THUNDER BAY – The season is over and despite delays related to the pandemic, the Lakehead Transportation Museum Society was surprised with the success that they saw this year, particularly near the end of the season.
“Things turned out, actually, very well this year considering the fact that we opened up almost two months late, we opened up on June 21 and started with external tours of the Alexander Henry, about three weeks later, we ended up opening in about mid-July and since then, things have been progressing really well,” said president Charlie Brown.
“August and September were exceptional, we were running off our feet those actual two months, we just ended up closing on Oct. 4 and the day before, we had our second rail tour out of Winnipeg, so we actually had a great big tour bus here with a whole bunch of people that travelled all the way from Winnipeg.”
The Lakehead Transportation Museum Society was also able to expand their footprint on the waterfront with the addition of their new assets: the two restored Brill trolley buses that were manufactured at the Canadian Car and Foundry in Thunder Bay in the early 1950’s and are currently owned by the Buddies of the Brill Buses organization
“In the middle of August we brought in the Brill Trolley Busses, that’s a 20-year project we’ve been working on, we had the grand opening on Sept. 1 and the Mayor was down here with Councillor Oliver as well and they had nice things to say about us,” said Brown.
“We’ve been expanding this new piece of property and we’ll continue to do so next year, we’re hoping to open up with some events next year, we’re hoping that COVID will not see us shut down, so we’re hoping to open up in early May.”
The Lakehead Transportation Museum Society also approached the city in hopes of taking the James Whalen, a tug boat that worked the Thunder Bay harbour,
“We’re putting a number of proposals together, so, hopefully in the new year we’ll end up going back to the city council and we’ll give them some options and then we can look at acquiring the vessel as well,” said Brown.
“My understanding is the Waterfront Development Committee is going to be starting up again relatively soon and we’d like to make a presentation to them as soon as they start up again as well, because they’re the ones we really should be talking to as we develop this area forward.”
