[PRCo] Fwd: Seashore Trolley Museum * News about Bob Hughes

[Schneider Fred]

I am not sure if any of you know this man or not.   Bob Hughes was  
the foreman at SEPTA's Elmwood Shops (now retired) and he is also a  
trustee at Seashore Trolley Museum.   Lives in Philadelphia.   It was  
discovered he had a stroke when he failed to show up several months  
ago for a regular board meeting in Maine; someone was then dispatched  
to his home in Philadelphia and found him lying unable to move.     
The message about Bob's mailing address at the rehab center came to  
me from Peter Folger in Biddeford, Maine.
I add with a smile that Bob was the source of trolley poles for  
museums all over the east.   Seems that the SEPTA Kawasaki cars are  
so high that the very slightest bend in a trolley pole (you would  
think it is straight) renders it unfit for continued service in the  
subway.   Aren't consultants wonderful who design cars that high?    
So they remove poles that are almost straight and SEPTA through Bob  
became the source for all the Museums.   Baltimore had a truckload.    
So did PTM.   When someone managed to bend one double on our Birney  
in Manheim ... yup the replacement was a used SEPTA pole.  I suspect  
Seashore probably has a box car load of used poles.   Now this is a  
good deal because trolley poles are not your ordinary piece of  
pipe ... they're tapered and very expensive.   Seems to me I was told  
four figures.  We all knew Bob.   I got to know him when he was on my  
car in Baltimore one day.   Several years later I went on a parts run  
to Elmwood Shops for a used track switch resistor for PTM.  He has  
been a good friend to a lot of us in the museum industry.

>
>
> Hello all:
>
> As most of you know Robert F. (Bob) Hughes, retired SEPTA manager,  
> had suffered a stroke awhile back.  Overall he has been doing well  
> and seems to be in great spirits to all whom I have spoken with and  
> in my conversations with him.
>
> YouTube's Bob: Repairing flat wheels on PCC cars.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5AnaAdmVg
>
> He most recently on Christmas Eve. came down with a bad cold and  
> curtailed some calls.
>
> Further he has been sent to a new Rehabilitation address and has a  
> new phone number, etc.
>
> Angela Jane Rehabilitation
> 8410 Roosevelt Blvd.
> Phil. Pa 19152
> Tel. # 215-708-1200 ext 384
>
>