Board Meeting Weak-Brief Report

 

Michael Buchta assembling heating and ventilation ductwork under The Terrible Trolley

In the early 2000s I sent out an email most weeks to nearly 200 friends of mine and the Museum’s.  It was not regularly sent so I called it Weakly.  During the pandemic I took a cue from Frank and Randy Hicks (hickscarworks.blogspot.com), our friends at Illinois Railway Museum.  They produce a regular blog using google Blogger, (https://trolleyologyguy.blogspot.com/) which is free software that comes with the free email addresses which google provides to anyone.

I got the address cuzinbruce@gmail.com to help direct some of my email away from my regular address.  The moniker cuzinbruce came from our friend Tony who called me Cuz, so when I would call him on the phone I would always start with "This is your CuZinBruce".  Anyway I revived the blog with a new page weaklyreports.blogspot.com and have been posting my take on things around and about the Museum (shop and all) to show what I used to put in my board reports.  Stuff that some of which is mentioned by others in their reports.

This report is the jumping off point for your to explore the pages from the past on my blog and to perhaps check out the work and activities going on at IRM.  There are reports and pages of research and recollection.   I hope that you find them interesting.

https://trolleyologyguy.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_4.html
https://trolleyologyguy.blogspot.com/2020/01/m551-acquisiton-1984.html
https://trolleyologyguy.blogspot.com/2019/12/4398s-new-decor.html

Today I stopped by the Museum after a medical appointment and found that Michael has made considerable progress re-establishing the last of the ducts going to the baseboard of 1713 (The Terrible Trolley).  Michael built the upper part of the duct last month which carries the air from the car back into the system through louvers by the center door as seen in the photos.

                

In other news, contract restorer Keith Bray has completed his work on Monday and will now return to Virginia to concentrate on 5706 a Type 3 Boston car which he is completing for the Boston Street Railway Association. 

 

 

 We will continue to plug away on the car with work accomplished this past week including passenger seats that are being painted by Fr. Jack Demnyan and the lifeguard trip gate which I have been working on.  Our short range plan is to finish seats and then begin work on the heaters and seats by removing a seat at a time and restoring all of the components including the wainscotting (walls next to seats with new and reclaimed materials.

Around the property I captured a couple of pictures of Kevin, Michael and Connor in action including this rare black and white (caused by a camera that knows better than I do) of the guys grading next to the line between the Farm Road crossing and the Reliance Drive (originally Museum Road) never was crossing.  This grading will facilitate the tie replacement in this area.

Finally, a shot from Facebook this week showing a colorized historical photo of the trolley trestle that originally crossed the Ravine which is the location of the street of the same name in Munhall adjacent to the Homestead works.