It’s a milestone year for the North Bay Heritage Train and Carousel Company.
The waterfront attractions open this weekend and are celebrating 30 years of operations.
“It’s all set,” says Red Trowsdale, track and rolling stock maintenance manager. “We passed our Technical Safety Standards Association test. They do all the amusement ride tests and we passed that with flying colours.”
The testing includes walking the tracks, brake checks on the trains, checking carousel operations and more.
Trowsdale says they’re still looking for volunteers and explains what the best part is.
“The people you meet, the smiles that you see and the cheers,” he says. “The biggest thrill that I’ve seen, people in wheelchairs who thought they could never ride that train get on board. The squeals of joy coming out has to be heartwarming.”
Trowsdale says one of the train cars was retrofitted a few years ago to accommodate two wheelchairs.
Earlier this spring officials said they were looking for 40 new volunteers.
The train and carousels are open weekends (10 am to dusk) until the end of June when they begin daily operations for the summer.
Details have yet to be announced but an anniversary party is planned for Aug. 3.
