Museum's Transportation exhibit gets significant donation

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice, with notes from Elwin Eddy and Farley Wuth

1929 Chev Coach, KBPV Curator Farley Wuth, Ray Degan, Elwin Eddy
C. Davis photo

     On Monday, November 14 the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village received a significant donation from Elwin and Marlene Eddy, Jim Eddy Junior, and Deborah Vogel (Eddy) in the form of a 1929 Chevrolet Coach automobile. The escape vehicle of choice for prohibition-era gangsters, this was one of the fastest production machines of its era, and also one of the sturdiest.  It was propelled by General Motors' first 6-cylinder overhead valve engine, and had GM's first steel disc rims. Old-timer's of the day said they would never buy a car without spokes, particularly in this area, as the winds might blow it off the road.
 

1929 "Eddy" Chevrolet Coach
C. Davis photo

      Elwin and his father Jim Eddy purchased the car from the original owner George E. Searle in Calgary in 1962 for $100.00.  Searle, a former rancher, stored the car in his leaky Calgary garage for 10 years, and turned the engine over 10 times a week, with the crank, to prevent it from seizing.  When Elwin and Jim bought it, it had only a little over 20,000 original miles on it.  It presently has 31,193 miles on it.  The car suffered some damage from Searle's leaky garage.  Most of the wood in the roof and both door frames were rotten.  Unfortunately, the main door posts were too damaged to get a good pattern from them, and the replacements are therefore as close as the Eddy's could estimate.  Elwin and Jim had to get the stale gas out of the tank, the gas lines, the carb, etc.  According to Elwin very little else was needed, except for new oil in the motor, transmission, and rear end, and a new covering for the roof.





^The 1929 "Chevy Escape Song" 
Recorded By Frank Hutchison on a cylinder device, July 9, 1929.

Elwin's grandparents and then his parents Jim and wife Vera Eddy owned the Burmis Gas Station and General Store from 1925 to 1976.  They took the car to most of the parades in the Crowsnest Pass and Pincher Creek, using a trailer to haul it on longer trips  to places like Fernie B.C.  It won first prize in the 1963 Pincher Creek Parade.

The car will now be a permanent part of Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village's new "Gasoline Row" exhibit, situated between the Beere Hall and the Community Gardens, a fitting part of a new area of the grounds dedicated primarily to the 1920's.  It joins Ray Degan's Model T and Model A in the newly built garage situated there.  As a bonus, the 1929 Chev came with lots of spare parts and tyres.

There's no prohibition on admiration when it comes to this car
C. Davis photo

Additional source:
www.archive.org/details/Chevrolet