[PRCo] PTM move

[Dennis F. Cramer]

    Things went smoothly today as the big move continued with the move of
P&W 209 and Columbus 067.  Mon Valley 3000 was already in place in the back
of the trolley display building on the dual gauge track.  The bullet car was
next to go and Jim Lilly had already had his trailer in place and the ramp
was built when I arrived.  There was a lot of help and good there was as the
track sections for the ramp get heavy after a while and we had to build and
unbuild the ramp at each end of the move.
    A crew of Bruce, Sarah & Laura Wells, Toni DeSensi, Jack Sutherland, Bob
Jordan, Dave Hamley, Chuck & Jason Rompala, Jeff King and myself (if I left
anyone out, I apologize) got the car up on the trailer and then some of us
headed to the new building to prepare for unloading.  Jim Lilly is a master
at lining things up and once the ramp was rebuilt it was time to unload the
car, except for one thing; it would not roll.  Jim backed his cab up to the
coupler of 209 and I held a board to ease the bump and the car rolled half
way off the trailer and stopped again.  This time we hooked a chain to the
other end of the car and pulled it off with a fork lift.  Once it started to
roll this time, it rolled very freely.  Almost too freely as Jeff King had
to floor the forklift and Sarah Wells was cranking the handbrake to stop the
car.  It did and is now in place.

    While we were doing this, the rest of the crew was moving the box cars
out of the way so 067 could be extracted.  Anybody want some boxcars??  We
got back, 067 was untarped and loaded on the truck.  This flatcar with a
center cab was much lighter and got a good sweeping before we went to the
new building.  To put the better of the two sides out to the aisle in the
building, Jim had to back in and then unload.  This car rolled much more
freely than the bullet car and is probably spending its first night indoors
ever.

    Tomorrow they begin moving some of the broad gauge cars and at least
they will not have to go out on the highway.  They will move the cars to a
temporary ramp to load them on the truck to take them to the trolley display
building.

    The Market Street Elevated car,  the West Penn center entrance car and
Red Arrow 07 freight motor are on schedule to go in next.

    The cars seem a lot smaller in this rather huge building.  Bruce told me
it is basically designed to hold 7 50 foot cars on each of 4 tracks.  The
next step of the destination is coming true.

    By the time I get back from eastern PA, this part of the job will be
done, but there is lots more to do.

Dennis F. Cramer--Teacher-Trombonist-Historian-Conductor
www.geocities.com/armconband