22 July 2009
Railway Museum Receives Federal Funding
Just a few of the passenger cars contained in the collection
of the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel at Cranbrook.
Cranbrook British Columbia - MP Jim Abbot recently
announced that the Museum Assistance Program ( MAP) of the Department of Canadian Heritage will assist the Canadian Museum of Rail
Travel's major planning exercise scheduled to begin this fall.
This strategic planning is intended to lay out clear guidelines for the long-term requirements to efficiently preserve
the collection of historic railcars while maximizing future operations.
The $7,500 amount awarded is from MAP's Punctual Intervention program, which targets collections that are considered to be in peril.
The program is intended to advise on steps to help stabilize or prevent further damage and deterioration of artifacts, which in this
case are very large railcar artifacts.
"We thank Mr. Abbott on the announcement of this funding from the Federal Museum Assistance Program," said Corinne Friesen,
Vice-Chair of the Museum Board. "Doing this process under the guidelines of MAP ensures that we will apply the
highest national museum standards in planning for the future of for our nationally-important railcar collection."
The Punctual Intervention process starts with a risk assessment for the collection of passenger railcars (Deluxe
Hotels-on-Wheels) which are currently stored outdoors, but contain rare and extremely fragile interiors of significance
to Canada.
The assessment will identify all threats to the continued existence of the collection.
The second part of the process is an artifact stabilization report which will recommend solutions to any threats.
It will provide recommendations that will prevent and, or, reduce on-going damage and deterioration to the railcar
exteriors and interiors, which are displayed outdoors - and open to all types of weather - and are about 65,000 square feet.
The report will also provide recommendations for efficient and effective conservation/preservation systems, including an investigation
of new effective technologies, including new mandated green technologies, to reduce annual preservation costs and yet meet the
recommended preservation requirements.
This includes detailed equipment types and capital estimates, and the annual operating costs of these systems. The stabilization
report will conclude with an assessment of impacts of any recommended solutions on existing museum operations, and what the
consequences of not doing anything would be.
The final part of the planning process, but funded separately, is the facility and business plan.
The facility plan will advise on the costs of completely enclosing the railcar collection with a new building, and the installation of
preservation systems. The business plan is based on the stabilization report and the facility plan.
This final part of the process will cost almost $100,000 due to the large size and complexity of the new trains display building and
the preservation systems that will be required for efficient operation over the long-term.
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