As Moose Jaw’s City Hall lit up in blue to commemorate the Royal Canadian Air Force’s centennial anniversary this past week, all eyes were to the sky and one detail stood out – the city’s train station clock tower made a sharp contrast as it lay dark and silent by comparison.
This juxtaposition is now being remedied through a maintenance project led by volunteer repairpersons John Trodd and Murray Rimmer.
Repairs on the train station’s clock tower began early on the morning of April 2nd and the process – once completed – will see the iconic Moose Jaw landmark glowing proudly into the night and telling time once again.
The project is being handled by the same volunteer repairmen who recently finished upgrades on Moose Jaw’s City Hall clocktower. On the iconic symbol of Moose Jaw’s municipal governance, their work entailed a fresh installation of glass, a refurbishment of the clock arms and time-keeping mechanism, and they’re the crew behind the centennial blue light installation as well.
This blue backlight was first illuminated on the evening of April 1 to coincide with a national commemorative effort. This includes Moose Jaw’s contribution to the nation-wide attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the highest number of similarly illuminated landmarks within one single country.
The last time repairs were made on the train station’s tower, Rimmer noted, was back in 2004. Since then, a few problems have come to light causing the clock to stop ticking and now that’s being addressed.
At 7 a.m. on the morning of April 2, the crew of volunteers used a crane to remove the hands from the north face of the building’s timepiece, and the machine’s inner components were given a little TLC to match.
A separate crew of electricians will also be working diligently this month to install new lighting on the clock tower, but no certain date has been given for the completion of this portion of the project. Much of this uncertainty, Rimmer pointed out, is due to the high possibility of finding any number of surprises in the historic structure’s existing wiring.
Due to an obvious contrast that would be accentuated if the clock’s hands were cleaned up and repainted, the repair project won’t see the hands fully restored, but rather, the focus will be on repairing the clock’s machine components that keep the hands ticking. As the crew works on a volunteer basis, it's simply not tenable to invest countless additional hours meticulously painting and cleaning each number, arm, and dial of the structure at this time.
Crystal Froese, a member of Moose Jaw’s city council, also noted that the clock tower marks an interesting part of Moose Jaw’s downtown history.
Located just a few blocks apart, City Hall’s clock is the only one in the province that has to be manually wound up, Froese pointed out, and the train station’s clock is one of the first electric clocks that were produced. This means City Hall has the last of an old type of clock and the train station has the first of a newer generation of clock mechanisms.
The project will also see the two clocks wired together electronically, so one switch can light both timepieces in a similar colour and at the same time, even though the former train station is now privately owned. To smooth over the logistics for this, Trodd and Rimmer have been serving as the project facilitator.
Once completed, the project will help revamp Moose Jaw’s historic downtown district and showcases Trodd and Rimmer’s work, which Froese pointed out is becoming “a lost art.”
“It’s wonderful to see that the clock is (soon to be) up and running,” Froese said.
Maintenance on the train station’s timepiece is anticipated to be completed on or around April 27.
