Ode to an Interurban

Frank writes...

I was able to return to IRM on Sunday afternoon for North Shore Day, when the museum commemorated the 50th anniversary of the abandonment of the North Shore.  Chuck Amstein took better photos than I did, and those are in a post below.  There was a lot of neat stuff happening.  The Electroliner was open (and air-conditioned!), available for people to walk through; MD car 229 emerged once again from the barn and was spotted at 50th Avenue for much of the day; streetcar 354, which is not currently operational but has been the focus of recent fundraising, was spotted in front of Barn 4; and there were two North Shore interurban trains operating, a "green train" and a Silverliner train.

It was a great event; maybe in a few years we can do something vaguely like this for the 60th anniversary of the abandonment of the CA&E.  We did commemorate the 50th anniversary back in 2007, but at the time we only had two-and-a-half CA&E cars available for passengers (the 309 was undergoing interior work).  We've got far more than that now though!

I spent most of my time working on the 205, which has been neglected of late as we'd been getting ready for the Trolley Pageant.  I finished sanding down the side of the car (below), so once it's dusted off it is now ready for its final coat of orange.  I also spent a few hours in the shop cutting out stencils for the letter board. That job is done as well; I still need to do the number stencils and the "PSC Co" stencils for over the doors, but that can be done later.

And finally, another one of those "not every day" photos: a 3/4 view of the rear of the Kansas City PCC, a view normally obscured by the 354.  Frank Sirinek has taken on this car as his next project and has already restored most of the interior, including refurbishing seat frames, rebuilding window mechanisms, replacing the fogged SEPTA Lexan windows with correct-type two-pane KCPS windows, and backdating fixtures at the motorman's position to original appearance as needed.  Current work includes the back windows and painting the ceiling.