Car 3001 Winter Update

 A lot has happened in the shop during the Winter to Connecticut Company Car 3001.

To start, all of the cars motors now have new bearings manufactured and attached.

The new bearing on the motor

An example of the new bearing

The shop has also rebuilt the motor field coils and soldered new leads to the coils. 

Newly wired Motor Field Coil

The cars journal boxes have been rewelded and newly fitted shims have been manufactured for them.

Newly Welded Journal Boxes

Shim inserted into the journal box

A shim in process of being created

The motor cases for the car have also been cleaned and the pinion and commutator mounts have been created to be attached to the motor case.

Cleaned Motorcase

Pinion and Commutator mounts to be put on the motor case

Finally, the West end truck of 3001 has been put back into Tram by heating the metal to be bent back into place.

West end truck back into tram

In honor of Montreal Tramways Car 4's 100^th birthday in 2024. the volunteers of the Museum's Operations Department have been working hard to restore it to its former glory. From June, 2020 to date a great deal of exterior work has been done with new paint all around - the railings and pillar were refinished in gold and the sides and posts in cream. The side panel received a new graphic, the first one since the 1980's. The old flooring has been removed and will be replaced in Spring, 2022 and the car will be ready for service by May. Thanks to the volunteers for their hard work and financial support and to the William & Alice Mortensen Foundation for their substantial support of this project.

65's New East End Lumber

 For the past two weeks, Car 65 has been getting a facelift in the shop. The front of car was almost completely disassembled and replaced with all new wood planks on the front of the car giving it a fresh look. While inspecting the inner wall behind the outer planks, some decay on the wiring of the car was found. During the replacement, those wires were replaced to prevent the further decay of the wiring on the car. 

65's new front end

Once this project on 65 is completed, the shop will refocus back onto car 3001 to continue work on the restoration. 

For the Halloween Season, car 5645 has been running almost daily to help break in the new components that were installed during the cars time in the shop. This car has been running without issue since its release back into operations.

During November's off season, the entirety of CTM's property has been decorated with thousands of Christmas Lights. On the mainline, crews have been working very hard to complete track repairs to Hartman's Siding as well as restore the overhead power out to Station 9. Both of these projects have been happily completed and Winterfest of 2021 will be a great show!

81st Anniversary and 5645's return

 Thanks to a huge push from the shop department and all the dedicated volunteers, car 5645 returned to service and debuted on September 4th for CTM's 81st Anniversary. 

On that day all of the running cars in the fleet came out for some public love including Line Car 1, S193, and 303. 

For about 2 years now, 5645's controller has been blocked into the series notches due to a shorting issue within the controller. Now with the car's former extended stay in the shop, John is confident he found the issue with the controller and plans to make the required fix.

303 has been moved out of Northern Barn and currently waits on the shop lead so the car's motors can dry out once again after the wet summer season we've had. It is planned for the interurban to make a few special trips for the Winterfest Season.

If you'd like to see photos of CTM's 81st, check out the museum Facebook page for some of the amazing photos!

5645 Nears Return to Service

 Over the last few weeks, we've gone over the work done to car 5645, and finally that hard work is coming to an end. This week in the shop, the door mechanism on the car was getting some much needed service as well as some cleaning. John also installed a new line switch into the controller of the car. Last Wednesday the car went out on a test run and most of the issues were resolved, with only a few remaining fixes needed. This car will be back in service for the 81st anniversary event on September 4th.

Car 16 returned to service this week and began running in public service with a new pole base roof section.

Car 3001 continues being worked on and specifically over these few weeks, work has focused on the field coils, motor cases, and work on the trucks.

Coming next Saturday is the Connecticut Trolley Museums 81st anniversary. This event has been named "Everything That Moves," and as the title implies, everything that CTM has in operating condition will be running in a trolley parade for the public. Be sure to check out the event on the CTM main page at www.ct-trolley.org

16's New Roof

 This week in the shop, 16 went up for a usual inspection. During this time, John found that the roof of the car was in need of work and possibly even replaced. Car 16 is currently still in the shop being worked on.

Also during this week, 5645 is getting some final touch ups and work done before its return to service by roughly the end of the month. 

Car 1326's paint work is 90% complete with the rest of the work being touch ups on the red paint. Special thanks to Roger P. and his crew for being so dedicated to repainting that car!

In other news this week, for the first time in many months, our two Connecticut Company Cars are finally next to each other in Kelly Barn! These cars really turn some eyes while on display.

Keep an eye out, there are a lot more projects coming soon that you're sure to want to see!

355 Returns to Service

 Last Monday, during the final run of the day it was discovered that car 355 had developed a brake issue. This issue was causing axle 3's brake shoes to drag on the wheel, rendering the car very difficult to move. John attempted to resolve the issue by using 355's hand brake wrench to manually release the handbrake, but was unable to fully release the handbrake. Roger P. from operations then brought the car up to the shop to receive a further inspection. 

Thanks to John's hard work, the car was released into service on Saturday and ran without issue. 

Sully M. and Brian O. bringing 355 down from the shop

At the end of the day on Saturday, 16 was brought into the shop to receive some much needed work on the roof of the car.

Roger P. continues to work on repainting the sides of 1326 and hopes to be done within the next week or so. Most of the remaining paint needed on the car is the red striping down either side of the car.