They won't wake the horses until May

Photo and story by Patrick Roy/Special to BayToday.ca.

With spring arriving early this year folks have been out all over the city taking advantage of the weather by enjoying things like gardening and cycling even golfing , but the folks at North Bay Heritage Railway and Carousel say tempting as it might be they won’t be straying off schedule by opening their doors early.

Chairperson Rod Johnston explains that after 17 years of operating the world-renowned attraction the team knows opening ahead of schedule rarely goes well for a number of reasons, but the biggest one has always been the weather.

“We’ve had some temptations sometimes but generally speaking May 5th is the day of the ‘Waking the Horses,’ it’s usually a very cool day … and May the 11th this year which is the Friday before Mother’s Day is another day that we open,” says Johnston.

“And it’s often been very cold … and sometimes we’ve even still had snow on the tracks so even though this year it may seem early, most years it’s not it’s just about right.”

He explained that horses get dusty during their winter slumber so on Saturday, May 5th at 10:00 am the community is invited to the annual “Wake up the Horses” event at the Waterfront.

The event involves cleaning and polishing the two world famous carousels in preparation of its official opening to the public on May 11th at 4:00 pm.

Those folks who brave the elements, regardless of what that may be, and lend a hand will be rewarded with pizza and pop plus the knowledge that the carousel horses will be ready for another year of bringing enjoyment to kids of all ages.

Johnston also notes the group is getting set to work on a new engine and car attraction that should be completed by summer 2014.

He says the new ride will be constructed here in the Bay and the passenger cars will be covered.

Unlike the mini train that makes a seven minute loop around the waterfront hill, the new larger train will have a 20 minute loop with several stops; one at the CP station, one at the Winter Wonderland Carousel in its new location, and one at the children’s area before coming back to the station.

“A mining locomotive block, if you’ve ever seen mining locomotives they’re just little square things. So you just take one of those and add the detail of a fancy looking steam engine on top,” explains Johnston.

“But those are very proven, incredibly indestructible and very strong and they last forever in spite of tremendous abuse by the miners and so on, down in the muck and so on. So yeah, it’ll survive quite nicely here I’m sure.”

Johnston says the group plans to run both rides to offer variety to patrons unless something changes.

“If people would rather like to ride on the big train and not the short train then we may eventually discontinue the smaller one,” he says.

“If you have the choice between a 20 minute ride and a seven minute ride, maybe you’ll just take a seven minute ride if you’ve got small kids that wouldn’t sit still for the 20 minute ride. So again that’s another unknown that we’ll just have to see but we have no plans to discontinue anything, we’ll keep them running as long as we can and then as the people tell us what they want then that’s what we’ll react to.”

Johnston notes as always the biggest challenge in getting the new train built and running is money.

At $1.3 million, the new attraction isn’t cheap.

Another challenge will be moving the Winter Wonderland Carousel, but Johnston is confident that the project will be completed by June 2014.

“I think once we get the funding organized you’ll see it happen quite nicely,” he notes.

“We’re estimating putting the train in, moving the second carousel over and putting the second carousel in a nice building the total should be around $1.3 million and so once we have that lined up, it should happen. And I’m hoping that we’ll have that in place by summer of 2014.”

Each year somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 patrons buy tickets to ride on the North Bay Heritage Railway and Carousel attractions.

Johnston says they have experienced a slight decline in numbers over the past couple of years; however, there has been an increase in out of town riders.

He notes the new walkway between the waterfront and Oak Street has helped dramatically in retaining patrons as well.

“North bay is becoming a little more of a destination attraction for people driving up from Toronto and so on and people in town. Either there’s less children or there’s other things to do and this has become kind of a routine you know so they don’t come out as much,” he says.

“So it’s hard to say really but we’re seeing an increase in visitors from out of town over the years.”

But at the end of the day, Johnston is still amazed how 130 volunteers continue to dedicate themselves to the operation of the train and carousel year round regardless of the weather.

“It’s just amazing to me how the volunteers keep coming out and coming out and why they come out is a difficult thing to answer. But I think the bottom line is that it’s fun. The people that come to ride on the carousel thank us every time that they come.”