincial courts. At any one time, Laplante says, they’ll have two such conscripts.
“But some of them have stayed on after their time is up.”
There are also simply train-loving volunteers. Bruce Dudley, who used to operate 696 in the 1950s, is one of only two or three volunteers who have been with the project since its inception. Others come and go.
Laplante, who was four when the service was discontinued in Ottawa, remembers his dad often talking about the streetcars. “And I never had a chance to hop on the streetcars. Plus, I like that it’s part of our history.”
A detail for the operator’s control panel bears the names of Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper, founders of the Ottawa Electric Railway.
Paul Bruyere, a one-time track-layer with CN Rail, says he loves “anything on rails,” and joined the team two-and-a-half years ago. “If it rolls on a track, I want to work with it.
“My first playground in life was a railyard, because I grew up in Lowertown, on Redpath Street, right across from where CP kept their passenger cars that weren’t in use or were being cleaned or refurbished with food for another trip. And I used to play among the trains there.
“So when I heard about this project, I thought, ‘Whoah, this is for me.’ When I go to Toronto, I can’t help but ride a streetcar. I hear them call my name: ‘Paaaaauuulll!’ ”
Another volunteer, Teddy Dong, grew up in Toronto, where his mother was a streetcar operator. “When I was going through high school and university,” he recalls, “the conversation would come up about what you wanted to do in life, and I always said, ‘I want to drive a streetcar.’ ”
A part-time elementary schoolteacher living in Almonte, Dong has been part of the 696 team for the last couple of years.
“I can’t always come down on Fridays during the school year,” he admits, but two or three days a week he drives to the train museum in Saint-Constant, where he operates streetcars for visitors. “When you get on a streetcar, and power up the air compressors and put the pole up, it’s like going back 50 years. It connects us to where we were once upon a time.”
Each spring, local brewer Kichesippi makes Car 696 beer.
Meanwhile, local sponsors help out with the nuts and bolts, and other materials. Loucon Metal Ltd. and The Wood Source have donated supplies, while Logs End, a local company that salvages timber from the Ottawa River, has supplied the wood used to rebuild 696’s floor.
The group also raises some money selling streetcar-themed calendars, and annually travels to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, north of Toronto, where they put in a day or two of labour in exchange for parts, staying overnight in a sleeper car.
Laplante is the first to admit that the plan to finish 696 for next July is ambitious, but, he adds, not impossible.
“My goal is to have it ready for July 1, 2017. We’re working on having it out at Lansdowne Park for Canada Day. But if not then, then in 2018, when the LRT is ready. I’d like to have 696 come out of the tunnel, at the front, and the new LRT behind it.”
And then there’s streetcar No. 905. Built in 1933 and, like No. 688, used for a time as a cottage, it sits dilapidated in Bay 1130, awaiting its turn at a new lease on life. But Laplante says he is in no rush to tackle that project.
“First of all, we’ll finish this one and enjoy it for a bit.”
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
But Rhéaume Laplante believes there may be a dance left in the old dame yet, and if he and his small army of volunteers are successful, Ol’ 696 will be gussied up and spritely in time for Canada Day 2017, rolling out as good as new on shiny steel tracks — maybe at Lansdowne Park, Laplante hopes — with rebuilt motors and heated seats, restored windows and doors, a fresh paint job and shiny new light in front.
Laplante knows that the task in front of his team is daunting: 696’s restoration began in 2000 as a five-year project, and here we are, 16 years down the line and there’s still so much to do.
“But you should have seen what it looked like,” he says, pointing to 696’s cannibalized remains that sit off to one side of Bay 1130 at OC Transpo’s Colonnade Road garage, where a core of about a dozen regular volunteers, plus many more seasonal, part-time and court-ordered helpers show up on Fridays and Wednesday evenings to help get her back into shape.
Laplante seems to be grasping at water when asked to estimate how many person-hours have so far gone into the overhaul. “Twenty-thousand?” he guesses.
Six-ninety-six is one of only two remaining cars from the 600-series; 33 cars built between 1913 and 1917 by the Ottawa Electric Railway Co. (The other survivor, No. 688, currently serves as a cottage home on Lac Barnes, near Ladysmith, Que., north of Shawville. Its owners donated some original windows when they renovated their once-mobile home).
Streetcar 696 shortly before being retired in 1958.
For four decades, until she was retired in 1958, 696 plied the rails of Ottawa, most notably carrying picnickers to Britannia Beach, a favourite weekend getaway spot.
But by the late 1950s, Ottawa’s rails were in terrible condition, and the Ottawa Transportation Commission, the forerunner of OC Transpo, recognized it could save almost $1 million annually by ripping up the tracks and using buses exclusively. The last streetcar to serve Ottawa riders — No. 831 — pulled into the barn for the last time on May 1, 1959, and was later sold for scrap.
By then, 696 was already a year off the streets. She was eventually bought by the not-for-profit Canadian Railroad Historical Association, and in 1963 was moved to the Canadian Railway Museum, or Exporail, in Saint-Constant, Que., south of Montreal. There, she was covered by a tarp and left under some eavestroughing for 30 years.
“That’s the worst thing you can do,” says Laplante, who worked at OC Transpo until his retirement in 2011. “You cover it up and the moisture stays in and it rusts and rots.”
The frontplate of the original streetcar 696 couldn’t be used in the restoration, but is kept as an historical artifact.
She was returned to OC Transpo in 1989 and spent another decade in a similarly neglected state before workers there were asked if they were interested in restoring her. Work began in 2000, and Laplante became project co-ordinator in 2004.
Apart from the regulars who show up twice weekly, Laplante’s crew has been augmented by Rideau High School students looking to complete their required 40 hours of volunteer time, and, over the years, as many as 100 wayward youths sentenced to community service by provincial courts. At any one time, Laplante says, they’ll have two such conscripts.
“But some of them have stayed on after their time is up.”
There are also simply train-loving volunteers. Bruce Dudley, who used to operate 696 in the 1950s, is one of only two or three volunteers who have been with the project since its inception. Others come and go.
Laplante, who was four when the service was discontinued in Ottawa, remembers his dad often talking about the streetcars. “And I never had a chance to hop on the streetcars. Plus, I like that it’s part of our history.”
A detail for the operator’s control panel bears the names of Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper, founders of the Ottawa Electric Railway.
Paul Bruyere, a one-time track-layer with CN Rail, says he loves “anything on rails,” and joined the team two-and-a-half years ago. “If it rolls on a track, I want to work with it.
“My first playground in life was a railyard, because I grew up in Lowertown, on Redpath Street, right across from where CP kept their passenger cars that weren’t in use or were being cleaned or refurbished with food for another trip. And I used to play among the trains there.
“So when I heard about this project, I thought, ‘Whoah, this is for me.’ When I go to Toronto, I can’t help but ride a streetcar. I hear them call my name: ‘Paaaaauuulll!’ ”
Another volunteer, Teddy Dong, grew up in Toronto, where his mother was a streetcar operator. “When I was going through high school and university,” he recalls, “the conversation would come up about what you wanted to do in life, and I always said, ‘I want to drive a streetcar.’ ”
A part-time elementary schoolteacher living in Almonte, Dong has been part of the 696 team for the last couple of years.
“I can’t always come down on Fridays during the school year,” he admits, but two or three days a week he drives to the train museum in Saint-Constant, where he operates streetcars for visitors. “When you get on a streetcar, and power up the air compressors and put the pole up, it’s like going back 50 years. It connects us to where we were once upon a time.”
Each spring, local brewer Kichesippi makes Car 696 beer.
Meanwhile, local sponsors help out with the nuts and bolts, and other materials. Loucon Metal Ltd. and The Wood Source have donated supplies, while Logs End, a local company that salvages timber from the Ottawa River, has supplied the wood used to rebuild 696’s floor.
The group also raises some money selling streetcar-themed calendars, and annually travels to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, north of Toronto, where they put in a day or two of labour in exchange for parts, staying overnight in a sleeper car.
Laplante is the first to admit that the plan to finish 696 for next July is ambitious, but, he adds, not impossible.
“My goal is to have it ready for July 1, 2017. We’re working on having it out at Lansdowne Park for Canada Day. But if not then, then in 2018, when the LRT is ready. I’d like to have 696 come out of the tunnel, at the front, and the new LRT behind it.”
And then there’s streetcar No. 905. Built in 1933 and, like No. 688, used for a time as a cottage, it sits dilapidated in Bay 1130, awaiting its turn at a new lease on life. But Laplante says he is in no rush to tackle that project.
“First of all, we’ll finish this one and enjoy it for a bit.”
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
