Getting started again

 It's been a while since last year at this time when we had the picnic.  This photo was taken on September first of 2022.

July-Starts with Volunteers' 4th of July Picnic

Motormans' Contest was a highlight of the day

 July 9th was a bright cloudy day with Pittsburgh 4145 and 4398 in service.

Our Horsecar is getting a horse thanks to the generosity of our friends at Lowry's Western shop on Henderson Avenue and Prime Collision Center of  the Washington Auto Mall.  An artist will be following on with the final coloring based on extensive research by Sarah.

December 2021 @ PTM

 December @ PTM Blog

 

 

The month started out covering the work that Ralph is doing on the retired SEPTA bucket truck 9974, which served the Red Arrow lines during the 80s and 90s.

 

 

 

When Ralph started the project the floor of the truck's cab was  a real 'Fred Flintstone' special.  Removal of the floor mats revealed the real scope of the decay.

December 1. Ralph started by cutting out the rocker panel/sill and completely replacing it with a piece of channel.

 

 

December 1, Jeff and Beau placed new light fixtures at the entrance to the Archives and offices at the Reliance building.

Back at the Bucket Truck on Monday December 2 Ralph works to weld the new metal into the driver side.

By the end of the week the driver's side was completed.

 

 

Saturday the sunny clear weather provided an opportunity to get some photos of the Santa Trolley event.

Lots of staff and volunteers were on hand, with

 By December 6 Ralph had started on the passenger side of the cab floor

 December 7 Ralph drove the forklift and Art directed from the ground and they worked all day to rearrange racks, tooling, tooling cabinets and machines in the area of the Reliance shop  to clear around the huge milling machine that was included as part of the deal when the building was purchased.

December 7, I mounted a Skyscan clock that I donated near the east doors of the shop area of the Reliance building.

 

 

December 10, I had Ralph pose next to the bucket truck after he finished the work and coated the floor with bed liner compound.  He also repaired a rust hole in the bottom of the door on the passenger side as well as a crack in the fender behind the door.  The line crew has express their sincere appreciation of his efforts.

 

  

 

 

 

 

December 11 I capped off my coverage of the landscaping by our neighbors with these photos of the grass growing on the embankment.

 

 

 

 

December 12, I finally got around to making a circle of thin oak-like plywood for the Pennsy Station clock that was rescued from destruction years ago by PTM Founder 

RH Brown.  Barrie is refinishing the clock box, Kim F. is restoring the original dial and John H. is working hard on a movement for the clock.

This is a work in progress so that the clock will be ready for mounting in the new Visitor and Education Center at the East Campus. 

 

The clock was originally readable from either side.  Unfortunately that was altered at some point so the back of the case needed a circular cover, the diameter of the face.  This was accomplished in the shop on December 12 using a time honored pivot and band saw fixture that Bruce fabricated.

 

PTM October 2021

PTM Blog October 2021

 

The fourth quarter started (October 1) with a Friday night event sponsored by the Sarris Library in Canonsburg.  It was a family event featuring super heroes and comic themed stations.  The photo above shows the super hero costumed leaders giving little ones "Super Hero Training" in the PTM Events Room.

In the events room cartoonist Joe Wos took requests from the kids and drew their favorite animal.

At the Wexford Station a caricature artist made beautiful drawings for each of the families that dropped by.

October 3 finds our young volunteers getting the PTM float ready for the Pumpkin Festival Parade that kicks off the annual event in Houston PA, just up the Washington interurban line from Meadow Lands.   The first step was to load the Sheetmetal Workers Union low floor model from its usual location in the aisle of the display building.  Laura Wells led the effort with help from CJ Bick, Beau Miller, Sarah Wells and Jeff King.  

Sarah took a photo of Dad sitting in the car to prove that I came to help too (taking pics).

The following day ballast spreading commenced using Boston Elevated Ry hopper dump car 3618 on the freshly built and wired Trolley Street trackage.  The rock was delivered to the parking lot area next the streetcar line along the pond near McClane School Loop.  Larry Lovejoy operated the dump car with the assistance from George Greenbaum, Kate Imler and Dan Bower, while the work on the ground spreading ballast was primarily handled by the crew from Frontier Track Constructors and Track Source.

Next door our neighbors at Range Resources have donated the low land area below their buildings to the Museum giving us a green space along our line between County Home siding and Enterprise Wye.  The photo shows work progressing on the Range property to expand the horizontal space on the property on North Main Street.

 

October 7 I took this photo of the new entrance door at the Archives and offices at the Reliance building.  The new door enables easier access and greater security.  I used this photo for the Q2 Support-a-Trolley insert.  

  

The weekend of the Pumpkin Festival found the Wells Family setting up and tending to the PTM table at the East Penn Trolley Meet at the Agri-Plex in Allentown. 

  

At the same time the work was wrapping up with landscaping of our neighbor’s property.  The filling and grading required a steady stream of dump trucks bringing fill.  It looks like there is now a stockpile of fill for further work.

By October 19 the tamping first round was largely completed.  The track is now being given time to settle before further ballast and tamping are applied.

   

October 21 brought a couple of tornadoes through the area with one destroying a home just to the north on Hickory Ridge Road.

Sometime around October 22 President Biden did his part to make Trolley Museums more visible when he announced economic stimulus at our fellow Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton Pennsylvania.

October 23 the side dump car was brought out to fortify the ballast on the sides of the track and the GE 25 ton diesel was run back and forth to settle the ballast.  At about this time the first electric car to operate over the tracks was West Penn 832.

Next on October 23 I drove up to the Reliance parking lot to see where the abandoned sewage pumping building has been demolished during the month.  The freshly seeded plot has 4398 in the background having just entered County Home siding inbound to Richfol.

Thursday October 28 Ralph Ciccone and I spent the day moving machines out of the parts room to Reliance in order to free up space for Christmas decorations.  The machines had been stored at the old RCA factory on the second floor until we were required to remove all of our stuff from the building last Fall.  

The machines included a woodworking mortiser (cuts square holes) a jointer, an abrasive cut-off saw and a dedicated dust collector.  The drill in the photo was a donation from a friend of the museum's in Penn Hills. 

We then turned our attention to the items moved to the floor of Aisle 1 at the TDB which were stored between the Beaver Valley snow sweeper and subway car 606.  We moved the retired turnstiles and automated ticket machines donated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation which operates the Lindenwold line in southern NJ.  There was also a variety of other items on the floor including a large outdoor water fountain purchased from the 1992 Columbus World Fair in Ohio. 

We returned to the TDB and used the recently reactivated 'Blue Giant' lift to move the massive bronze display boards that were donated by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.  We were finally then able to move the partition wall units and lactation room furniture so that the aisle could be opened up for the view from front to back.

The following day Ralph and Bob Popey moved the stair unit back over next to the subway car to complete the work we had done on Thursday.

Scott Becker subsequently moved that piece of plywood.

As the month drew to a close the grooming of the ballast on Trolley Street continued and the GE 25 ton locomotive made more trips to shake the grates on the ballast.

The neighbors had their embankment hydro-seeded and the beat went on...

By Halloween day the plain brick wall project that'll surround the playground and divide children off from the entrance to the TDB had been largely finished.  The new entrance will be to the left of the wall and the Harmony Freight Station stones previously on prominent display along the entrance walkway at the West site will be installed in the wall facing the end of the Wexford Station.