The Revelstoke Railway Museum will be adding a rather large piece of equipment to its inventory on Thursday.
The museum said the Selkirk Spreader will be craned into its rolling stock display area, adding the operation is huge and will involve a team of specialists and volunteers because the piece of equipment is “formidable.”
According to the museum, a spreader is a piece of rail equipment that sits behind the snowplow on a work train and uses extendable wings.
Designed by the O.F. Jordan Company specifically for the Revelstoke Division in 1931, this spreader featured a cab to protect its operator from the elements, and was robust enough to clear snow slides.
The museum added the acquisition is the result of years of planning by the museum and the artifact’s owner, Canadian Pacific Railway, which has stored the spreader in the Revelstoke rail yard since its retirement around 2005 before donating it the museum.
“This initiative brings the opportunity to preserve, and make accessible to the public, a completely unique piece of rail equipment that is quintessentially Revelstoke and would otherwise be lost to scrap,” said Revelstoke Rail Museum executive director Hayley Johnson.
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Specialist cranes will be brought in to pick up and load the spreader onto a truck at the CPR rail yard, then onto the track in the museum’s outdoor display area.
“We are fortunate to have a number of retired railroaders who have donated their time and expertise to the project,” said Johnson, “and I’m incredibly grateful to the volunteers that have stepped up to take on the back-breaking work involved in upgrading the museum’s track.”
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