RailwayMuseum.com
Title
REVELSTOKE RAILWAY MUSEUM - Revelstoke BC Canada
Description
The Revelstoke Heritage Railway Society was formed in 1988 with a dream of bringing railway history back to Revelstoke. A group of local business persons, rail fans, model railroaders, retired CPR employees and members of the Selkirk Division of the Canadian Railway Historical Association (CHRA). This group envisioned a Museum built in Revelstoke featuring the history of railroading in the rugged mountain of British Columbia. They struggled through with vision, design, financing and marketing to make the dream a reality. The group worked with the main CHRA group in Delson PQ, leading to the long term loan of CPR 2-8-2 5468 to the Revelstoke Railway Museum (RRM). The building budget was set at $1,000,000.00 with funding achieved with 1/3 Federal, 1/3 Provincial and 1/3 local private and corporate donations. In 1992 the dream started to become reality when construction of the Revelstoke Railway Museum was begun.
The design of the main building of the museum came from Paul Hughes of Toronto, and integrated the same basic design of the old CPR Revelstoke backshop and stylized version of a water tower. The building is constructed with heavy timbers from the local Kozek Sawmill, the largest beams ever produced by the mill. Construction of the main building was complete in early 1993. Shortly after the main buildings completion engine 5468 was brought across Canada by way of the CPR and many volunteers. Along with the 5468 CP Rail System donated business car 4, these two pieces of historical equipment are still the centerpiece of the museums collection. Official opening of the RRM occurred in July 1994, to the delight of the many, many volunteer, Revelstoke residents and local business persons.
The museums attendance grows annually, with persons coming from every country around the world, as a result self tour guides have become available in several languages. RRM does not receive grants, other than summer student employment assistance from HRDC partnerships. The RRM relies only on admission fees, gift shop sales and private donations for operation and development costs.
