Three Weeks To Go

Frank writes...

In contrast to the lovely weather on Saturday, Sunday was rainy and unseasonably cool, with a high in the upper 50s. Things were busy in the car shop, though - there are only three weeks until the "70 for 70" trolley pageant!

For my part, I worked in further sprucing up the 18 prior to its public debut. It acquired its first two two-digit numbers almost exactly two years ago, and Sunday I applied the other four. It got two car numbers on the blind side and one on each end.

So there you go - that's an improvement! I also applied a little more Bondo to the drop section in the middle of the blind side, which is one of only two areas below the belt rail still in need of fresh grey paint. The other section includes the doors, and panel in between them, on the right side of the car.

Meanwhile, attention is being devoted to the cars on the "70 for 70" list that haven't run in a while. Among these is SEPTA 55, our 1927 Broad Street Subway car, which hasn't had 600 volts on it since 2011 as near as we can figure. Nick, Greg, and Mikey spent a while "waking it up" and although it didn't motor because it's stuck behind a line of 'L' cars, it sequenced properly and the brakes work.

Here's the inside of the 55. It looks rough, but in reality it's in fairly good condition - just chock full of spare parts from sister car 126, which we scrapped. Admittedly, just about every square inch of the thing, both inside and out, needs to be stripped and repainted. But it's complete, solid, and at this point it's the only Broad Street car in preservation that's operational. Come out on July 1st to see for yourself.

A non-"70 for 70" related project is the F305, which Joel has been working on making into an interesting display piece. The interior of this sweeper is complete, original, and (uncharacteristically for IRM) largely empty. So Joel has rigged up some timer-equipped lighting and sourced a Plexiglas "wall" so that the center door can be left open for visitors to peer through. Soon, we'll add a sign describing how the various pieces of equipment inside this thing work.

And here's the view looking the other way. You know, what we really need is a mannequin we can dress in an overcoat to be leaning out that window to watch the plow blade. We have a couple of female mannequins on hand but none that are suitable... anyone have a spare lying around?

There was plenty of other activity - Dan and Richard were working on an air valve for the 65, Bob was working on contactors for the Class B, and the Electroliner crew were hard at work on their train. Tim was making his usual rapid progress on the 1808 and pointed out that the answer to Saturday's mystery question is shown here: roof saddles! Almost every other trolley museum calls these cleats, but we call them saddles, because we don't bend to peer pressure. Or something.

Finally, on a sad note, I'd like to recognize the death of Donald Curry of the Seashore Trolley Museum over the weekend. He was the head of the shop at Seashore for decades and was a true icon of the trolley museum community. I didn't know him well but worked with him on one or two projects of joint interest between IRM and Seashore and it was always a pleasure to talk with him. His loss will be keenly felt in Kennebunkport and beyond.