The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) Canada is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of heavy construction equipment and the history of the people in the construction industry that helped to build Canada.  The HCEA Canada is involved in locating, preserving, and restoring construction equipment and its literature. Their machinery collection and archives are located at the Simcoe County Museum just North of Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

They traditionally have two major events each year in the spring and the fall.  Last June, they held the “Wheels and Tracks in Motion” show in June and the “Last Blast” show in October.  Two of our volunteers, Dave Wetherald and Lance Gleich were there in the spring and share these images with us. The image above shows some of the restored “steam shovels” at work in their demonstration pit.

Of special interest to us is the appearance of a beautifully restored British Wren 2 foot gauge steam locomotive which ran on a short length of dual gauge track at the Museum.  This is owned by the Matthews brothers who brought a number of these 2 foot gauge locomotives to Canada from England many years ago.

Also shown below is a steam locomotive which was moved to the Museum from the Barrie, Ontario waterfront in 2008. Click here to read our report on that move.

Posting by Russ Milland; Images by Lance Gleich and Dave Wetherald

Click on each image for a closer look!