Volunteers at the North Bay Heritage Railway and Carousel Company took advantage of Saturday's warm weather to get the local tourist attraction ready for the upcoming season.
"We woke up the horses today. The horses of course have been in hibernation all winter so we had to muck out the stalls ," laughed volunteer Bill White.
All kidding aside, everyone soon got down to the business at hand. They rolled up their sleeves, and used some old fashioned elbow grease to put a shine on the rides and clean the property around the miniature train.
"The repair work is in two facets. We have gone through all of the individual horses on the carousel and they've been cleaned up and some of the brass polished and everything is lubricated so that we will pass the TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority) inspection. We have to be very cognizant of our rigid rules of operation under the Ontario government," said White.
"The other aspect of it is the train, and so we have a lot of maintenance to do on the train. We have train wheels to replace, we've had ties that we've had to replace for the tracks and we have to make sure that the tracks are up to standard."
A big reveal is planned for Saturday May 19th at 1:00 pm. That is when the new design of the diesel train, will be uncovered. The design and paintwork have been made possible by Ontario Northland.
That's not the only big event planned for the 19th.
"In answer to a continuing demand from carousel riders, we will have two local authors and an illustrator join us with copies of their book 'The Magical Midnight Ride.' It's a mystery book about the Heritage Carousel," said volunteer Don Coutts.
Martha Attema and Marla Hayes collaborated on the book illustrated by Skye Hillard. The books cost $10.00 each, with proceeds going to the North Bay Heritage Railway and Carousel Company. The book launch begins at noon.
It's this kind of public input that makes the attraction so successful, along with the many volunteers who give of their time.
Claude Dellaire and Jeannette Etches have both been volunteering for the past decade.
"We just love the people and love serving the people. It's most enjoyable to be around kids. I love kids," said Etches.
Dellaire agrees, saying he likes to see the enjoyment the children get from being on the rides.
"We have a Friday night crew here and I'm the captain of that. Today we're putting up the silhouettes around the track and we're getting our flower gardens going."
A volunteer recruitment blitz Saturday was well received.
"We had a fantastic turnout with a lot of students wanting to get their volunteer hours and a lof of adults who want to learn to drive the train, because it's a lot of fun," said volunteer coordinator, Leslie Cerisano,
Volunteer applications are available at the Discovery North Bay Museum.
"If they're 18 or over they do have to get a police check. We have to send out individual letters to them, and then it's paid for by us, we pay for their police checks," said Cerisano.
Every shift requires a minimum of eight volunteers, two for each of the carousels, two for the train and a couple for the ticket booth.
"We get school groups coming in from Verner and Warren and Sturgeon Falls throughout the spring. We've had wedding parties book the carousel for pictures. We even have one gentleman who sometimes books the carousels and train for a Saturday morning. He comes in and pays for it and says to give it to anybody who wants a ride. It's incredible," said White.
White says he has met visitors from China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Holland and Norway, as well as people from Ottawa, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and southern Ontario.
"Last season the train and carousels had close to 60,000 riders."
The first day of operation will be next Friday May 11th at 4:00 pm. It will remain open on weekends only until July 1st, when the schedule changes to 10:00 am until dusk seven days a week until labour day, when it returns to the weekend schedule.