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Baker County kids help repair railway bunk car
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By ADRIENNE GOODRICH This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Baker County youth are helping repair a bunk car with the Western Railway Preservation Society. The society works closely with the Sumpter Valley Railway. The two-year-old society repairs and restores railway equipment that is often used by the railway. “You could say they run the trains and we restore them,” Tim Bain, co-founder of the society said. In the past high school students who worked with the Western Railway Preservation Society spent their time performing more menial tasks — like pulling weeds and counting railroad spikes. They weren’t very excited about it, Bain said. But now they help with the actual repair of projects, ranging from rail cars to buildings. They are currently in the final stages of restoring the bunk car. All the money for the society comes from memberships, grants, and any work it may do for outside parties. The society received a grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust for $6,200 on July 13. This money will be used to cover some of the costs involved in restoring the bunk car. “The kids have been working very hard on it,” Bain said. The project started last summer, and they plan to complete it this fall. When teenagers work on projects like this it lets them see a beginning, middle, and end instead of simply viewing it endless weed pulling, Bain said. This gives them a sense of accomplishment. The exact cost of each project is hard to tabulate, Bain said, as they often trade work to other societies for the parts they need, and there are different levels of restoration they can choose from. He estimates that most of their projects cost between $20,000 and $30,000. Freight cars are less expensive — and easier to restore — than passenger cars because of the intricacies in woodwork that many passenger cars had. The price tag also depends on how many parts the car had initially. For instance, the car they are working on now was missing its wheels, and they had to travel all the way to Kansas to find replacements. The society has its headquarters at McEwen, and they will be partnering with the EAGLE CAP high school through the school’s building and design program which students can choose to participate in if they are interested. Dusty Andrews, 18, from Baker City, thinks this is a good idea, since she spent time working on a rail car and said she enjoyed the experience. Andrews used her work for credit at Haines Learning Opportunity Center. She spent time taking pictures, writing notes, pulling siding off the rail car and building new siding for the car they were working on. “I would recommend it because it was a new experience, I met new people and had a lot of fun working there,” Andrews said. She said she also enjoyed the historical aspect of the project. Andrews believes that the society partnering with a school would be wonderful, because of her experience in her similar situation. “I had a blast doing it,” she said. Anyone interested in becoming a member or a volunteer can find more information on their website: www.westernrailwaypreservation.org However, the society cannot offer school credit outside of the EAGLE CAP program, Bain said. |
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