[PRCo] PTM Report

[Fred Schneider]

Thought some of you might like to read what has been going on at the
museum.
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Weakly Report of Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Maintenance Activities by
Bruce Wells
October 21, 2003

Progress in the PTM shop has been phenomenal these past three weeks with
two
big successes with Red Arrow 14 and Philadelphia 2711.  Out and about
the
property the work at the east site and the loop project are moving
along.
Public operation and revenue seemed to get a big shot in the arm last
weekend with big crowds for both the pumpkin trolley and the crafts
festival
at the fairgrounds.

As  the photo of 14 showed the paint job has been completed in first
class
fashion.  The work spanned two full weeks with the first spent sanding,
cleaning and preparing the surface as well as the shop. The spray
painting
consumed the entire week of October 6 culminating in the application of
the
burgundy on October 11.  In between there was a continuous stream of
taping,
masking and re-masking.  Huge credit of course goes to Justin Skrbin for
his
dedication to getting the job done and to his crew, Tony DeSensi, Jack
Sutherland, Jeff King Don Lockwood, Frank Reese and the host of members
who
helped along the way.  This past week concentration has been on getting
the
shades prepared and then installed in the windows.

The other focus has been to prepare headlights donated by museum friend
Dave
Biles.  We are working on getting a price for lettering from the sign
painter who applied the numbers to our New Orleans car when it was at
Barr
Cannon for rebuilding.  Other details to be completed in the near future

will be to apply new gang switch appliques to the operator's position
along
with a reproduction Underwriter's Laboratory plate which had been
removed by
a souvenir seeker many years ago.  In the next couple months the
concentration will shift to assembling the trucks and completing the
work
under the car.  In the past couple weeks we took delivery on new edge
wound
control resistors to replace the ones which were found to be beyond
repair
when the rewiring was in progress.  We bought enough of these resistors
to
also repair 24.

On the pit Bernie Orient and Dennis Bockus have been working over the
control system on Philadelphia Transportation 2711.  With careful study
and
inspection the guys determined that about 30 of the resistance ribbons
on
the accelerator were the incorrect value including one really oversize
one
that came from the Red Arrow cars!  For the past few weekends the guys
replaced the offending ribbons.  Late Saturday we took a test run on the
car
with Bernie at the controls and Dennis watching the substation.
Everyone on
board noticed the dramatic improvement immediately with real smooth
acceleration.

Down at the east site the building took final shape with the erection of
the
remaining steel.  The shop is now framed in and the painters are working
on
the I-beams.  When that is done the remainder of the roof and sheathing
can
be applied and the building can be closed in.  Down the line Dave Hamley
is
preparing the RG2 locomotive for loading onto a flatbed truck so that it
can
be moved to the front of the old carbarn for unloading.  This is
scheduled
to happen this coming weekend.  After that Dave will be able to move the

loco close to the shop where the custom drawbar pockets he designed and
braking can be installed so the engine will be available to shift cars
for
the move to the blimp hangar.

That's all for this time.  Be of good cheer, keep smilin' stay safe and
as
always questions are welcome.

Regards to all,
CuZinBruce

photos to follow...