Many thanks to Cliff Humphrey of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, who has sent along the following photo and update of restoration work on Saskatoon Municipal Railway 200:
This 1906 Ottawa Car Company sweeper is now operable and can be used to sweep snow. Hopefully, some 'testing' will be done this winter! The cable-lifted work platform and wing plow assemblies are still being worked on, so the car is not technically complete yet. Sask 200 has already been driven around Fort Edmonton in a few tests and display runs; it will officially debut alongside Regina 42 in 2025. The big item on this car is the brushes; the chain-driven mechanism was a difficult system to rebuild, especially using a cast steel chain of uncertain origin (we know it came from 200, but whether it's original from 1906 or a later component is unclear). The brush drive system took a lot of staged testing to ensure it was safe to operate, and a couple months of concerted effort to rebuild the original brush boards with new rattan. The brushes are incredibly loud while operating, and we aren't sure if we'll be able to operate it regularly on our Fort Edmonton track due to how close the buildings (and their windows!) are to our track. Although double-ended, Sask 200 can't run on our High Level Bridge line due to only having hand brakes. ERRS isn't sure how we'll make use of it, but even having a car like this in operable condition for static display will be great for us.
SMR 200 is one of just five Ottawa-built snow sweepers in preservation and is (now) the only one in operational condition. There are some intriguing "missing links" in this car's history, including that it was built in 1907 but didn't arrive in Saskatoon until 1913, with its whereabouts in the interim unknown. I'm also not sure about its history between the Saskatoon system quitting in 1951 and ERRS acquiring it in 1986.
No comments:
Post a Comment