Connecticut Company: Ponemah Mills 1386

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Opening Next Weekend!

A lot was accomplished in the Visitor Center, most of it relating to painting and displays.

George Contrada worked on replacing broken windows in the New York Ontario & Western Caboose. Galen Semprebon meanwhile put up boards to prevent patrons from climbing up the ladders on the caboose.

In front of the caboose, the Ponemah Locomotive received some much needed paint on the interior and the trucks. Brendan Slane worked on finishing the painting of the interior floor and wire brushed & painted the trucks of the locomotive.

Fair Haven & Westville car 154 looks like a totally different car. The entire car has been painted with the exception of the lower area on one side where we need to preserve the original "CONNECTICUT" lettering. The trim has been painted as well. Galen took on this project and his son Brian assisted in some of the painting.

I have nearly finished the platforms to get into car 10 and the caboose. I will have to come in some night this week to finish them totally as we open on Friday.

On the other side of the parking lot, the Fire Museum is also almost ready to open. The fire trucks have been re-arraigned in the main hall and the lobby has been changed around. Gone is the old gift shop counter and display cabinet. The floor still needs to be cleaned better, but the fire sleigh is now located inside the lobby of the Fire Museum.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

New Exhibits

A lot has been accomplished during the off season! Inside the Visitor Center, work has been accomplished on the Ponemah locomotive, car 10, car 2056, and car 154.

Roger Pierson, Matt Januska, and Larry Lunden were able to do some paint scraping on Montreal Tramways 2056 which will be restored to Springfield Street Railway 575. This will be an ongoing restoration during the operating season.

Painting of the interior of the Ponemah Mills locomotive 1386 and Springfield Electric Railway car 10 has been accomplished using community service volunteers.

Galen Semprebon has been working on painting the trim work on Fair Haven and Westville car 154.

Tim Lesniak and Brian Semprebon have been working on building viewing platforms for car 10, the Ponemah locomotive, and the bobber caboose.

Roger, Larry, and Matt also took on the project of locating replacement parts for the vandalized cars.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier is busy buttoning up the work on Springfield Terminal Railway car 16.

Behind the scenes, Carol Zenczak is hard at work planning the Wine and Beer Tasting; Morgan vonEisengrein with the BBQ on the Line; and Marilyn Rodriguez is working on the planning of the Isle of Safety restoration.

About this Site

"Connecticut Company" is NOT an official blog of the Connecticut Trolley Museum. The articles posted within this site are the views of the contributors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization.

This blog site is named after the original Connecticut Company or ConnCo, which ran trolleys throughout Connecticut from 1910 to 1948. ConnCo was a subsidy of the New Haven Railroad. By 1948, ConnCo converted all trolley operation to buses, and the era came to a close in Connecticut.

However, eight years prior, in 1940, the Connecticut Electric Railway Association was formed in an effort to preserve a streetcar from Hartford. In 1941, CERA saved its first car, ConnCo 65 from the scrapper. When trolley service ended in 1948, CERA saved 7 more ConnCo cars.

Today, the Connecticut Trolley Museum is the oldest incorporated museum dedicated to railway preservation in the country. Although not the largest, CTM's has a collection covering many of the major types of trolley cars including streetcars, interurbans, elevated cars, and work cars from the Northeast, Midwest, Deep South and Internationally as well.