STREETCAR GETS AIRBORNE
Crane lifts carriage onto truck for restoration ride to Edmonton
This is the story of the day on which a streetcar — estimated at seven tons — took to the sky over Varsity Park.
Not just any streetcar. If you’re a Reginan over a certain age — say, 40 — you remember that streetcar from the 1970s and ’80s when it sat at the south end of what was called the Scarth Street Mall, from which were dispensed snacks and soft drinks, plus tourist information.
But the story actually begins in 1910, when the citizens of Regina authorized their city council to set up a “municipal street railway.” Rolling stock was ordered and service began July 28, 1911, over seven miles of track.
This particular one was built by the Preston Car Co., in southern Ontario in 1912, according to The Canadian Trackside Guide, a historical directory prepared by transit history buffs. This vehicle was sold to a private owner in Richardson around 1947.
The City of Regina bought back it back from its owner around 1966. City plans to rebuild it as a streetcar for display were abandoned because parts were scarce. So it sat on the mall, was sold to Lakeview Gardens in 1995, then to resident Wayne Kuss, who got it installed in the backyard of the house he and his wife shared in Varsity Park. The next owners of the house were Pauline and Roger Beaulieu, who used it for morning coffee and evening gatherings, and loved it.
They sought a local museum or organization that could repair or preserve it, but none could be found, so Roger turned to the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, which operates historic streetcars.
Thus it came to pass in late May 2013 that a team from the museum appeared in Regina with a heavy crane and a flatbed truck, delicately lifted the streetcar out of the Beaulieus’ yard and took it to Edmonton.
Chris Ashdown, president of the society, said the streetcar dubbed “Regina 8,” is covered and “sitting on shop trucks in the yard outside of our streetcar barn at Fort Edmonton Park,” though restoration work hasn’t yet started. “The body of Regina 8 appears to be rather complete and in fairly good condition, so we might look at it as a ‘quick’ restoration,” he recently emailed.
Ashdown, to his credit, promises to tell Saskatchewanians when the exiled streetcar is restored and running. “To have a Regina streetcar, even though it’s going around Fort Edmonton Park, well, it’s a big deal!”