After the travelling school car education program was abandoned in 1967, the CN School Car was thought to be lost until it turned up, in rather poor condition, in a CN rail yard in Toronto. Through negotiations and subsequent purchase by the town, the car eventually found its way to its current location in Clinton.
In 1982, a group of dedicated citizens and volunteers worked on repairing and refurbishing the car to its original state (both inside and out) and turned it into a wonderful memorial and museum, which to this day is still run by a group of dedicated curators and volunteers. The first curator of the museum was the Slomans’ daughter, Margaret, who still lives in Clinton, just up the street from Sloman Memorial Park where their once “family home” now sits on a piece of specially constructed railway track.
Upon entering and touring the School Car, it is amazing to think that Fred and Cela lived and raised a large family AND ran a school program in such a relatively small space, given that for the majority of the year, they were essentially nomads in the remote northern Ontario wilderness, far from civilization.