And—add CN Turntable Plaza to the project! The awarding of a Gaming Capital grant in the amount of $100,000 was received in late March, and when that is matched by $50,000 from WCRA’s 2005 budget and a new $50,000 private donation, we are off to work on the entire project.
What is a roundhouse without a turntable, and we need the turntable for very practical reasons too. Now that there are no longer switcher crews based in Squamish, it has become very difficult—if not impossible—for us to get our equipment turned around when we need it. In the past, BC Rail would pick up whatever we occasionally needed turned, turn it on the wye, and return it to us.
CN graciously donated us the vintage turntable from Thunder Bay, Ontario some years back and the Heritage Park design called for its installation just as we are now about to do. Unfortunately, the installation plans languished a while with the changes at BC Rail—as we had to do a number of things not in the master plan—such as get Royal Hudson #2860 to ensure its preservation, then find a way to purchase some coaches, and also the last two Budd cars. As you can well understand, these hit into the budget in a huge way. But now these are done, and we are back on track—in fact we will end up ahead of track with the good news announcements of the last two months.
So, we will tackle the construction project as a $4.2 million total package to construct the turntable pit and install the turntable, as we also construct the new Roundhouse & Conference Centre. Initial work has already started—see this Randy Shimmell photo of the soils sample testing—the good news is that they hit rock less than 30 feet down!
Work will get underway immediately on the planning and design / engineering work. WCRA Director Colin Smith has agreed to chair a small committee to get this work started—working with him will be Carl Vanderspek, Grant Ferguson, and Singh Biln with many others in support and advisement roles. Singh has already sent out turntable mechanical parts for refurbishment, so we are off and running.
Target is to turn sod for construction start by summer 2005, and then construct progressively through the remainder of 2005 and 2006. We expect to open CN Turntable Plaza in mid 2006, and the Roundhouse & Conference Centre late 2006 / early 2007.
