[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Historic trucks soon homeless

Fri Dec 10 11:59:58 PST 2010

Colin Stevens shines a couple of important lights on this matter:
  a.. The repeated cavalier steps taken between 1976 - 90 by the Province to high-grade on this collection while regularly searching for a way to push the less "colourful" (and visitor-attractive) pieces out the door.
  b.. The present need to research the RBCM documents to uncover precisely what deals were made in "transferring" the vehicles to respective organizations, etc.

When I left on secondment for the CMC in 1988, the Cloverdale "Heritage Transportation" operation set up by Socred Bill Reid's Ministry was still struggling along, so I did not participate in the deaccessions (?) nor become aware of any transaction details. Jim Wardrop, now sadly deceased, acted under management's orders to handle the disposals. We must assume he left a good paper trail.

Very hard to believe Victoria would those "sell" the accessioned items, even for a token dollar. Much more likely are long-term loans or some other non-proprietary arrangements. 

Let's see what the RBCM has to say on the way to search those records, vehicle-by-vehicle, artifact-by-artifact.

More later . . . .

Dan Gallacher
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. 
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 
  Cc: Dan Gallacher 
  Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 11:41 AM
  Subject: Re: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Historic trucks soon homeless

  Sadly the Province did irreparable damage to the museum field in BC, first with its commercialization of the BC Transportation Museum i.e. throwing out museum staff and values - one big public scandal being the marketing gimmick of pretending to repaint the Beatles' psychedelic Roll Royce and a second scandal was the dissolution of the BC Transportation Museum and dispersal of its collection. Those who had donated vehicles and other objects to the BC Transportation Museum were badly hurt when the province sold off the bulk of the collection. I have had collectors tell me that they had donated valuable items, only to have the Province sell them off, and as a result they would never donate again . and neither I suspect, would the 10 friends that each of them told. 

  True, the Province did transfer a number of vehicles from the BC Transportation Museum to BC museums when a community had an historic connection to the vehicle. While I was Curator at Burnaby Village Museum, the Province offered us a truck that had been found abandoned in the bush and then restored by a Burnaby automotive dealer. Luckily I had a copy of the old guide to the collection booklet and realized that their 1929 Nash car (Named "Agnes" by its former Burnaby owner) had a strong Burnaby connection and I asked for that one instead and got it. 

  Bear in mind that the King Truck Collection is just a portion of the now dispersed BC Transportation Museum Collection.  My understanding regarding the King Truck Collection is that there is a special condition that the Province agreed to when they accepted it. I believe, although it is only hearsay, that the collection has to be kept together and possibly that it cannot be sold. Dan Gallacher might know some more about that. Whoever deals with the King Truck Collection needs to confirm the ownership issue and any binding constraints that might be in place.  

  Colin MacGregor Stevens,

  Manager,

  New Westminster Museum and Archives,

  302 Royal Avenue,

  New Westminster, BC,

  V3L 1H7, Canada

  Phone Office:    604-527-4639

  Work Cellular :  604-830-6965

  Fax:                    604-527-4641

  E-mail: cstevens at newwestcity.ca 

  Web Site: www.newwestminster.ca 

  Normal work week: Sun-Thurs 9-5, OFF Fri-Sat.

  The New Westminster Museum and Archives (NWMA) consists of:

     * City's Museum (est. 1950)

     * City's Archives

     * Irving House (built 1865)

     * Maintenance of the Samson V Maritime Museum (paddlewheel ship built 1937; museum since 1984) 

  From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. [mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com] 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 9:27 PM
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
  Cc: Dan Gallacher
  Subject: Re: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Historic trucks soon homeless

  Can you believe it?

  Two Listserv tales of the Provincial Government back to back revealing its Janus face viz.

    1.. The RBCM seeks "hundreds of millions" of dollars to expand its property footprint 183%. 
    2.. The Transportation Museum, earlier a creature of the RBCM (and outlined below in its present form), has been given its eviction notice by an unnamed landlord somewhere east of Vancouver. 
  Since its donation to the Province in the early 70s, the latter has been shuffled around the Lower Mainland at least five times like an outcast, no matter which Party was in power. 

  Something decent and sensible has to be done. More later . . . .

  Dan Gallacher

  ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. 

    To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 

    Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 9:30 AM

    Subject: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Historic trucks soon homeless

    Historic trucks will soon be homeless 

    Fine examples of trucks named Hayes Anderson, Federal and Indiana left in limbo 

    Alyn Edwards, Vancouver Sun, Friday, December 3, 2010 

    British Columbia's historic trucks may be homeless by year's end. For more than a dozen years, the Joint Council of the Teamsters Union has funded the transportation museum housing them. The Teamsters Freight Transportation Museum & Archives displaying approximately 20 trucks from 1913 and up have called a warehouse on Kingsway in Port Coquitlam home. Memorabilia in showcases tell the story of how drivers in primitive trucks carried freight east and north over roads that wouldn't be considered passable today. 

    Trucks named Hayes Anderson, Federal and Indiana haven't been manufactured for decades but some of the best examples are in this museum. 

    Many have been restored by retired Teamsters and other enthusiasts who have dedicated thousands of hours. 

    Trucks are rented out for films, appear at local historical vehicle shows, and the 1927 Hayes Anderson flat deck that was manufactured in Vancouver carried Santa Claus in Burnaby's Christmas Parade last Saturday. 

    Sadly, the society that operates the museum has run out of options. The rent that had been partly paid with a tax receipt is now going up and the landlord wants full cash payment. The provincial government's implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax that added seven per cent to the rent was the tipping point. There is no longer enough money to continue occupying the warehouse. 

    The memorabilia is packed in boxes and the display cases are ready to move. Restoration work on the trucks has stopped because their future is uncertain. The volunteers who run the museum and maintain the fleet of historical vehicles are despondent. 

    "We were supposed to be out of the warehouse by Oct. 31 but we were able to get an extension to the end of the year," society president and museum curator Norm Lynch says. "These vehicles will be homeless and people should care about this because it's our transportation history." 

    Lynch drove tractors with low-bed trailers, hauling heavy equipment all over Western Canada and Alaska for Arrow Transport before a stroke ended his professional driving career. 

    He has volunteered his time since the museum opened. 

    The trucks had been acquired by the provincial government 35 years ago after warehouses owned by the late Aubrey 'Bob' King were opened up to reveal dozens of dust-covered trucks that had been stored for years. One of the trucks, a 1946 General Motors Maple Leaf three-ton tractor, had never been put to work. 

    Bob King was an eccentric who once controlled trucking in and out of Vancouver with nine companies and dozens of trucks. But in 1958, he locked his trucks in warehouses after a bitter pay dispute with the Teamsters Union. The millionaire trucking company owner retreated to his four-room house in Burnaby to live out his days. He never reopened the warehouses filled with trucks. 

    The first time I saw these trucks was when I was a young BCTV (Global) reporter in the early 1970s and two side-by-side downtown warehouses on Pender at Carroll Street were opened to reveal the dusty trucks. I had never seen anything like that before. 

    I had read a newspaper story with a photo of a reporter trying to look through a dirty window in the warehouse that was supposed to be filled with old trucks. The story specifically mentioned a Central Cartage warehouse on Main at Terminal where McDonalds is today. 

    I began watching the warehouse for any activity. One day in the summer of 1973, I saw that the doors were open as I drove by. I met Gil Cornish and Lloyd Barrett, who had been hired by Bob King's widow to deal with his estate. They told me about the other warehouses. When the story appeared on BCTV, the provincial 

    government got involved and negotiated to acquire the trucks for a new B.C. Transportation Museum. The trucks would be preserved for everyone to see. But 20 years ago, the government broke up the transportation museum with many of the vehicles auctioned off. The King trucks were saved because they had been donated. 

    They ultimately ended up in an unheated damp warehouse under the care of the Atchelitz Threshermen's Society. The Teamsters got involved when they asked Norm Lynch to find a 1936 era pickup to commemorate their 60th anniversary. When they couldn't find a suitable truck to buy, they acquired the truck collection to start the museum. 

    The amazing collection includes the following trucks: 

    - British built 1914 Four Wheel Drive which originally saw service in WWI and was brought to Canada by the BC Electric Company to haul coal and plow street car tracks in Vancouver 

    - 1924 Federal donated to the museum by a 101-year-old man who had saved it from being junked 

    - 1927 Hayes Anderson built on 2nd Avenue in Vancouver that hauled freight between Vancouver and the Fraser Valley 

    - 1929 White tractor that hauled fuel for Shell Oil before being purchased by Bob King in 1939 

    - 1932 International A4 tractor that saw service hauling steel to Vancouver-area shipyards during WWII 

    - 1935 Dodge Airflow -the only one sold in Canada -used by Standard Oil to deliver fuel to Chevron gas stations into the 1940s when it was acquired by Bob King 

    - 1937 Indiana purchased new by the late Andy Craig who operated Inland Motor Freight hauling between Vancouver and Penticton. He produced the book: History of Trucking in BC Since 1900. 

    - 1943 Maple Leaf tractor economically built during WWII with no chrome work, a wooden steering wheel, canvas covered seat and only one windshield wiper 

    - 1946 Maple Leaf tractor purchased by Bob King from Collier Motors on Georgia Street and put away new in his warehouse where it remained until being acquired by the provincial government 

    - 1946 Fargo tractor that hauled freight between Vancouver and Seattle for Sea-Van Freight until 1953 

    - The Teamsters Freight Transportation Museum and Archives Society at 1580 Kingsway in Port Coquitlam hopes to preserve these and other trucks and memorabilia to commemorate the history of 

    trucking in B.C. 

    Sadly, the society members, the trucks and memorabilia have nowhere to go when they are forced to vacate the warehouse by Dec. 31. 

    ---   30   --- 

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