I've prepared a long brief, and I've shortened that. I was told we could hand out visuals. The pictures virtually speak for themselves, and they don't need a lot of translation. It would have been good for me to have been aware that they should have been done that way, but it wasn't that clear.
Thank you members of the committee, and in particular Jim Abbott, for making it possible for me and my colleagues who represent railway heritage and have collections with national content to present to you.
Each of us has a different collection and different stories to tell. Some priorities are therefore different. However, we hope that our input will help establish a new, comprehensive Canadian museums policy that considers the unique challenges for museums--particularly railway museums--with large, fragile artifacts that are stored outdoors.
I have provided handouts that show some of the beautiful interiors of the railcars in Cranbrook and some of the preservation challenges facing them. You can refer to these in detail as I read. You may find the “before and after” photos of restoration particularly interesting.
Since it began in 1976, I have been the chief executive officer of Trains Deluxe, the trade name of the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook, British Columbia. I work with, and I am supported by, an elected board of twelve directors. We all work with the museum development committee of the City of Cranbrook. We also work closely with other associations, such as the British Columbia and Canadian Museums Associations and other related groups.
I would also highlight the role the Canadian Council For Railway Heritage has played over the past fifteen years in education about the special challenges facing this sector. This council has developed a draft evaluation mechanism for historic railway equipment that could be of use in the assessment process for railway heritage outside the federal system. Their brief is an important document in this process as it deals with the railway heritage sector in general, whereas my presentation is very specific.
We often describe Canada as a vast and diverse country, which can also describe the railway heritage of our country. There are many collections, telling many stories, from local to regional to national, and even international levels. It has always therefore surprised me that the 170-year-old railway story does not figure more prominently in the story of Canada. Perhaps the efforts and associated costs of preserving these huge artistic and/or industrial artifacts were beyond the ability of the existing museum community at a time when artifacts were usually small and placed in display cases inside buildings.
Other railway museums share common problems with us. I hope my presentation can shed light beyond our historical experience. However, our unique museum story is about deluxe hotels on wheels. This is a departure from the more usual technical and mechanical emphasis of most railway museums. It also presents unique challenges not usually encountered on the scale that face our museum. These challenges are illustrated on pages 1 to 4 of the visuals and include exceptionally fragile artifacts with national significance--stored outdoors--that are outside our national capital. On pages 5 to 11 there are some examples of the beautiful interiors of the cars that are at risk.
The railcars contain tens of thousands of square feet of extremely fragile, inlaid exotic wood panelling that creates substantial challenges to properly preserve through control of relative humidity, ultraviolet light, dust, and other airborne particles. There is only a thin wall of these original artifacts separating the interiors from the hot summer and cold winter exterior temperatures. Since they are artifacts, insulation cannot normally be added without substantially changing the artifacts themselves. These preservation challenges are further enhanced by the amount of fragile interior textiles, such as upholstery and carpets, and other items, such as leaded, stained, and bevelled glass, railway china, silverware, and glassware.
This type of collection also requires substantial security. Public access to the interiors of the cars can only be done with a museum guide. Due to the small spaces in some cars, there is a limit of ten people per guide, making visitor capacity and the manner in which tours must be done another challenge. The preservation challenges are serious and will continue to grow to become major setbacks if steps are not taken soon to help resolve them.
Resources at many levels are needed to address these challenges, from local to provincial to federal.
The following questions have been asked of me and have been elaborated on in the written brief supplied to you earlier within the ten-page limit. They are: one, national significance; two, acquisition costs; three, restoration costs and ongoing preservation; four, museum operating costs; five, cost recovery; and six, which is numbered eight in your brief, unfortunately, is the federal involvement expected in the preservation of the collections.
In this last section, there are some important quotes from Robert Turner, the now-retired curator of modern history at the Royal British Columbia Museum, from his 1992 report, “The Historical Significance of the Collections at Cranbrook”. The study was commissioned by the Royal B.C. Museum and a copy has been provided with our written submission, for the record.
In summary, the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel believes that the current museums policy is well out of date and must be revised as soon as possible. One particular program of the old policy--the museum assistance program, or MAP--is mostly unsuitable to our type of museum and its railcar artifact collection. The current MAP emphasis on creating touring, temporary, historical exhibitions does little to help preserve our fragile permanent collections.
Other presenters may have outlined a range of serious museum concerns, but from our point of view, any new Canadian museums policy must put the preservation of collections as the top priority. Multi-year commitments to any program would be a big improvement over the current annual application process. Without greatly improved conservation and the efficiencies of a proper building, our nationally important collection will continue to deteriorate, considering the relatively small population base of Cranbrook, the support, where the museum is situated, how the museum is currently funded, and the expected increases in energy and related conservation costs. This large, outdoor-stored collection of rare and extremely fragile railcars of national significance is not sustainable.
Through a new Canadian museums policy that addresses the above concerns, the federal government can join with the Province of B.C., the City of Cranbrook, and a large support group of corporations, foundations, businesses, individuals, families, organizations, and the museum's own earned revenue to keep this national collection intact and properly preserved for the future.
Thank you, and we hope to participate in the ensuing process to create a new policy to better assist museums to better tell the story of Canada. This, in turn, will provide long-term benefits to the many Canadians and visitors to Canada who attend our museums.
Thank you very much.
Did you get the handouts?