Bank of Commerce, Crossfield, Alberta

When our work at Palliser Square was finished, I went to work with a journeyman and one other apprentice. We were to install a new heating system in the Bank of Commerce at Crossfield, Alberta, a small rural community 25 miles north of Calgary. We drove out every day in a pickup truck from the shop. The Bank building is a two story red brick structure on the corner of Railway Street. The bank already had a hot water heating system, with old cast-iron radiators, and an old low-pressure gas-fired boiler in the basement. We were to install a new boiler and baseboard radiant heaters on the first two floors, but before we did this the old system had to be disconnected and removed. The cast-iron radiators were heavy, but we managed to drag them down the back stairs from the second floor, and out the back door from the main level. The old boiler in the basement was another challenge, as it had been assembled in sections many years ago, and weighed about 800 pounds. The solution to this was to use sledgehammers and break the boiler up into small manageable pieces, seeing that it was all going to the scrap yard. After we had finished stripping out the old system, we started installing the new boiler and copper piping up to the two floors, where radiant baseboard heaters were installed. They were links of copper pipe about 1 inch in diameter, with aluminum fins, 5 inch square, spaced out about 1/4" along the length of pipe, and were covered with a metal shrouding with louvers to let out heat. We also installed zone valves and several thermostats around the building, so heat could be regulated to the users preference in the different offices. I remember we used to go for our coffee breaks up the street at a small Chinese restaurant called the PDQ we didn't know what that stood for, but figured it must be the service that was Pretty Damn Quick. Ha Ha Ha. Well, this job was a nice change of scenery, it was springtime, and the weather was nice that spring of 1968.