Visit to the Steam Heritage Museum, Puslinch

On Wednesday May 29, 34 club members gathered at the Tim Hortons at Hyde Park Gate for the start of our journey to The Ontario Steam Heritage Museum in Puslinch. (historical trivia – Tim Hortons was founded 60 years ago with the first store opening May 17, 1964, in Hamilton). Our route took secondary roads all the way and avoided any expressways, although we paralleled a section of Hwy 401 near Campbellville (historical trivia – opened November 17, 1960. Our member, Larry Tasker, remembers surveying this section in the 1950s).

We went into Morriston and past what is now the Morriston, United Church (historical trivia – originally built for a German speaking congregation, the stone above the entrance commemorates its expansion and reads in German “Kirche der Evangelinchen Gemeinschaft, A. D.1880”, which translates as the “Church of the Evangelical Community”. It was built with red bricks from the local Morriston Brickworks. Alongside the church are many cottages originally built in the late 1800s).

When we arrived at the Ontario Steam Heritage Museum in Puslinch, we were greeted by the owner, Wayne Fischer, and some of his volunteers. This is a private museum founded in 2000 so visits are made only by pre-organised groups such as ours. My previous visits have been with car clubs. Fun fact. Wayne gave his wife a traction engine as a wedding present!! She complained it needed a new boiler.

On arrival, we were taken on a tour of the grounds in a passenger trailer hauled by a 1912 Nichols Shephard Traction Engine. Of course, our President Ada got to blow the whistle. Inside the museum we first saw a workshop with suitably sized tools for working on large machinery, plus a display of steam whistles and gauges from the steam era.

During the tour Wayne described how he is a qualified instructor and examiner with an Ontario Steam
Traction Operator qualification. This is so he can drive a traction engine or a steam powered launch.
In the first hall there were many steam traction engines stored between their outings to such things as the Milton Steam Fair and other agricultural fairs or being restored. There are roof vents so the engines can be fired up inside before taking them outside. One advantage of a steam engine is that generally one can use any fuel that will burn: wood, coal, agricultural waste like straw, or even waste oil. So, before we had easy availability of refined fuels like gasoline or diesel, one burnt what was readily available. Due to lack of timber, Prairie engines tended to burn coal, and Ontario engines, wood. Many modern industrial plants that still need steam use automatic, natural gas boilers. In the next hall were examples of stationary steam engines recovered from many industries in Southern Ontario, especially furniture plants.

Then Wayne described the transition to working hours that electricity brought about. First there was a steam engine and an overhead pulley system to power machinery. Now add an extra pulley to power an electric generator for lighting, and you could work more hours when there was no daylight. Also on display is a switchboard from the T Eaton company in Toronto. When Timothy Eaton had different plants making goods for his stores, he could monitor how much electricity each plant was using. The largest engine on display is a cross-compound engine with a 34-inch low pressure cylinder and a 19- inch high-pressure cylinder recovered from the former Grand Trunk Railway workshops in Stratford. On display was a steam powered launch on a trailer, which from time to time is taken out for an excursion on lakes in Ontario. Not only on display, but also on storage racks, is a large collection of antique woodworking equipment: planers, shapers, etc., recovered from many of the furniture factories in Ontario as they closed.

From the Museum, we headed to lunch at the Royal Coachman Pub in Waterdown. The original brick building was built in 1868 as the Kirk Hotel and renamed the Royal coachman in 1995. There were numerous positive remarks about both the food and the quality of service. Upon leaving the Royal Coachman, across the street, there is a British General Post Office, model K6, telephone booth. Designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, it weighs 1500 lbs.

It was a successful outing as nobody got lost and I had positive remarks from everybody who was on the
tour.
John Burrows