Visit to Seashore

While on vacation I was able to make a brief visit to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport.  This is by no means a general view of the museum, but basically concentrated on two current shop projects.

The first is the interurban car Narcissus from the Portland-Lewiston line, built in 1914 by Laconia.  It is being rebuilt from the ground up.  Most of the structural parts of the car are being replaced.

Below, we see the parts of the new side sill.  On the left is a beam made out of wood salvaged from a local building, which had to be rabbeted and drilled, and which will fit into the steel channel you can see beside it.

And they have the HL control for the car, which has been bench-tested.

Another project which they hope to start on if enough resources are made available will be structural repairs to the Lehigh Valley Transit parlor car 1030.  This car was built as Indiana Railroad 55, and was similar to our 65.  When the Indiana quit in 1941, this car was bought by LVT and heavily modified.  It's the only other surviving IRR lightweight.

The 55 was built by ACF instead of Pullman, and was always a parlor car.  When LVT modified it, they removed the couplers, as you can see, since it could not train with anything else.  They also had to add a couple of doors for their operating requirements.  It will, of course, remain in its LVT configuration.

The interior is quite nice.

And on our way out I noticed that the old elevated switch tower was open -- I don't think I'd ever been inside it before.   But I can remember watching them lift this tower off the structure with a huge crane and then lower it onto a barge in the Charles River below -- back in 1976.  You don't see that every day.

Inside there are some displays about the Boston elevated.

And thanks again to the guys in the shop who were very friendly and helpful!