Simcoe County Museum got revved up for Wheels and Tracks

It was a celebration of vintage construction equipment at the Simcoe County Museum with rumbles and roars of classic trucks and tractors filling the grounds.

It was a construction lover’s dream at the Simcoe County Museum over the weekend.

The rumbles and roars of vintage construction equipment could be heard all across the museum grounds.

With interactive and static displays both inside and outside, Wheels and Tracks had something for every machine enthusiast.

The big pit was a big hit as machine operators had some fun digging holes and filling them back up again while playing it up for the crowd.

Dozers, cranes, scrapers, steam rollers and steam shovels filled the grounds including a special steam shovel, which helped to build Ontario.

The Erie Model B Steam Shovel, built in Erie, Pennsylvania, is one of two left operating in the province. Its home has been the Simcoe County Museum for the last 30 years.

According to James Hoover, the head engineer for the machine, it has a shovel front digger and was used in quarries, digging out banks, loading lorries—or trucks—and building canals.

Forrest Patenaude, supervisor of education with the Simcoe County Museum, says the weekend is all about showcasing machines that normally don’t run anymore.

“But on a day like today, we get to turn them all on and dig holes and fill them back up with dirt. It’s a great day,” says Patenaude.

He says it’s important to have exhibits like this as they preserve and share the history of vintage construction equipment with the public.

The equipment gets fixed up by the Historical Construction Equipment Association, an organization the museum partnered with to put on the event.

The weekend brought together people with a passion for the history of construction.