July 5, 2011

Hello Everyone

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend. 

We were able to accomplish a few things this past weekend. 

Work continued on the compressor for 355.  Over the past two weeks, the armature and field coils for the compressor were baked to thoroughly dry them out.  Once dry, the tested out well, and work has been done on the banding for both.  Also, the fields had new leads installed. The case is  being worked on with much cleaning being done.  Thanks to John Pelletier and Chris Chestnut for working on this project.

Work is continuing on the setup of the lathe for 836's wheels.  A lot of machining of parts has been completed, and it is hoped that testing will begin this coming weekend.  Pat McCann has been very busy making up the parts with the help of Chris Chestnut.  Pat has also been taking the opportunity to help teach some of our younger members, so many thanks to Pat for his efforts. 

A number of months back, we made a deal to trade one of the electric buses to the Baltimore trolley museum for shipping of trolley wheels from the west coast.  We had two sets (16 wheels) on the west coast for many years that we purchased.  Now the wheels are at the museum and available for use.  We have begun the task of getting the bus moved.  The first step is to load it onto the tag along trailer to move to the parking lot where it will be loaded onto a trailer for shipment.  At this time, the front of the bus has been jacked up and the tag along trailer moved under the front axle.  The next step will be to jack up the rear of the bus to finish loading.  Thanks to Jim Miller and Brian for helping me get it that far.  Also, thanks to Bill Wall from Branford and Bill Pollman from Seashore for their help in trying to get tires on the bus.  Unfortunately, that idea didn't work out the way we had hoped.

I announced a few weeks back the desire to start working regularly on car #65.  This Saturday (July 9) will be the first day of work.  Anyone interested in helping out, please stop on in.  Work will be starting by 9:00 A.M., with the first steps being to get the car cleaned out and the seats removed to allow work on the interior woodwork to commence.  Anyone with experience with woodwork, we also need to work on the roof of the car. 

I expect a lot to be happening at the museum this coming weekend.  Come on down and we can get you helping out in the shop, or on 65.

Galen