A Visit to Exporail

Galen and Kelly took a road trip north to visit Exporail in Quebec. It is a beautiful museum and we very much enjoyed our visit. Luc was a fantastic host, spending most of his morning with us for a tour. We got to see the car shop and inside of a ornate sleeper car, both of which are typically not accessible to guests. He also let us have an extended visit with Montreal Tramways W2, the younger sister crane to our W1, so we could take photos for reference for when we begin repairing W1. (The third Montreal crane, W3, was also saved and resides at the Shoreline Trolley Museum.) We were also happy to see both Montreal observation cars 1 and 3, the sisters to our car 4 and Seashore Trolley Museum's 2. They have an extensive collection of trolleys (trams) along with both steam and diesel locomotives. Trolley and train services run in the summer months. We recommend visiting.

Primary operating trolley Montreal Tramways 1959 in the car shop for new doors

Montreal Tramways W2, sister to our W1

Montreal Tramways 1, sister to Seashore Trolley Museum's 2 (Note how 1 and 2 have beavers on their light bars, unlike 3 and 4. 1 and 2 are older, having wood bodies while 3 and 4 have steel bodies)

Montreal Tramways 3, sister to our car 4

Sleigh-like omnibus from the Mont Royal Street Railway Company

Six Happy Cars

The shop was happy to release car 4 into service after a successful test trip first thing Saturday morning. We then turned our attention to car 16 and, after some minor brake stand and air governor work, were able to release the car to operations mid-afternoon, bringing the active fleet to its full six cars. Both cars ran for members after the annual meeting and we heard a lot of positive feedback from motormen delighted to have two of their favorite cars back. Car 65 is now back in the shop where it waits for additional interior work. Diesel 1 is being surface prepped and primed and will hopefully be back outside the shop this coming week wearing all new primer.

President Rob Brogle and Assistant Chief Motorman Ryan Trombly picked up a wire and air pipe donation and delivered it to the shop in the afternoon with assistance from Don Nordell. These supplies will be used for 3001, 18, and 169. At the annual meeting, we were delighted to learn that we've won a $50,000 grant from the Connecticut DECD for the restoration of car 3001. We send them our thanks. Major funding for the restoration is now complete.

We are happy to report that car 355 has been released to operations for service for the year. Car 4 should be released next weekend. A minor issue was discovered with an armature and was repaired yesterday by Galen. The repair will cure this week and be tested next Saturday. Thanks to Katy, Adam, Anthony, Larry, John, and Galen for helping me out with finishing off maintenance and dealing with the typical opening hiccups. Katy learned how to rebuild trolley catchers. We now have car 16 in the shop so we can locate the source of its air system issues.

Diesel 1 is all back together and running. It remains in the shop for its protection until it gets a new coat of paint. With this work done, John is finally able to return to working on car 3001.

Diesel 1 is back together

John works on installing a patch panel on 3001's side

Adam was able to complete the organization of the primary machine tooling box. He will be tackling cleanup of of the Bridgeport and Cincinnati milling machines.

The next Trolley Care Day will be June 1st. We will be swapping trucks on car 3001.