OVTOS Container History & Newfoundland Wurlitzer Excursion

The following photos were provided by Dave Milton and record OVTOS' work in 2002.

Ross, Gee, Margo & Dave Milton ( taking the photo ) at the container store in Montreal, Aug 16, 2002

The 1st Container delivered, Aug 23, 2002

Almost a truck-full of Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, September, Appleton, NL ( @ David Prior's place)
(L-R) Dave Prior, Ross Robinson, Dave Milton, unknown (David Prior's Friend) 

Driving back to Ottawa from Newfoundland

Unloading at the farm / container, Sept 18, 2002 (L-R)  Dave Milton, Ross Robinson.

Unloading the Wurlitzer at Burwell's Farm. (L-R) Gerry Doris, Roger Corneau  

Ottawa Valley Theatre Organ Society - Archive Webpage

 The following text and photos were extracted from http://theatreorgans.com/canada/OTTAWA/old.htm in order to retain them for archive records.

The exterior of the historic O'Brien Theatre in downtown Renfrew, Ontario. This theatre was built in 1929 and will soon house the Herbert Park Memorial Theatre Organ

Ross Robinson our fearless leader and Society President, pauses while installing pipes in the chamber. He lists his occupation as "Industrial Archeologist" because he spends so much of his time resurrecting ancient pieces of hardware.

The backstage area in the O'Brien Theatre. The backstage wall is on the left; the theatre screen and loudspeakers are on the right. The two adjoining pipe chambers are above; they were built 9 feet above the stage to allow room for percussions and storage below. Some of the unenclosed pipes are visible at the rear; they were installed first and occupy the full floor to ceiling area on both sides of the chambers.

Wiring the Chests

The Society's Baldwin Cinema II gets a workout

Fact Sheet         May 3, 1996

==========

Name of Society: Ottawa Valley Theatre Organ Society

Location:        Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Established:     1989
Status: Non-profit, non-incorporated organization, registered as
                 Canadian charity # 0820019-22
Mission:         To help preserve the theatre organ's role in music history 
                 and to increase public appreciation of theatre-organ music.
Board:           Ross Robinson, President (industrial archeologist) 
                 Ted Devey, Vice-President 
                                         (retired telecommunications engineer)
                 John Batts, Secretary (university professor) 
                  Mrs. Joyce Lavigne, Treasurer 
                 Jane Love, Fund-Raising Chairman 
                                                (retired businesswoman) 
                 Joe Calverly, Technical Advisor (church organist) 
# Members:       30
Assets:          Baldwin Cinema II electronic organ
                 1920-vintage Warren 3/13 theatre organ
                 1929-vintage Robert-Morton 3/7 theatre organ
                 Additional pipes, percussions and miscellaneous pieces of
                 unknown origin
Main Project:
We are currently refurbishing the Robert-Morton and Warren theatre organs 
and are installing them in the O'Brien movie theatre in Renfrew, Ont., a 
small (population 8,000) town in the Ottawa valley. The O'Brien Theatre 
(built in 1929) is an ideal site for a theatre organ, having ample room 
behind the projection screen. The theatre interior is being restored 
to its original movie palace glory by owner Murray Adolph.

The story of how the two theatre organs ended up in Renfrew is an 
interesting one.

The Warren organ was built in Woodstock, Ontario in 1920 and was installed 
in the Capitol Theatre in Winnipeg. In 1947, it was removed from that
theatre by Herbert Park, a local engineer and collector. He hoped to 
install the Warren organ in a shed behind his home, but that plan was 
foiled by a job transfer to Ottawa and his later ill health.

The Park family moved the organ parts to Ottawa over four years (1958 to 
1961) and stored them in a couple of garages. The parts were later moved 
to the Park's home, occupying most of the basement, closets, living room, 
garage and several outdoor lean-tos and sheds. Unfortunately, Mr. Park 
died before seeing his dream realized of having the organ rebuilt in a 
public venue. In 1990, Mr. Park's widow donated the organ parts to the 
Ottawa Valley Theatre Organ Society, and we are proud to have made 
progress on assembling them in one place.

Since 1990, Society members have delighted in uncrating, assessing and
cataloging the pieces from at least four different organs donated by the 
Park family. Society President Ross Robinson referred to it as "an 
oversize jig-saw puzzle that has taken us several years to solve." 
Initially, the pieces were stored at the homes of four members and an 
old barn in the country.  More recently, a City of Ottawa warehouse 
was procured where the pipes could be laid out and assembled on 
their chests. (Fortunate, too, because the barn was destroyed by fire
in 1995 - after we had moved almost everything out of it.)

It took the Society four years to find a suitable venue for the Warren 
organ. At times, we almost gave up hope of finding a location. The 
organ's (hopefully) final move occurred in 1995 when it was trucked 
to Renfrew to the O'Brien Theatre, with surplus pipes being kept in 
another warehouse in that town. Work on chambers, wind lines and 
electronics is proceeding with the help of three federally funded 
workers, Society members and other volunteers from the community. 

We have presented silent movies and concerts using our Baldwin 
electronic organ and have received good media coverage and encouraging 
community support. When finished, ours will be the only theatre organ 
in Canada installed in a commercial movie theatre.

The 3/7 Robert-Morton organ was originally installed in the Majestic 
Theater in Santa Monica, CA. It was later used in a Seventh-Day Adventist 
church and came to us through Robert Maes of Pipes & Palaces 
Productions of Kansas City. Its 7 ranks are being augmented by another 
Morton Kinura rank and various Warren pipes. The Peterson relay control 
system and traditional console will become the new "front end" for the 
Warren organ. We still have the original Warren console and hope to 
refurbish it some day to provide dual-console capabilities.

Our goal now is to start up the Robert-Morton organ with seven ranks 
of pipes and a few percussions as soon as possible, then add the 
Warren ranks and additional percussions over time. The "Herbert 
Park Memorial Theatre Organ" will be used for concerts, 
to accompany silent movies, and for instruction.

Future plans include a new or expanded control system and 
expansion to at least 21 ranks.

The Warren organ, after being "on the move" and in storage since 
1947, has finally found a new, permanent home. Our Society's 
Secretary, Dr. John Batts,says, "That the Warren organ has survived 
at all is a tribute to individual generosity by ordinary Canadians who 
have realized that too often in the past, treasured artifacts have 
perished because of carelessness and complacency."

If you'd like to help us with this project, please send donations to:
Mrs. Joyce Lavigne, Treasurer, 494 Raglan St. S., Renfrew, ON, 
                                                   Canada K7V 1R8..
For information about this project or our Society, E-mail us at:
   John Batts, Secretary 
   


(We do not currently subscribe to the PIPORG-L list.)


Pipe List for the Herbert Park Memorial Theatre Organ
=====================================================
(Pipes are from both the Warren and Robert-Morton organs. We have built 
two chambers (main and solo) behind the projection screen. Some of the 
ranks listed below are unenclosed because they are too big to fit into the 
chambers.)
MAIN:
  Open diapason, 8' extension, 16' diaphone
  Tibia clausa, 8' extension, two 16' bourdons
  Clarinet, 8' (if we can salvage enough pipes)
  French horn, 8' (if we can salvage enough pipes)
  Solo string, 8'
  Celeste string, 8'
  Vox, 8'
  Concert flute, 16' bourdon
SOLO:
  Open diapason, 8' extension
  Tibia, 8', 16' bourdon
  Cello
  Tuba, 8', 16' extension
  Trumpet, 8'
  Kinura
  Oboe, 8'
  Quint, 8'
ECHO ORGAN (unenclosed, at the rear of the theatre):
  Solo string, 8'
  Celeste string, 8'
  Salicional, 8'
  Vox Humana, 8'
  Concert flute, 8'
  Marimba harp
  Xylophone
     (Some of the echo organ ranks may be transferred to the main or solo
     chambers.)
PERCUSSIONS:
  Chrysoglott, marimba harp, xylophone, chimes, glockenspiel, tuned sleigh 
  bells, drums, cymbals and various other traps

A Tribute to Ross Robinson

 Unfortunately, the Theatre Organ Society lost a long-time champion this month with Ross Robinson's passing on October 9, 2020.  Ross' experience and technical knowledge of these instruments was too valuable to measure.  He will be sorely missed.

Ross' obituary is available on-line here.

Here is a tribute to Ross written by Phil Jago from the Bytown Railway Society.

A Tribute to Ross Robinson

The Bytown Railway Society’s “Dirty Hands Club” lost a valued and irreplaceable member with the untimely passing of Ross Robinson on the evening of October 9, 2020 following a brief illness. 

Ross was an incredible person. He was born in Ottawa on May 23, 1936 during the Great Depression, growing up in the Glebe neighbourhood, not far from what were then Canadian National’s main freight yards which is now the route of Highway 417 (“Queensway”) across Ottawa. 

Following high school, Ross attended Ryerson Polytechnic School and began his full-time working career with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. 

Ross was a mechanical genius, as well as being an outstanding craftsman with an uncanny ability and knowledge of a variety of disciplines. This knowledge helped him to understand complex devices, regardless of their age, shape or form. Whether he was fixing a clock, tuning a piano, restoring a pipe organ or preserving railway artifacts, Ross was equally comfortable. 

Subsequent to working at AECL, he was employed in building management with Carleton University and went on from there to become self-employed in the building construction and renovation business. 

Ross was a keen railway enthusiast with an appreciation for music, primarily theatre organ music and for many years was a key participant in the former Ottawa Valley Theatre Organ Society. 

With respect to railways, Ross was able to apply his numerous skills on a number of restoration projects in both Canada and the United States. In the latter instance, Ross and his late wife Gee made it a habit to spend winters in San Diego, California, where Ross became an active member of the Pacific South West Railway Museum, involved in both equipment restoration and operation. 

Ross spent many years with what is now the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Fall. On the grounds of the museum can be found a number of examples of his tireless restoration efforts including the former Canadian Northern passenger station which was on the verge of collapse until he came on the scene, a former duplex section dwelling, a restored flag stop from the tiny community of Nolans, located between Smiths Falls and Ottawa on VIA Rail’s Smiths Falls Subdivision, to name just a few examples of his work there. He even found the time to restore ex-Grand Trunk Western Van No. 77137, now on display at the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario. 

Ross was most recently an active member of the BRS’s “Dirty Hands Club.” He was both a craftsman, a coach, a mentor and, as some would have it, the ultimate “Jedi Master”. He was as equally comfortable with a Mig Welder as he was with a table saw or router. He led the charge on the restoration of Bytown’s ex-Canadian National First Class Coach No. 4977; was involved in a number of outshoppings of Bytown’s ex-Canadian Pacific Van No. 436436 including the fabrication of its end ladders and roof walk as well as the production of new windows. He played a key role in the current work on the van which has led to the installation new insulation, siding and a roofing membrane applied to. He was also involved in the restoration of the cab of ex-Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson No. 2858, making up a variety of patterns in his basement workshop for missing castings as well as coming up with an ingenious, geometry-defying, method of fabricating a new sheet metal housing for the locomotive’s brake stand. He was built the cab windows used in the cosmetic restoration of ex-Canadian National 4-8-4 No. 6200 in addition to cab windows for the cosmetic restoration of several steam locomotives in the United States. The majority of this work took place in the confines of his small basement workshop in old Ottawa South.

I first met Ross many years ago during a special work bee in Smiths Falls where we spent the day laying track for a couple of short sidings and I was certainly impressed. Our paths did not cross that much until about 15-years ago when my wife and I became “empty nesters” and there was a little more time to spend with groups like the “Dirty Hands Club.” 

Although I have a modicum of technical knowledge, it really improved under Ross’ guidance and mentorship. His ability to teach, to demonstrate and his ability to help one break a complex procedure into simple steps was amazing. His level of technical knowledge and his recall of events and facts was incredible. 

With the onset of my retirement, he had me involved with several of his “capers”, primarily the dispersal of the assets of the Ottawa Valley Theatre Organ Society, a project that involved among other things, the dismantling and removal of a theatre organ located in the historic O’Brien Theatre in the upper Ottawa Valley community of Renfrew. Ross brought me in to help him measure up the components so that he could build shipping crates in his basement work shop. That job led to myself and several DHC members being “conscripted” to help dismantle the organ into several truck loads which were destined for a yet to be built music museum in western Ontario. Throughout this whole endeavour, I was amazed at what effort it had taken Ross to install the organ in the theatre in the first place and then by his encyclopedic knowledge of each and every part, including the amazing circuitry that is in such devices. 

A lot of people in the railway preservation and restoration world have been touched by Ross over the years and he has left us with a heavy responsibility: to carry on his legacy and his work. Rest in peace. 

Salut Ross; may you and Gee have happiness in eternity. 

Philip Jago

Ross Robinson does a victory dance following the installation of the order board and blades at the restored ex-Canadian Northern Station on the grounds of the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls. Ross's restoration efforts at the RMEO are worthy of a book in themselves. Photo by Norm Kummer

Ross led the charge on the restoration of the Bytown Railway Society's ex-Canadian National First Class Coach No. 4977. Here he examines the condition of the roof on the "B" end. Note the sheet metal panel adjacent to him. He was responsible for guiding its layout and fabrication. Photo by Philip Jago

Ross was a master at problem solving with his favourite expression being "jigs are your best friend". Here Ross and Paul Bown of the Bytown Railway Society admire the handiwork in a jig that will assist in the making up of the curved ceiling panel in the "A" end corridor of ex-Canadian National First Class Coach No. 4977. Photo by Philip Jago

From the limited confines of his over-stuffed basement workshop in Old Ottawa South, Ross turned out an amazing number of products that were used in the restoration of buildings and railway equipment. Here he is cutting Luan panels that will eventually become the part of the restored interior finish for ex-Canadian National Coach No. 4977. Photo by Philip Jago

Having made up the vertical wall panels for ex-Canadian National Coach No. 4977 in his basement workshop including staining and clear coat, Ross is seen using an air gun to install one of them. Photo by Philip Jago

Ross worked on a number of occasions on the maintenance/outshopping of the Bytown Railway Society's ex-Canadian Pacific Van No. 436436. Here, as recently as the summer of 2019, Ross applies caulking to a piece of window trim used for one of the cupola windows. Photo by Felicity Harrison

Ross was a coach and mentor to all of us. In this quiet moment, Ross and this author discuss a technical aspect for the most recent of ex-Canadian Pacific Van No. 436436, seen on the left. Photo by Felicity Harrison

Throughout the restoration of ex-Canadian National First Class Coach No. 4977, Ross established a short of home base in a pair of the car's distinctive ex-Boston and Maine flip over seats. It wasn't long before this became a gathering place for coffee, advice and camaraderie. Before long, we began calling it "Ross's Office." Inside Ross's office, Ross and Bytown's Master Carpenter Bill Moulton discuss the affairs of the day. Photo by Philip Jago

Update on work at the OB, and some observations.

Hello everyone,

First I would like to acknowledge the work done by Jack Loucks during my absence for two months in the frigid south.

Jack, aided on one occasion by his son Ben, replaced all of the leather nuts on the chrysoglotte valves, the ones on the outside that had dried out and were constantly splitting and rendering one note at a time unplayable. The inner nuts are not under any stain and these can be left to soldier on for many more decades. Now we have all 49 notes working and better yet there is no loud constant air leaks from the valves. At that time, Ben a piano student, had an opportunity to try playing the organ.

Jack also re-assembled the regulator on the stage that winds the new Style D trumpet and the Kinura. This regulator was donated by Gilles Bruyere two years ago and never worked properly. Turns out the two push rods on the pallet valves were too long, proper length ones were installed and it is now OK. He also fixed a massive air leak at a ventil valve on this regulator. As well he has stopped up a lot of air leaks at screw holes in the chests that appear to have been the result of pipe support racks that we are not using.

Finally he has the style D trumpet almost working, there are a number of cyphers to fix, probably all due to bits of dirt or wood chips in the air ways as this is a newly constructed chest. Unfortunately we cannot test or play this rank from the console at this time.

On the last two trips we have been working at curing a number of small problems, some serious and a few just annoyances. We had a leaking pouch on one of the chest bottoms on the Tibia 8 foot offset chest. The bottom board was taken to my shop and all six valve pouches releathered. Also as is our standard practice shrink tubing was
installed on the magnet coils to protect them from accidental damage when reinstalling the bottom boards. With this sucess we decided to remove the other bottom board and it has also been releathered and upgraded.

At one time we had the 16 foot tuba offset, a Wurltzer, working from the console. We found it no longer worked, ground wire to the chest was off for some reason so we reconnected it. All 12 notes played, so we cut off the wind to it. Last week we discovered that the driver board was OK but the problem seemed to be with the controller card for this chest, unplugging this card and reinstalling it cured that problem.

Now at the pedal board it plays in the wrong octave, not the 16ft but at the 8 foot pitch. Maybe in the specification in the console?

We also find that we frequently have to adjust the screws setting the tension on the pedals, as many of the screws seem to relax allowing the pedals to cypher. Suggestions on how to solve this problem permanently are being solicited.

We moved several boxes of small pipes from the top of the solo chamber to storage, and we finally after 10 years installed the cover on the vox tremulant. Housekeeping.

We also removed the bottom boards, again, from the Open Diapason chest. Many of these pouches had been releathered in a piecemeal fashion as they failed over the last 10 years. The bottom from the largest pipes, 20 notes, required only one pouch to be releathered as someone had done the entire bottom just before we acquired this organ.
I had recently done one so the remaining 19 valves were refaced with new valve leather and the magnets covered with shrink tubing. The other bottom was a total mess, I have stripped it and replace all but six of the pouches, the six were recently done by ourselves. These bottoms, all three, will be replaced this thursday.

Now aside from a few dead notes in the string chests we will finally have an organ that is playable for a concert. This has been my goal for the last two years, but without help from Jack, Brian and Gerry this woud never have been possible. I would like to do a concert this spring, bring in a pro player from the USA or? and spend a bit of money promoting the organ. If this occurs it may well be the "Fairwell to the OB" concert, as I cannot continue with this project by myself and the limited help I get from the above mentioned. We have to get some of the locals interested, how??

My goal when I became President of OVTOS was to preserve/conserve what we thought at the time was the only remaining Warren TO in existence. This we have done, albeit perhaps all we have done is expend a great deal of time and money just postponing the inevitable. At the time we moved from Ottawa to Renfrew there was a lot of interest and a decent volunteer base, but over the years many of the original active members have moved away, or passed on, and at times I feel I have been abandoned with this project. We are close to getting some of the Warren playing, the Vox and Concert flute chests only need about 75 of the small valves installed and we can try playing it, not from the console because there are control problems that have to be resolved, but at least we may be able to finally hear what they sound like.  There are two other chests in the solo that have been converted to receive the  new plug in valves, one is left to do and we could have another 3 ranks playing, a tuba, an oboe and the large scale violin cello. We have about 500 of the valves rebult and tested, and there must be at least another 300 here in my shop that only need testing. So it is not a hopeless endeavor, well maybe.

Several years ago I built a player piano roll player for use on the Kingston steam calliope, where it never was used, so I converterd it to play at the OB, but it needs some cards attached to get it going. This could be used to play the organ for demo purposes before/after concerts. (or for testing?).

We spent somewhere about $15K on the DVD and the projector, and this has never come to fruition. The DVD is mostly finished and all the technoligy is in place. What is lacking is promotion, we need some form of advertising, a rack card and a poster would be a good start, and someone in Renfrew to go to the theatre as needed to run the DVD and do the paper work. Murray, with my blessing, is getting more use out of the projector than we have so far. Also we should make an audio recording of the DVD sound track and be prepared to sell copies of the DVD to the public.

Enough said.

Salut

Ross

Thursday at most at the O'Brien

Ross,
  Hope you and G have a safe trip home. Sorry, we couldn't arrange to get all the snow removed in Ottawa before-hand!
 
I was at the OB today. I pulled up to the parking lot, and only then realized I didn't bring the key for the theatre with me. Crap. Then I remembered the paint place, walked in there, was told Murray was in the theatre...sure enough he was.
 
The bulk of my day was working on the trumpet chest. I tightened the ventil pipe feeding air into the chest and then tried to fix the cyphers. I identified which pipes were cyphering, then off with the relay bottoms to remove dirt.  But no luck there.  I noticed quite the air leak between two ends of the chest (bottoms), so I removed (eventually) all three. One of the chest bottoms was missing a gasket on the end, so I made a gasket and glued same to the chest with some hide glue. This resolved one leak anyway.
 
The entire chest is already wired/plugged into a pod, and so I attempted to fire up each of the remaining trumpets using a test lead.  This was ad-hoc at best. Some pipes came on, then stayed on...hmm. Others didn't spark up at all. So, I figured it best to investigate these issues under your excellent tutoring.
 
I quickly checked the second regulator. With the ventil outlet closed, it has ~6.5" rise. I couldn't see any hole to measure the 6" air pressure, nor turn off the air at the chest, so I wasn't able to perform this task. I did notice that when the ventil outlet it opened, both regulators 'drop' (fall?).
 
At one point, the 7.5 hp motor/fan unit stopped. I thought someone had turned it off on me. But it would appear the on/off switch-breaker tripped.  I restarted the motor, but I did notice the breaker box was warm to the touch (versus the the 6 hp breaker box). Maybe this has happened to you in the past?
 
Well, that's it for now. A little disheartening as I don't have much progress to report.
 
Jack

More antics at the OB

Ross,
   We, my son Ben and I, made it up to the OB today. Our high school kids are finished their term exams, so with some free time it was a good opportunity to show Ben around the OB and get another set of hands working on the theatre organ rebuild tasks. 
 
I'm proud to report we managed to knock off two the three projects you detailed for me a few weeks back, as follows:
 

1. Plastic Nuts installed on Chrysoglotte.  After a few instructions, Ben sat patiently (with his iPod for entertainment), removed, inspected and replaced all the leather nuts on the lower unit. (It was real handy having a hard copy of your instructions nearby for Ben to refer to.)
2. Regulator Reassembly. This was a brute, but I managed to get the regulator reassembled. I purchased a 90-degree attachment for my drill at the local Rona so I could drill pilot holes from inside the wind chest/chamber. I used the trouble-light to check the seal around the regulator/chest surface, and everything looks fine. Next I installed the paddle board assembly, then with Ben's help, we reassembled the top cover by feeding the standoffs, etc through the cover as per your instructions. After reattaching the outlet wind line, I showed Ben how to fire the console up and let him play while I went back into the chamber to check the reassembled regulator's performance. You'll be pleased to know that the regulator height is operating at 6-3/8" (measured from bottom to top surfaces of regulator); AND the outlet wind is exactly 10" (with the ventil value at the trumpet chest closed, 8" when this value is open). Hurrah!

 
Finally, I video-taped Ben playing one song on the organ, and I'll provide a link for this when I have it. 
 
On the way home, a snow-storm hit us and it was so bad that I pulled off the highway in Arnprior to wait it out.  30 minutes later, the bad weather had passed and we were on our way home again.  Ben seemed to enjoy his day, even showing off to his Mom the blister on his thumb from installing the plastic nuts on the Chrysoglotte.
 
Jack

Antics at the O'Brien today

Ross,
  I did manage to get to the O'Brien today. No Murray.
 
I started by putting the regulator back together. Along with my Quik-Grips, I was able to get the wind outlet wooden frame fastened properly. (I remember this part leaking too.)  Then I moved to installing the inside screws, only to realize I didn't have a red-handled Robertson in my tool box...argh!  I managed to locate a proper Robertson screwdriver in the basement and fastened the right-hand side of the regulator from the inside.  It was real hard work. So rather than continue, I figured I'd simply postpone this job, make my lifer easier, and bring a small drill, powered screwdriver and robertson bit and make some proper pilot holes on the inside for my next visit.
 
So I moved on to the other project of replacing the leather nuts on the Chrysoglotte.  This was methodical work, and I didn't break a sweat like with the regulator reassembly.  I checked all the inside nuts and interior leather disks on the top unit, and these items all appear to be in really good shape.  I swapped out only the outside leather nuts with the plastic ones you provided.  I noted that there were already two (larger) plastic nuts on this bank, so I replaced these two with the smaller ones in the bag to keep all the nuts a consistent size.
 
Finally, I sparked up the organ and fooled around for about 20 minutes on the console before heading home.   Pretty neat having the whole theatre to myself and making all sorts of noises!
 
Jack