The North Bay Heritage Railway and Carousel Company was in high demand this season.
The final figures show 2,000 more rides this year when compared to last year’s numbers.
“We had 57,600 rides, not including groups,” said volunteer treasurer Don Coutts.
“Adding those groups, we would have been close to 60,000. It is getting back up to the high levels from years ago. It was down one or two years, but it is slowly climbing back up. We’re weather dependent but we did have more group bookings this year.”
Groups like the Nipissing Association for Disabled Youth (NADY), PADDLE (Providing Adults with Developmental Disabilities Lifelong Experiences) and L’Arche made use of the wheelchair-accessible train coach as well as the carousel.
“We try to reach out to groups that have clients or residents in wheelchairs to let them know we are here, and to come and visit us,” said Coutts.
“In fact, one Sunday afternoon we had a bus with a group of adults in wheelchairs drive in from Sudbury. They were aware of the carousel being wheelchair accessible, but they weren’t aware we had a wheelchair accessible train. So that went over really well. They rode them both and said they would be back.”
It was an interesting summer for the roughly 150 volunteers.
“We had Girl Guide leaders in June, about 90 of them, from across Canada and from England. They were attending a conference in Sudbury and the local Girl Guide leaders made arrangements to tour North Bay. They went on the Chief Commanda and then the train and carousel. They had a great time,” said Coutts.
“Then in June we got a call from a tour company from London, Ontario saying they were doing a mystery tour. So, there were about 40 of them. And we had some of the third-year medical residents from up at the hospital doing some team bonding.”
The attraction was also used to shoot scenes for the Carter Series starring Jerry O’Connell.
“The diesel train will be in episode number four of the Carter series which starts back on October 25. It is being publicized on TV. The big carousel and the gas train will be in episode number 10 which will probably appear sometime in December. So, we’re looking forward to it,” said Coutts.
“We like to get that type of publicity. Now if we can get more movies and shows to have us in their scenes, we’re all for it.”
