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.

Set Up of Visitor Center

The set up in the Visitor Center has continued. Galen & Brian Semprebon were able to move the remaining cars in place. We will wait until after Cabin Fever Days to move the Bobber Caboose inside since we will need that space for people to congregate during the event. Larry Lunden continued to sweep up after the mess that is created when we are working in the Visitor Center. While this doesn't seem like a glamorous or helpful job, it is something that NEEDS to be done and many of us don't have the desire to do this after a days work. Thank you Larry for doing this!

Roger Pierson and Matt Januska continued to work on Springfield Street Railway car 575 (Montreal 2056) removing paint. When they are done, we will be able to repaint it in Springfield, Mass colors.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier has been working on Springfield Terminal Railway car 16.

In the background, JF Smith has been working on a NEW handout for this coming season as well as the next series of Trading Cards!

Paint Removal

Much progress was made on Montreal Tramways car 2056, or should I say Springfield Street Railway 575 (which is what the car will be repainted as), by Roger Pierson, Matt Januska, and Larry Lunden. They spent time throughout the day yesterday scraping paint off of the car with Roger working on the car the whole day! While they were working on the side of the car, I was able to remove the dash for the lights on the end of the car on the east end. This was added on by Montreal and was not part of the car when the car was run in Springfield, MA. While doing this, I noticed that the base of the center end window was rotted and crumbling, so I removed that as well. Hopefully I can find someone who is skilled in woodworking that has time to remake the end window.

I also spent some time working on removing two of the broken windows in Springfield Terminal Railway car 10. The glass will need to be replaced in the windows and then reinstalled. Larry cleaned out the car from what was left inside it after Rails to the Darkside.

Galen Semprebon spent the afternoon working on cars 1201 and 154. Inside Cleveland car 1201, Galen repainted the floors and the conductors stand. Both were well worn. On the other side of the hall, Galen removed some of the aluminium that was covering the clerestory windows on Fair Haven & Westville car 154 and primed the exterior of the clerestory.

George Contrada, Ted Coppola, Dave Coppola, and Brian Semprebon started to dismantle load the Winterfest layouts into the trailers.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier was busy working on Springfield Terminal Railway car 16. He is currently replacing a section of roof that was rotted above the motorman in the baggage compartment.

John Gasper with some help from other Fire Museum members were able to remove the alternator from the Bucket Truck which will be rebuilt. Next season we should have a fully functional Bucket Truck.

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.

Paint Chips

Today, Xian Clere and I met at the museum to work on Springfield Street Railway 575 (Montreal Tramways Car 2056). We were able to scrape more of the Montreal white off of the car on the north side. Xian also worked on the west end of the car. It is amazing at the sizes of some of the chunks of paint that are breaking off. We will have to do some repair work to the panels on the car before the car is painted, because there are areas in the base of the panels that have rotted away.



While we were scraping the paint on the side of the car, we noticed some bolt heads extending out the side of the body around the area of the rivets. It is apparent the bolts were added after the car was painted last because they have no paint on them and do not show signs of aging. When I went inside the car, I was able to determine that the bolts were holding the seat frames in place. The original screw holes were rounded out, so it appears the bolts were installed to take the place of the screws. The inside panels will need to be repaired so that the seats can be attached to the wall the way they were originally intended. Then the outside panels can be repaired prior to painting.


Xian also spent some time getting the hy-rail out from behind the snow pile. It is not likely that we will need to use it during the winter, however, it is good to have it accessible just in case.

Visitor Center Clean Up

Saturday was a busy day in the Visitor Center. Many volunteers banded together to take the Winterfest decorations down. The village inside Wildwood Open Car 36 was taken down and boxed up. The decorations inside the window displays and on the cars were disassembled; trees were taken down. George Morris, Sheila Numrych, Paul & Duanne Gallo, Matt Januska, Carol Zenczak, Brian Semprebon and others helped in the Visitor Center.

The major accomplishment was the dis-assembly of the G Gauge table and moving of the Northern far enough into the Visitor Center for Fair Haven & Westville 154 to enter the Visitor Center. This would allow Connecticut Company 771 (Consolidated Railway 189) to be moved back under the Train Shed. Will Yungk helped me with this project. We moved the Northern with a "car-walker" (see picture to right). When we went to move car 154, we used a come-along with a chain attached to a truck on the Northern as an anchor. The axles on car 154 do not turn very well, which makes it difficult to move. Unfortunately, as we began to move 154, the come-along handle broke and we could not find another that would work. With the car moved only 6 inches, the door would no longer close to the Visitor Center. It took us a while, but we were finally able to move the car back outside to close the door.

On the Restoration side, John Pelletier was hard at work on Connecticut Company Car 65. He was busy most of the day scraping the operators compartment on the west end of the car. He was also able to clean up and reinstall a few pieces of trim molding.


Next to car 65, Xian Clere and Galen Semprebon were working on stenciling the numbers on Springfield Street Railway Car 575 (Montreal Tramways Car 2056). We were able to get a very good stencil of the numbers of the car. Next we will be able to continue with the scraping of the car to prepare it for painting. The car will be repainted in Springfield (MA) colors, where the car originally ran.

Paint Scrapings

Yesterday, I was able to stop down at the CTM during my lunch at work to scrape some more paint off of a panel on the north side of the Montreal Tramways Car 2056/Springfield Street Railway Car 575. While looking through the layers scraped off, it is apparent that there were some repairs made to the side of the car at one point with a bondo type substance. Most of the work seen in the pictures has been done by Galen Semprebon and Xian Clere.

Looking at the numbers closely, one can see the original numbers on the car. The white paint is the Montreal paint colors. We are scraping down to the yellow/gold which was the Springfield (MA) Street Railway colors. Between the red '2' and the '0', a red '5' is faintly visible on the yellow paint. After the '0', we have uncovered the '7' and on the right edge of the picture, another 5 is barely discernible. We plan to trace the numbers and then see if we can uncover the numbers better and trace them again.

The picture on the right is a date that Xian uncovered (7-10-53) with an word above it starting with "NA". Above that on a lower layer of paint is a date in 1949. This is located on the left side vestibule door side post on one end of the car. Any thoughts?

Beneath the Layers

Work continued on Montreal Tramways Car 2056 (former Springfield Street Railway Car 575) Saturday in the Winter Shops (the Visitor Center). Galen Semprebon and Xian Clere worked on scraping more paint off of the car. While scraping by the left side door post on one end, Xian found some dates painted onto the car (a different date on each layer of paint). The word above it unfortunately was not discernible. Does anyone know what that date may be signifying? We were thinking that it could be the date each time the car had a major overhaul. Xian and Galen were also able to remove enough layers of paint to find the size and font of the car number when it was in Springfield livery. Before any more paint is scraped, we will trace the number. Once the car is completely scraped, it will be painted back in the Springfield Street Railway colors.

John Pelletier, meanwhile, was busy working on car 65 (Connecticut Company). The pieces on the end of the car are starting to come together.

I directed my own attention to tearing down the G Gauge tables. With winter upon us, I want to get the cars that are under tarps back into the Visitor Center as soon as possible. In order to do that, I need to pull down the G Gauge tables because they are taking up the track space that we need. I was able to pull all of the sheets off the table, but time was not on my side. George Contrada and Ted Coppola were busy working on the layout that we will be taking to the Amherst Railway Society's Big Railroad Hobby Show at the end of the month.

Car 451's Christmas Present

Car 451 (Illinois Terminal PCC) received a wonderful Christmas Gift this year, a winter inside. On Thursday evening, Dave Coppola, David Lesniak and I moved car 451 from its home on the North Road Lay-Up to the rear of Track 1 of Kelly Car Barn.


It has been the plan to move car 451 into a barn for a while, however, there was always the question of where to put it. At 50'5", the 1949-built PCC is a very long car. This can create some problems when trying to fit it into the barn with other cars. Over the summer, I cleared the back wall of Kelly Car Barn track 1. By doing this and pairing the car with car 1850 (Rio de Janeiro open), the car will fit in the barn with about 4 feet to spare. This, however, required something else to move. At that point, Xian Clere and Galen Semprebon helped me move car 2600 (Montreal Tramways) up to the shop. Due to the recent snowfall, this proved to be a much more difficult task than originally envisioned. Car 2600 got stuck going up the hill twice: first, climbing the hill paralleling Kelly Car Yard; and second, on Lusa Car Yard track 2 just outside the shop. After digging the car out multiple times and using sand, we were able to finally get 2600 into the shop.









Inside the Visitor Center, John Pelletier was busy working on two projects. On Montreal Tramways Car 2056 (Springfield Street Railway Car 575), John finished scraping one panel of the exterior of the car and primed the panel. It is expected that by the time we open in the Spring, the car will be repainted. On Car 65 (Connecticut Company), John finished fitting a piece of molding along the roof line.

Although work usually slows down in the off season, we will still be working hard as we have a lot of projects that can be done in the Visitor Center.