A Year in Review

This year has been quite a busy year with many accomplishments, least important for this blog is my own accomplishments in my personal life. Those are what have been keeping me from having time to post on here. As a new year approaches, I plan to be posting much more often and will try to post at minimum once a week. If I am not posting that often, feel free to let me know; remind me to post.

January: Work began on Springfield Street Railway car 575 (Montreal Tramways car 2056). Paint was scraped from the sides of the car in hopes to repaint it in Springfield, MA colors. Work was also accomplished on Connecticut Company car 65.

February: The northeast was hammered with snow which really slowed down work at the museum. It was difficult to even access the property.

March: The Main Hall was set up for opening day. The fourth motor was repaired and reinstalled in Montreal Tramways car 2600.

April: The front lawn was cleaned up of miscellaneous materials. Track 1 under the Visitor Center Train Shed was built and ties were replaced in Kelly Yard.

May: The museum received approximately 700 relay ties to be used in the Train Shed and on the main line. Work began on the floor and roof of the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose.

June: Work progressed on the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose. Work also began on the interior of the Reading Caboose. Work began on New Orleans car 836 to turn down the wheel set with a thin flange.

July: Work continued on the Reading Caboose and car 836. In addition, Illinois Terminal car 451 had work continued on it as an Eagle Scout Project.

August: Work on many projects slowed due to planning our special events - Rails to the Darkside, Pumpkin Patch, and Winterfest. New Orleans car 836 still had members working on the wheel sets. At the end of the month, Hurricane Irene hit the museum resulting in the museum being closed for a week.

September: The finishing touches were in the process of being completed on car 836. Repairs were made to the infrastructure after Hurricane Irene. Work was accomplished on the cosmetic restoration of Boston Elevated car 3100. Cars were tarped to protect them from the elements.

October: New Orleans car 836 was returned to service, however, Connecticut Company car 1326 was removed from service due to motor issues. Winter Storm Alfred hit the museum at the end of the month resulting in the museum being closed for its typically two best days of Pumpkin Patch and Rails to the Darkside.

November: Repairs were made to the infrastructure once again. The museum was set up for Winterfest.

December: Work was progressing on the Boston Elevated Railway car 5645 with interior woodwork and motor work. Tarps are going on the Dining Car to protect it from the winter snow. Next year, money will be spent to repair the car.

Catching Up

Its hard to imagine how long it has been since I have last posted. Unfortunately, long hours at work have gotten in the way of my ability to post. But enough about me, I know you are all looking for what has happened at the museum over the past two months!

Train Shed

Tracks 1 and 1A have been completed under the Train Shed of the Visitor Center. Galen Semprebon led the effort with the help of a number of other people to get the track built, temporary trackage from the siding to the storage tracks built, and the cars moved under the Train Shed. Connecticut Company car 1739 and Connecticut Company Work Car 0206 have both been moved under cover on those tracks.

New Orleans Public Service car 836

Work has been steadily progressing on car 836. Pat McCann, our resident machinist, has set up the wheel lathe with a tracing tool, and with the help of Chris Chestnut, has been preparing to make the first cut on the wheels. Yesterday, work has started on the turning of the first wheelset for 836.

Connecticut Company car 1326

While the car was in the shop for its yearly inspection and maintenance, the window sills on the car were sanded down and painted by John Pelletier, our shop foreman.

Springfield Terminal Railway car 16

John Pelletier has milled the wood to replace the floor in the operators area of the car. The floor does have a couple of weak spots that are being monitored. As time allows, the car will be moved to the shop to have the floor in that area replaced, before it becomes an issue. Phil Godeck took the time to remove the trolley hook and replace the support board underneath it. The board was detereorating and needed to be replaced. It was interesting to note, that since the car had returned to service, that hook was installed with the open part facing the wrong direction. This problem was corrected when the support board was replaced.

Illinois Terminal PCC 451

Kevin Mitchell has started to work on car 451 as his Eagle Scout Project. So far, him and his father have begun to sand down one side of the car.

Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Caboose

Work has been ongoing on the caboose. George Contrada and Xian Clere have removed the carpet and particle board that was covering the floor. While this was going on, I spent time on the roof, removing the roofing paper. Unfortunately, the roof was in worse shape than we had suspected and the roof boards will need to be replaced as well.

Track

Last weekend, I led a work crew to replace ties east of Winkler Road. In total, nine ties were replaced. We were able to use car 16 to transport people and tools, and the Tie Handler with a push car to move ties. Throughout the summer, we hope to be able to replace more ties as the time allows.

Library

Peg Hoffman has begun to work in the library cateloging the many books that we have. Meanwhile, a community service volunteer has been organizing the magazines that we have. We were surprised to find that we have quite a few complete sets of different railroad magazines.

Car 154 Emptied

In the early days of the museum, the only interior space was inside the trolleys. So, the cars that were not used for service (because they were unfit to operate, missing components, etc) became storehouses for other smaller materials that we acquired. Unfortunately, some of those materials have considerable weight to them which will stress the cars body. Connecticut Company 0309 (Fair Haven & Westville 154) is one of them that was loaded with overhead parts (insulators, bolts, etc). On Saturday, David Coppola helped me unload the materials stored inside the car onto shelf space inside the Visitor Center Relay Room. The only items left in the car now are parts to the car.

Inside the Visitor Center, Galen Semprebon, Brian Semprebon, and Matty Doane were working on scraping the exterior paint on Montreal Tramways 2056 (Springfield Street Railway 575). The car needs a new coat of paint and the plan is to return the car to Springfield, MA colors. While this will not be a complete restoration at the current time, it is a start in the direction to returning the car to its local history. In order to complete the restoration of the car, it will need an end reduction, because when the car was sold to Montreal Tramways, they extended the ends of the car and reconfigured the operators compartment.

Outside, John Pelletier, with the help of Matty, Galen, and I, was working on the repairs to the operating fleet. The bent pole on Connecticut Company 1326 was straightened and the car was returned to service. The broken retriever on Illinois Terminal 451 was replaced by a rebuilt one found in the Parts Storage Room. The repairs to Montreal Tramways 2600 took a bit longer. There was a squealing noise coming from the number 3 axle. We checked the packing and oiled the Journal Boxes. The temperature of the number 3 axle journals were slightly elevated. When we took it out for a test, the noise was still there. We finally figured out that it was the cause of the armature bearing. The waste in the bearing was failing and not properly wicking the oil. Once we repacked the bearing, the noise subsided. The armature support bearing for the fourth motor has been freed and should be repaired in the next few weeks. Once that is done, the car will be jacked and the motor will be reinstalled in the trucks.

We had another busy night of Winterfest Operation Saturday night with 5 cars out on the main line at one point. With that many cars, there is a slight bottleneck at Hancock Passing Siding. The track with three cars needs to pass through the siding before the track with two cars on it can proceed because the siding is only two cars long.

Car 771 Ready to Move

Unfortunately I was away from the museum this weekend, so I did not get any pictures of work being done. But, after meeting with Galen Semprebon today, I found out that ConnCo 771 (Consolidated Railway 189) is ready to move! The car had been balanced on a set of trucks with blocking between the slider plates. A compromise center bearing was fabricated for each truck and they were installed. The car then had to be jacked and shifted to sit on the center bearing properly and journal brasses were added where they were missing. Next Saturday, I will be getting to the museum bright and early to help Galen move the car off of the Hartman Storage Track. The storage track needs to be cleared and 0309 and 771 need to be moved to the Visitor Center before we start Rails to the Darkside in October.

Up in the Shop, John Pelletier installed a window frame that he rebuilt for ConnCo 1326, replaced the glass in two broken windows, and did some work to the roof so that should be watertight. Next weekend, the Type 5 will be moved to the shop. Missing windows will be replaced on that car and some minor work will take place.

Busy Saturday

There was a lot of work accomplished today at the museum. When I arrived at the museum after I got out of work at 1, Galen Semprebon and John Pelletier were busy working on 1850. Last week, 1850, the Rio de Janeiro breezer, was removed from service when a clanking noise was heard in the number 1 axle. This was being caused by a bent brake beam which resulted in the brakes applying differently on the left and right wheels. The morning was spent straightening the brake beam. I got to work replacing the trolley rope on the number 1 end. The rope that was on the car was frayed in a couple of places and it needed replacing. While looking at the rope on the number 2 end, it was noticed that the trolley catcher was not retrieving properly. This is usually the result of a broken spring inside the catcher. Because we cannot immediately fix the problem, we borrowed a catcher of the same type from one of the Chicago Elevated cars. One thing that must be remembered is that the trolley catchers on car 1850 are not original to the car. When it operated in Rio, bows were used to collect power for operating the car, not trolley poles.

Just outside the shop, Chris Perry was hard at work scraping and sanding the roof of Boston Elevated PCC 3100. The afternoon was plagued with intermittent rain, which we despiritely need. Chris would alternate between working on the roof when it was sunny to working on smaller parts of the car in the shop when it was raining. From talking to him, he hopes to paint the roof on Monday or Tuesday.











Ted Coppola, Matty Doane, and Pat McCann were busy with the backhoe and front end loader cleaning up around the shop again. They were able to clear a whole spot in front of the shop to place the shop storage pod. The storage pod will be used to store oil and other lubricants that should not be stored in the shop. Also, things that are not used often like jacks will be stored in the pod. Pat then came in with the bulldozer to grade the area so the pod would sit level. Next weekend, we should be able to move the pod itself. At that point we will be able to begin moving stuff into it, which will give more room around the cars to work.





The motor was pulled out of Speeder 65594 by George Contrada and David Coppola. The motor will need a complete rebuild.



Finally, at the end of the day, Connecticut car 1326 was moved up to the shop to get some woodwork done on it. Because 1326 is used as the Birthday Car, it is hard to get the car up to the shop for any length of time to do work on it. John removed an upper window frame from the car which was rotten and plans to rebuild it at home this week. Next weekend, the two cracked windows in the car will be replaced as well.