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Railway museum opening on weekend |
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Written by MYRISSA KRENZLER
Citizen staff
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
Harold Spensley adds crushed rock to the railbed of the mini railroad Thursday morning. The Railway and Forestry Museum will be opening for the season this long weekend. (Citizen photo by Brent Braaten )
The Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum will have all its exhibits and galleries open this weekend, including the mini-rail train.
Shelley Sivell, the museum's guest service manager, said she hopes families will take advantage of the warm weather expected this weekend to take in the museum's many exhibits and artifacts.
Even though the museum wasn't directly affected by the ice jam this past winter, Sivell said fewer people visited the museum over the winter. "People thought we were closed," she said. "We still got people, but not as many as expected."
Sivell said she hopes this will change with the events the museum has planned over the summer, the largest being the second annual Railway Blues Festival on June 21. Headliners will include Juno award winners Jack de Keyzer and Rita Chiarelli, and local artists the Ray King Blues Band and the Kathy Frank Band. The stage will be set up on the turntable that was donated in 1990 by the Canadian Nation Railway and a dance floor will be set up in the pit just below.
"It's exciting and we're hoping to have lots of people through," Sivell said.
The Railway and Forestry Museum opened in 1986 and has gone through many renovations over the years. One thing that's stayed consistent is the large Russell snowplow that was used to clear rail tracks in the Prairies in 1903. The plow is the reason the museum was created.
Sivell said the museum has many European visitors over the summer and credits this to a growing interest in railways a locomotives. "So much of our history is built on the railway," she said.
The museum's summer hours will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week beginning Saturday.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 May 2008 )
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