In November 2005, this next major step was taken as WCRA signed a lease with BCR Properties for the MP 1 facility and surrounding area and, by the time you receive this edition of WCRA News, we expect that WCRA’s operating equipment will be tucked away inside in a permanent new and protected home. Our goal is to purchase this facility and property for the long term as soon as BCRP is able to offer things for sale.

An opportunity not to be missed, right across the street from the Heritage Park are the former BC Rail locomotive facilities in the form of two shops—Motive Power Shops #1 and #2. MP 1 is the former running maintenance shop, and can handle up to 12 cars inside on four tracks, while MP 2 is the former locomotive rebuild shop that has seven tracks. Our move so far is on MP 1, which has been made affordable thanks to a private benefactor. MP 2 remains beyond our reach financially at this point, but we’ll see what we can do.

Long Term Plan

The long term concept is to develop the Motive Power Shops complex as the new West Coast Railway Technology Museum—a facility that would add to our Squamish attraction by being both the operational base for WCRA’s operating fleet as well as an interpretive base for the story of the evolution of motive power for railways. The West Coast Railway Heritage Park would remain performing its original function, telling the story of how the railways developed communities in Western Canada through the development of the complete railway community and railway facilities that are presently continuing in construction.

This plan is beyond 2010, and would follow the completion of phase four construction at the Heritage Park. The only difference from the present plan is that we would not need to build operating shop capacity into the existing carshop facility as we now have an properly designed and equipped operating shop as part of our master plan right across the street.

Immediate Term Plan

This leaves us with the plan for the immediate term, and it is an exciting one for us in many regards. We not only get the ability to protect another twelve pieces of our collection inside, but we have a facility that should be able to help us generate new revenue year round and diversify our activities towards our goal of year round financial sustainability. While this is a feasible objective, it is by no means a slam dunk—much has to be done.

But we are off and running now in several regards:

1. WCRA Uses

A number of work activities are underway to put the MP 1 Shop to work for WCRA. The prime objective here is to move WCRA’s operating fleet of equipment from outdoors at the Heritage Park to indoors at the MP 1 facility as soon as we can. This involves several items of work, including a realignment of our south rail connection from the Heritage Park to the Shop track, eliminating the need for saw back moves that we have had since the start to get across Government Road. This change will also separate the WCRA track and access from the need to use the CN passing track when we move from the Park to the Shops.

Next comes the work to designate West Coast Railway as the rail operator for the BCR Properties trackage, currently undesignated as CN pulled away from the trackage accessing the BCRP lands and shops. This designation is needed for us as we would access and switch the shops complex ourselves. Currently we are the only rail tenant on the property, and could perform this role under our current designation as a BC Recreational Railway.

Then there is work to the shop itself—while it is perfectly suited as a railway operating shop; some of the things we need were removed during the preparation for property sale or lease. In fact, WCRA has some of the solutions—the overhead crane, for example, which we purchased and removed from the shop to be installed in our present carshop will now go back across the street to be re-installed in MP 1! Likewise, the axle drop table we purchased will be looked at for reinstallation. We also have some minor trackwork to complete to make all four tracks in the shop accessible.

But, at the end of the day, this is a huge step forward. As we entered this year, outdoor storage remained a major challenge for us and our collection. We only had the shop space for current projects—maximum six spaces—plus one space under the tenting and the British Columbia’s covered area = eight pieces out of the weather. Now we immediately increase that to a total of 20 pieces under cover, and the new Roundhouse & Conference Centre will add another seven for a total of 27 covered pieces. This is a huge step forward for the long term maintenance and preservation of our collection.

And, speaking of maintenance, we take a huge step forward here as well. We can now designate the PGE CarShop at the Heritage Park as our restoration and light work shop, while the Motive Power Shop #1 becomes our operating maintenance shop. MP 1 is equipped with pits and running inspection tracks, as well as car jacking pads allowing our certified carman the ability to completely perform and sign off on our equipment from a running maintenance point of view. The ability for us to now get underneath equipment also makes projects such as the wiring repairs to FP7A #1404 feasible for our own undertaking, increasing our ability to do more maintenance work for ourselves, reducing cost as well as increasing output.

2. Other Uses

While all the aspects cited for WCRA are great, we still have an immediate need to put the MP Shop #1 to work for us. This is driven by the financial need to make the shop self sustaining, as well as to prepare WCRA for the ability to fund the purchase of the shop in the future. Thus, our members can expect to see us make the facility work for us and others.

The first action has already taken place, as we have sublet a small portion of the shop to Yellow Cabs Squamish to store some un– needed taxis. This generates us some lease revenue to offset our monthly lease expenses. We will be actively looking for ways to make the new property and facility work for us, including plans to relocate the BCIT Practicum work from the Heritage Park (where it is presently done) to the trackage at the shops where it will be isolated from our Heritage Park guests. We are hopeful that we will see growth in this kind of use as 2006 progresses.

We also have a number of other potential business opportunities in the works which we will let members know of as they develop towards reality. There are many possibilities, not all of which will, of course, materialize. But we must work to make the shops a contributor to WCRA if we are to find ways to move further ahead towards our vision, and that’s where we will concentrate for now. Stay tuned as we work to this exciting future.