17 December 2004
Canadian Museum of Rail
Travel
The Canadian Museum of Rail
Travel in Cranbrook, BC. recently received a large donation of $125,000 from the Prestige Inns chain,
headquartered in Kelowna. This is spread over 7 years, and represents the largest private sector
donation ever received by the Museum and it is also the largest donation made by the Hotel chain.
The 4 1/2 star "Rocky Mountain Resort and Convention Centre" was built in 1999 on one end
of the "Railway Museum Development Zone" of the City of Cranbrook as a "railway
theme" hotel, with access to trackage behind it for excursions trains. It chose this location
due to the long-range vision shown by the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel, which was just
begining to build in the Zone. The City of Cranbrook had taken 12 years (1987 - 1999) to assemble the
land in the 1-likometre long zone which is located between the BC arterial highway 3/95
and the active tracks and yard of Canadian Pacific Railway. It is also adjacent to the downtown area,
so the location is strategic.
The donation will greatly assist a current museum expansion project to provide a larger gift shop, a
hallway to the excursion tracks at the back of the Museum's Main Entrance Hall, an Historical
Archives, storage areas, and future expansion space for addtional offices and meeting rooms as the
museum grows. This $300,000 addition is being assisted by a 50% subsidy from the "Softwood
Industry Commuity Economic Adjustment Initiative" (or SICEAI). The Museum had its Grand Opening
of the new site and facilities in Sept/04 and has increased its paid attendance for tours of the
restored luxurious railcars by 100% this year over 2003.
The "Royal Alexandra Hall" also opened this year as the centrepiece "Special Events
Room" of the new museum, and is very popular for rentals for dinners (up to 184) and concerts
and meetings (up to 280). The Hall use has added thousands more to the total attendance this year.
The Hall was the former Grand Cafe from the famous "Royal Alexandra Hotel", built in 1906
in Winnipeg, and pride of the Canadian Pacific Railway until its demolition in 1971. The hundreds of
pieces of the room were saved from destruction and stored in a semi-trailer - and mostly
forgotten for 25 years. The Museum purchased the contents in 1999, and through various Millennium
and other programs built a new shell and installed the restored room inside. Other large public rooms
were built around the Hall for proper functioning. Together with the historic Freight Shed (1898),
these now provide a 23,000 square-foot facility for visitor services and displays. This
is additional to the 25,000 square-feet of space in the restored railcar collection
representing some of the greatest passenger trains to run in Canada between 1886 and 1955.
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