We're Going to be on TV!

Tasha Chiu from Shaw Cable's The Express came in this morning to do a special on us! You can see the program at the following times:

Wednesday Program:

Original: 6pm

Repeats: Wednesday 10pm

Thursday 2am, 6am, 8am, 10am, 2pm, 3pm, 6:30pm, 10:30pm

Friday 2:30am, 6:30am, 8:30am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 2:30pm, 3:30pm

Thank you to Tasha and her crew! And a special thanks, too, to Guy Black and Vince Hands who took time off work to show off part of our upcoming Year of the Veteran display.

Elementary School Tour of the Garden

Yesterday's group of grade two and threes got a tour of the CPR garden along with the rest of the Museum.

We took one group to the edge of the mint section and asked the kids to rub the plants. Then we told the kids to smell their fingers. They were amazed. "It smells like real mint - too bad real mint can't grow like this," said one little girl.

Then we guided the children to the peas. Each child got one pea off the plant and a couple asked for take-outs for their siblings.

The kids pointed out the "purple bell flowers." Everyone laughed at the name of the foxgloves. Foxgloves grow all over the Greater Vancouver region and we were surprised the kids had not heard this before.

Finally, our tour of the garden ended at the lemon balm with the same procedure that the kids went through at mint section of the garden.

Everything in the garden is now beautifully labelled with white markers stating each plant's name. Our wonderful exhibits assistant made these gorgeous little signs.

A lot of the garden, however, is not growing as well as it should: it has been an incredibly wet spring and now summer, and the slugs are making the most of it. Tom, our master gardener, took a shovel and decapitated all the big slugs he could find. Next he is going to make the "Sudden Death Slug Pub."

By Oana Capota

Renovation Day Again

We're rushing to get the Museum's Mailroom and Telegraph Room painted before the end of the week: we have two school tours coming in, along with Vancouver Paranormal and, of course, there is Canada Day Weekend next week.

First, we had to move everything from the Telegraph Room into the Station's Waiting Room:



That's an old calculator you see in the foreground:



Our Telegraph Room looks rather forlorn now that it's almost empty:



Walking from the Telegraph Room to the Mailroom, here's our Exhibits Assistant:



And here is the Mailroom with our Collections Assistant and Curator:



It's a good thing the clay-based heritage paint we're using doesn't smell much.

1944 Dodge WC-52 Weapons Carrier

We got a picture of the 1944 Dodge WC-52 Weapons Carrier 3/4 ton:



Update: This photograph is from the set of the Steven Spielberg film Taken. The movie took place in 1940s Roswell, hence the American uniforms.

Military Vehicle Display

It's been too long since we posted anything - it's a sign of how busy we've been here!

Canada Day is a week away. (Friday July 1 for those of not from this country.) Every Canada Day we have a big festival. This year will be bigger than ever as it is the Year of the Veteran.

It's been extremely hectic, what with finalizing bagpipe players, putting together a blockbuster veterans exhibit together with three local collectors, getting the decorations done up for our Victory Train, signing up three telegraphers to do demos, and getting an outdoor display of military vehicles.

Our parking lot, which we will close off to the public, will have five vehicles, almost all WWII-era:


Year 1945
Make Ford
Model GPW (JEEP)

with a Canadian WWII 10cwt trailer for a Jeep



Year WWII
Make Dodge
Model WC-52 Weapons Carrier 3/4 ton



Year 1971
Make Canadian U.N. M38A1
Model Willys Jeep




Year 1942
Make Willys-Overland
Model MB

done up in the Canadian Black Watch markings




Year 1944
Make Canadian C.M.P. (Canadian Military Pattern)
Model 15 cwt



We'll take lots of photos on Canada Day of the rest of the vehicles.

By Oana Capota