May 10, 2008

Hi everyone:

The restoration crew has been busy these past couple months getting displays ready for the Spring opening of the museum and working towards adding cars to our operating fleet.

In the visitor center one of our newer members has worked hard to get the lights going inside car 5645. Having the lights on make all the difference in how the display of this car is viewed by our visiting public.

A crew from the shop spent a day cleaning out years of stored materials from inside Cleveland center entrance car 1201. The car was literally filled to the tops of her seats. She is the first car people see when they enter the visitor canter and now they can be allowed to go inside this fine example of a large city car.

The crew working on car 36 continue with their scraping and painting. Gradually this beauty will emerge to be a glowing example of one of our earliest trolley cars. This work can be tedious and long, but rewarding and we welcome anyone who would like to help on this project. We are hoping later this year to be able to make the replacement chipped glass windows to replace the cracked and broken ones in her clerestory. We will document the production of this glass here on our web site when we make this glass.

In the shop work has started on the motors for Boston type 5 number 5645. The first motor is apart, the castings have been sandblasted and coils are in the process of having new leads attached and baked. It is hoped that we will have this first motor completed in the next few weeks. The second and third motors are in the process of being torn down to follow this first motor. We have started to set up to machine the new motor support bearings. We will have to throw the axles up in our big lathe and polish the bearing surfaces prior to the final machining of the bearings. Danny Cohen of Seashore Trolley Museum has donated new springs for the brush holders for this car. This is much appreciated and welcome to finishing up this car for return to public service.

Car 355 continues to progress towards a return to public service. Bill Wall of the Shoreline Trolley Museum obtained for us enough wool waste to repack the bearings on the trucks. We suspect that the intermittent hot boxes we are getting is caused by the cotton waste we used having been treated with chemicals which retarded the wicking action from delivering sufficient oil to the journal surface. We have repacked the journal boxes with the new waste. We had one successful run late Saturday and will continue more test runs this coming weekend to see if this has resolved our problems. If successful, we will be able to finish up the remaining items to clear this car for public service.

These past few months have been busy. Now that we are into warmer weather more work should be happening. We will keep this site more up to date as we have done in the past. Look for updates to happen more often.

Chris Chestnut and Galen Semprebon

 May work session photos on Cars: 36 -355-5645

and 1201 (general section)

wish to contact Chris or Galen at the restoration shop?

 restore@ct-trolley.org 

Pick your favorite trolley car (to the left) and follow along with the restoration effort or volunteer a little of your time for some "hands on" restoration. We'd love to expand our restoration crew to include you... it is a magnificient opportunity to drop back in time, to walk in your Great-Grandfathers boots for awhile as our ancient trolleys are nursed back to a life, long forgotten.

Interested in lending a hand? Contact the Museum and set up a visit...

 restore@ct-trolley.org