[PRCo] Arden Progress Report

[Fred Schneider]

For those interested in the progress at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum:

1.  The contractor working on the new "display barn" at the museum's
East Site was framing doors at the end of last week.  Sides and roof are
up.  The four track barn will hold about twice as many cars as the first
three track car barn.  All of the junque that is now under tarps should
be under roof by next summer. The public will no longer have to ride
through a tunnel of baggies.   This is the fist of two major buildings
planned for the east site.  The other is the visitor's center / theater
/ library / and a display barn where the public can see the more
important cars that are not in revenue service ... such as the horse
car, the P&W Bullet, a Market-Frankford subway car, the PST freight
motor, possibly one of the West Penn 700 series bodies, and so forth.

2.  Justin Skerbin and company have finished the inside of Philadelphia
Suburban #14 and on Saturday were getting close to finishing the
protective masking for spray painting the outside of the car.  Because
the weather is turning cold, Justin is attempting to finish the painting
job in another two weeks.  Motors have been rebuilt; trucks are off site
for rebuilding.

3.  Next car in the chute for Justin's magic is Pittsburgh double-end,
low-floor 4398.

4.  Bernie Orient was working under PTC 2711, replacing all of the
accelerator resistance ribbons that SEPTA changed in the "General
Overhaul Program" with new ribbons of the correct resistance.  The chart
I was shown indicates that about 1/4 of the ribbons had been altered
from factory specifications, which may or may not indicate why the car
never ran right.

5.  All the wire is up over the East Site loop; rail has yet to be
installed.  The original plan was to have (allegedly) the loop finished
this year.  I'm skeptical.  But the light at the end of the tunnel is a
PCC car turning around at both ends of the line and the abolition of the
awkward backing of single end cars over a two-mile long railroad.