A train for tourists, built by Medalta and the Saamis Rotary Club, sits inside the Historic Clay District - Photo by Charles Lefebvre

By Charles Lefebvre

Tourist train being built at Medalta

Feb 3, 2020 | 5:27 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A labour of love is taking shape inside the Historic Clay District.

Volunteers with Medalta and the Saamis Rotary Club have been hard at work since 2015, building a train that will eventually be used to transport tourists around the Historic Clay District.

Mike Onieu, the executive director with Medalta, says the train is a part of a plan to keep Medalta viable for years to come.

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“It is part of our long range plan to expand on what Medalta does by having a rail experience,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of dedicated people and a lot of interest, and of course, people simply love trains, so we built one.”

Photo by Colton McKee

The Saamis Rotary Club started the project in 2015, travelling to British Columbia obtain a scrapped train. After bringing it back to Medicine Hat, and stripping it down to the wheels, the group decided to go in a different direction.

“We got it back here, and we decided to make it the Countess of Dufferin, which would have been the first engine that would have arrived here in Medicine Hat,” said Brian Robinson, a member of the Saamis Rotary Club.

a side-by-side comparison between the Countess of Dufferin (left) and the tourist train at Medalta

The Countess of Dufferin, Canada’s first-ever steam engine, currently sits at the Winnipeg Railway Museum. The group took many trips to Winnipeg to study the engine, with local artist James Marshall creating drawings of the train.

Volunteers spent thousands of hours over the past four years building the replica train from the wheels up, with multiple business and organizations helping out.

Drawings of the train by Jim Marshall – Photo by Colton McKee

The wheels from the train purchased in British Columbia are the only original parts remaining.

“Everything you see is fabricated from the drawings that we made,” said Robinson. “We just kind of built it as it went along.”

“When we talked about building a train, we had everybody’s interest really,” said Marshall. “It could go the tracks any time, I mean it’s ready to roll, but we have some things to do.”

Onieu notes there is lots of administrative items which need to be cleared up before the train can go on the track, including fundraising, railroad right of way and land ownership.

However, he is confident the train will be running one day.

“Medalta was built on dreams, and finding ways to make things happen, so we will do it,” he said.