What Are These?

This pair of trucks arrived on a flatbed today, direct from the North Pole, I suppose. I have no idea what they go to. Each truck has one traction motor geared to an axle, with a chain drive between the axles, as you may be able to see. Identify them correctly and they're yours! (to work on, that is...)

It was a beautiful winter day with frost on the trees and wires. Just right for working inside in a heated room.

So I did some more surface prep and put a final coat of primer on spots that needed it. Next time will be the finish coat on this, the last section of the wall yet to be painted.

And I put some filler on the ceiling part of the bulkhead, sanded and cleaned it, and put on white primer. Most of the ceiling is in very good shape and will only need cleaning and repainting.

And I spent some hours stripping paint in the vestibule. This may give you an idea of what the original Pullman Green paint looks like.



I might point out that the Jewett cars were built with cab doors, like the North Shore cars have. Here we're looking up towards the ceiling over the motorman's position, and you should be able to make out the upper bulkhead sections. I believe these were the only cars delivered with this feature, and the road decided the cab doors were unnecessary and removed them. The latches on the posts are still in place, but I forgot to take a picture of them.

And here's the other side of the ceiling.

Over in Barn 2, Bill Greenhill was working on the Cleveland PCC. He said he was planning to put primer on the entire blind side of the car later today, and if no imperfections were found, it would then be ready for a first finish coat.


Mr. Socks was wandering around. He's lucky -- he gets a new fur coat every year. He's quick and rather camera shy, so this was the best I could do today.




The frost on the trees had evaporated by later in the day.





With regret we note that our old friend Bill Young died last week. He was primarily a member of the Branford Trolley Museum, but was well-known throughout the museum community and traveled around quite often. He came to IRM several times to help with track work and other projects. He will certainly be missed.
The IRM and friends track team in 1978: (L to R) Jim Blower, Bill Young from Branford, Josh Leppman from Baltimore, and Ralph Weege. Photo by Tom Hunter.