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Railway Day offers a glimpse at transportation’s past

It was full steam ahead for the Alberta Central Railway Museum in Wetaskiwin as it opened up the grounds
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Passengers of the Dayliner watch the landscape slip by their coach window during Railway Day at the Alberta Central Railway Museum.

It was full steam ahead for the Alberta Central Railway Museum in Wetaskiwin as it opened up the grounds for its largest event of the year, Railway Day.

Featuring a pancake breakfast, beaver tails, which is a bread type dish, a spike driving demonstration, wagons rides, speeder rides and train rides, the one-day event attracts 350 to 450 visitors annually.

“We’ve been doing Railway Day for 20 years,” explained operations manager Bill Wilson. The museum has been open for 22 years.

Wilson says the day’s most popular attraction is the train rides, which were held in a dayliner named Mount Avalanche. The train features the museum’s oldest car, dating back to 1926.

“Most people have never had a train ride. I’m talking senior people. People you expect would have had a train ride,” said Wilson. “The young people, they are relating back to when trains were the big thing.”

Stepping onto the dayliner meant instantly being transported back in time. The relic featured narrow walkways, patterned and bright upholstery, upper and lower sleeper births and a porter’s cabin.

During the night, when someone wished to leave their upper berth, they rang a bell to summon the porter, who would bring a ladder. When a person wished to return to their bed, the same steps were repeated. If a person left their leather shoes in the corridor overnight, they would be shined and returned by the porter.

The museum’s exhibit gallery is housed in a mail express. “We try to do pre-1965, when everything moved by trail,” said Wilson.

Another mail express is currently being refurbished, painting is underway and a new roof was recently installed.

Dayliner trains used to run between Edmonton and Calgary in three-hour trips. The trains traveled at 90 miles per hour to maintain their schedules; that equates to 144 km/h.

While Railway Day is the museum’s largest annual event, the staff try to organize a different event once a month.