While the weather is giving local residents what could very well be their final blast of summer-type temperatures, Saturday also served as the official last blast for most of the vintage equipment on display at the Simcoe County Museum.
The popular Last Blast Fall Steam Up event returned to the local museum in Minesing, putting vintage construction equipment on display before being stored safely away for winter.
The event takes place every year on the weekend following Thanksgiving, said Forrest Pateneaude, education supervisor at the museum, adding it’s the last time the displayed construction equipment will be running before winter hits.
“Everybody comes here and we get to enjoy all the big Tonka trucks, moving sand around, digging holes and filling them back up,” he said.
The event includes a variety of different types of engines that are running such as rock crushers and saws, as well as bulldozers, cranes and graders.
“Kids from zero to 90 come to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a great day.”
Six-year-old Henry Elder was enjoying the event with his dad Dayle Elder, saying he was excited to check out the big machines.
“I just really wanted to come,” he said. “Dad said there would be steam things on so I want to see them.”
Base Borden resident Gregory Monteith has come out to the event in the past with his son. This year, the local dad brought the entire family to check out all of the old equipment, adding it was a great way to spend the day together.
“I just like equipment, cars and vehicles, and he just loves playing with all of that stuff … so does she,” said Monteith.
Although he no longer works with “big noisy machines” in his current role as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Monteith said he has in the past.
“(We) just have a general love of big, noisy machines.”
The annual event is a partnership between the museum and the Historical Construction Equipment Association of Canada, “showcasing the strength of vintage steam-powered machines,” the County of Simcoe stated in a news release.
