Help us Recover from a Robbery

On either Saturday Feb 11 or Sunday night Feb 12, we were robbed. Both our passenger coach and caboose were broken into with many things stolen from us, or destroyed. It’s a devastating blow for our small charity. The best was to describe this theft was as professional as a robbery can be. They came prepared with grinding discs, Sawzalls, pipe cutters, all manners of tools and in the course of a night gutted our coach.We’re still assessing and finding more that was taken, but the highlights are over 60ft of steam heat shielding and steam heat piping. Window frames and curtains. CC&F specific interior trimmings and finishing’s. At least 3 seat frames. All the wiring from our completely new control system. AC piping. Plumbing between the A end bathrooms. Overhead panels. All our tools including a $1500 Huck rivet gun. They cut our brake pipe in 3 places, including what seems like they tried to take the air reservoir underneath the coach. They also completely destroyed the hot water boiler that provided heat via the steam heating pipes. To top it all off, they relieved themselves in the cupola of our caboose.What We NeedAs horrific as this is, we will never give up on our goal to restore this coach. We firmly believe that if we can get the funds to repair this coach we can have in a state to show off our progress in its restoration come spring, and be well on our way to having it completely restored to its 1960s appearance.This passenger car to us is more than just a passenger car, it's a community asset and we plan to use it as such once it's complete. Food bank donation trains, holiday trains, charity events, and so many more opportunities will be possible with this coach once we can restore it.We need your help to get there. Your donations will go toward getting our coach useable. Fixing our air brake systems so the car can be moved safely. Fixing the floor, heating system and will help us finish this restoration. As a registered charity, all donations receive tax receipts.What We're Doing to Prevent More TheftThis is obviously an important subject as our equipment will never be finished as long as this keeps happening, and we can't in good faith ask for donations if we can't secure our equipment. This break in showed that our current security measures that have worked for years just no longer work anymore.To make sure our equipment is safe, we have installed cameras around our equipment that automatically alert our members when they are activated. Additional security systems in our equipment are in the process of being installed as well. Lastly, even more physical barriers to entry have been added.All of this comes at a greater cost ontop of what's already damaged, but it is necessary to ensure the safety of our equipment and to secure your donations and contributions to our organization.To read more about the Guelph Historical Railway Association and our equipment, check out our website:www.ghra.ca