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Friday, September 4, 2015 EDUCATION
» Heritage
Schools prepare for new system KRISTI DOBSON ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
Some students in the district will not only be entering a new school year on Tuesday, but a newly configured system for the Alberni Valley. Following the closure of Gill and Eighth Avenue Elementary schools this year, students, parents, teachers and administrators have all been anticipating the changes. The most significant change is to both E.J. Dunn and A.W. Neill Middle schools. They have been transformed from Grades 5 to 7 into Kindergarden to Grade 7. Before the classrooms are even filled with students on Tuesday, they had to be prepared for an onslaught of additional students. “The operations department did a phenomenal job with moving equipment from school to school, cleaning and setting it all up,” said school district superintendent Greg Smyth. “We are not 100 per cent, but close, for school to open on Tuesday.” He said the younger students from Gill and Eighth Avenue Elementary schools were prepared ahead of time for the new schools. “A lot of work was done in the spring to prepare students for the transition,” Smyth said. “They were going to the school playgrounds and touring around to make it easier. A lot of the students will be seeing familiar staff.” Smyth said that despite the schools merging, class sizes will remain under class size limits, depending on grade level. “The only uncertainty we have now is what the actual enrollment will be,” Smyth said. “By the first week we will be able to confirm numbers.” School trustee John Bennie is optimistic for the year ahead. “Over the summer the crews have been working under the auspices of director of operations, Greg Roe,” Bennie said. “It has all been going well, as far as I understand, and we are looking forward to a successful year ahead.”
Rod Gledhill stands atop the Two Spot, a steam locomotive originally built in 1912 that has undergone a cosmetic restoration this year. This type of utility vehicle was once commonly used in the Valley for log hauling, but now just one remains. [DAVID HOOPER FOR THE TIMES]
1912 engine fixed up for display
Rare relic an example of commonly used log-hauling locomotives ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
A
fter sitting untouched of several years, a steam-powered relic from Alberni’s early days is being cosmetically restored more than a century since it first arrived in the Valley. The locomotive known locally as the “Two Spot” first arrived in the area in 1912 after the Shay engine was built in Limo, Ohio. At the time dozens of the heavy-duty machines trudged along temporary tracks laid in the Valley’s dense forest, moving logs for mainline trains like Port Alberni’s currently active No. 7 locomotive to collect wood for the sawmills. Now only one Shay remains in the Valley, a 38-tonne piece of machinery that has recently come under the care of a group of young engine enthusiasts, led by 25-year-old steam locomotive engineer Rob Gledhill. As a project for the Industrial Heritage Society, over the last eight months the group has stripped off decades of oil from the steel machine,
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“Each piston and cylinder probably weighs a couple thousand pounds.” Rod Gledhill, steam locomotive engineer
welded dents and chips, replaced some damaged parts, replaced a rotten eight-foot piece of timber from the rear and repainted the locomotive’s exterior. “Each piston and cylinder probably weighs a couple thousand pounds,” said Gledhill. “It’s meant for steep grades and tight corners on temporary tracks going up switchbacks up the side of the mountain.” “Because the Shays are geared locomotives they have quite a bit of power but they’re not very fast, so they’re not very good on mainlines,” added the Alberni Valley Museum’s manager Jamie Morton. “They used them a lot to locally free up the bigger engines.” The Two Spot hauled loads in
the Valley under several owners until 1953, when the Alberni Pacific Logging Railway ceased moving logs. A former owner planned to scrap the locomotive, but interest to keep the machine in the Valley led to a donation to the city. “They were looking to junk it at that point, but there were enough old guys around that had worked on the thing that they lobbied H.R. MacMillan himself,” Morton said. “He presented it to the City of Port Alberni in 1954.” For years the Two Spot sat as a reminder of the Valley’s steam-powered roots, displayed at the bottom of Redford Street, then by the Echo Centre at 10th Avenue. An effort by the Industrial Heritage Society to get the locomotive running again began in 1979, and by 1984 it was making short trips along the waterfront from the roundhouse to Redford Street. This continued until 1994, when the Two Spot’s failed a provincial steam engine safety inspection. X-rays found the boiler shell to be thin. The component had worn
over decades of inactivity. “It had been sitting idle for that time, just under the trees and with the pulp mill acids and things raining down on it, apparently the boiler shell itself was just past the point of doing anything,” Morton said. For the time being the Two Spot’s restoration will be for appearance only, as replacing it with an operational boiler is estimated to cost over $100,000. Gledhill gained an appreciation for old locomotives as a child playing on the city’s No. 7 engine when it used to be on display in Ladysmith. His goal in improving the Shay’s appearance is to spark more interest in the Alberni Valley’s logging heritage. “Give the new generation of people an idea of the hardship everybody had to deal with, the raw ruggedness of the west coast bush,” Gledhill said. “I hope it inspires people to see it, to maybe band together to raise some more money to put a new boiler on.”
See SCHOOLS, Page 3
Eric.Plummer@avtimes.net
Care facility hits roadblock on West Coast
Pool reopens after a month of maintenance
The organization that runs Port Alberni’s Rainbow Gardens is struggling to develop a 10-bed facility in Tofino.
Swimmers at Echo Centre can enjoy a new mural display featuring local artists after the pool’s grand opening next week.
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