MORRISBURG – Cosmetic restoration of Grand Trunk 1008, about five years into the project received a major donation from Emard Lumber Saturday.
The “small but mighty” group of volunteers were working at the historic train site through the cold dreary weather, but were thankful to welcome Jason Bertrand, Emard’s Morrisburg store manager, to the site to acknowledge Emard’s donation of materials for this year’s project, refurbishment of the passenger coach exterior.
“The Emard family likes to give back to the community and help where they can,” said Bertrand.
Friends of GTR 1008 president Jim Becksted said that Emards are supporting this project in conjunction with their family business’ 100th anniversary.
The GTR 1008 cosmetic restoration project first started in 2019 was interrupted by the Covid pandemic and experienced a setback from vandalism in 2024. So progress on the project has taken longer than initially anticipated.
“We do what we can each summer. It’s such a short season,” said Beckstead.
The baggage car restoration was the first completed, the engine and tender cosmetic restoration is about 90 per cent completed.
South Dundas councillor Tom Smyth was at the train on Saturday, and said he was there to support the volunteer efforts. “From a council perspective the best we can do to help is to collaborate on ideas and connect the group with the provincial officials,” he said, explaining because this is on St. Lawrence Parks Commission land. MP Eric Duncan also dropped by to see the work being done by the group.
To date, about $8,000 has been spent by the Friends group on materials to advance this project. The material donation from Emard will allow the project to continue to move forward with minimal incurred costs.
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