Museum site for members and fans.

[trolleyboy]

Hello everyone glad and thank-full for the continued participation. [tup]
Doug We have been running the spooktaculars for approx 10 years now.It's become somewhat of a cult favourite and hit. It's hard to guage the actual money amount. We let the kids in free if they come in costume so we only charge the adult fares . We do keep the giftshop open for the events and we have refreshments in the station so all in all you would ball park it in the 10-15K range. We have found that most of the continued support and success has happened via word of mouth the first two years had likely less than 200 people over the two nights. we try to change things up year in and year out to keep people wanting to come back. can't say enough for our deicated crews and members families that do the grunt work ( decorating of the interactive haunted house ( car barn ) and the crews running a quick 5 min service on the line. for the large crowds like this we run 5 or 6 cars constantly. Our normal sedate site seeing run of 20 min in the daylight truns around for a quick 10 minute runduring the night show with two car sections connsdtantly shuttling the passengers ( and goulsnon-stop ! ) It is worth the effort our head witch is already concocting for next year !

Matt The reaper ( actually TTC subway grinder RT7 ) is one of three sister cars we have at the museum. The paintjob in this case is real. When we first started running the halloween shows the crowds wern't as large so instead of having a haunted house we would take the passengers on a darkened ( no interior car lights ) ride down our line. Remebering that it's pitch dark as our line is wooded both sides of the mainline. all people would see out the windows of the cars were the darkshapes of the woods showing up in the cars headlights. They would arrive at barn 1 ( which we now use as the haunted house on halloween ) and loop around for their return trip. Once they headed back to the sation our reaper crew would pull out of barn one and chase the passenger car. We are two busy now to operate this way that and RT7 isn't as fleet of foot as the passenger cars so it now is pulled out as a suplimentary haunted car along with a subway set at thwest end of the museum with the haunted barn the main attraction at the east end. We felt as a chase car it needed the augmented paintjob so in it's case it's real. alomg with "Charlie" the motorman ( sKeleton ) We have for movie shoots used the removable paint on our cars if we lend them out for film work. Most recently two of our Peter witt's 2424 and 2894 "stared" in Cindarellaman. 2424 lost her TTC cream and red for a NJ dark green. This paint havily fortified with floor wax washes off and leaves the original paintwork beneath.

[trolleyboy]

A couple of shots to show the removable paint previously mentioned.First this is Peter Witt 2424 as she normally appears




This next shot is 2424 in 2003 while being used as a New Jearsy streetcar for the filming if Cindarellaman. the shot is taken by one of our museum membersjust before the car was loaded to return to our museum from Toronto.




The Reaper and her sisters.We have not restored RT7 back yet and are leaving her as a fun car. Originally she was built by Preston car and Coach in 1916 as a apssenger car for the Toronto Civic Railway TCR this is a for runner of the TTC. Her sister 55 is restored back to TCR passenger livery. 52/RT7 ( reaper ) was rebult as a subway railgrinder in the 60's along with sister 57 which was renumbered W28 and turned into a surface system railgrinder. We have left W28 as a grinder as she had alot of structural changes RT7 was lowered for tube use so she isn't high on the restoration list and therefore a "fun" car. 55 had a complete rebuild bach to passenger car so they make an interesting contrast to each other.

First TCR 55 ( 1916 built )



next TCR 57 now grinder W28 ( 1917 built )



last TCR 52 first rebuilt as W27 then to RT7 as she is today ( 1916 built )

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Rob - I was wondering how they did the removable paint. Is the rail grinder car functional as a grinder?

[trolleyboy]

Hi Matt. No W28 has had the grinding blocks removed. We don't have much wear and tear on our mainline ( no cars and trucks bumping over the rail day in day out ) The hoist equipment and water tanks are still inside the car however.

More recently the museum did recieve the last of the TTC's rail grinders W30 and W31 they are an mu'ed set of ex cleveland PCC's. All their grinding equipment is intacted and we could operate them with a little maintenance. as I had said though we don't have the need of functioning grinder's but they do make for interesting disply's


Rail grinding train W30 and W31 in yard 3


Another view of W28 in front of Rockwood station july 10 2005



A full yard 2 sept 19 2005

Rob

[Anonymous]

Hmm, looks like a good project for a couple of those Bachmann HO PCCs - I'll have to keep an eye open!

[trolleyboy]

A project indeed. If you want I can get some internal shots in the spring for you. The full length ventilating fins on the roof of the ex -Cleveland cars will require some scratch building however. These were added by the Cleveland streetrailway to improve summer ventilation. PCC's were not air conditioned ( as built some systems added ac after the fact ) The clerestery vents other than IMHO makinmg the cars look a bit like an undersea predator made little difference to interior temp unless the car was cruising along a 50 mph. Which they were quite capable of doing.



Matt this is another ex -Ceveland car in TTC passenger paint. You can see the roof vent a bit better in this shot.

Rob

[Anonymous]

Interesting window layout on that one - I see what you mean about the roof vents now, they'd take a while to build in HO I think. Ok, plan B - did anyone operate Brill Trolleys in MOW service?

[trolleyboy]

Most likely. I have seen shots of Chicago Pullmans and Brill deck roof crs converted to other uses. Sand cars ,snow scrappers,line cars. You name it, Remembering that street railways had much tighter budgets than regular railways. They tended to build ther own work cars etc,just because a car was old and not economical to convert to more modern passenger handling systems, didn't mean that the street railways couldn't wrinfg a few more years of usefull service out of them. If you can find it there is a good book called On A Streak of Lightening by J Edward Martin. We sell it at the musuem you can see if we have it in stock on the museum website. We can and do ship books all over the world if you are interested. Also if you want more streetcar info and rail info in general pop by our place. You will see that on Tom's Monday summeries he will note my "Classic Juice" series punch up the appropriate page numbers and I ahve done a couple pieces on PCC cars Witt cars nearside cars etc etc.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

Matt before I forget . Morning sun Books has a book that they published in the last couple of years called Great Lakes Trolley's . It covers many US and Canadian street railways and has quite a few interesting shots of odd work equipment some purpose built others kitbashed from former service cars. We may still have a copy of two of it in stock as well of Morning sun sells direct as well.

Rob

[daveklepper]

When were New Jersey streetcars painted green? I remember them yellow and white with red trim and lettering. I rode the Newark system 4-1/2 lines, and the Jersey City Hoboken - Unnion City - Weehawken system (6 lines) as it existed in 1946-47.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rob - think I might be taking a look at some photos I've seen of Blackpool MOW equipment (apparently they had some cars that were close to the Brills in overall appearance). Might also consider building one of the little trailer contraptions they use to carry cable reels or similar things - would be an interesting challenge!

[trolleyboy]

Dave. Thanks for popping by again. They may not have ever been green. The Movie did take place in the late teens early thirties so that may shed some light. Our museum had two Witt's involved in the shoot. The large Witt got the green paint our small Witt essentially kept it's TTC paint but was overpainted to the Third ave red and cream. The green was apparently researched by the movie company. Of coarse neither system had actual witt cars but the movie company wanted cars from the period and thus sought out our help. So our two Witt's and the TTc's small witt were used on set in the streets of Toronto

Rob

[BR60103]

A few more comments about Toronto MOW equipment.
There was another set of PCCs rebuilt as a rail grinder for the subway. They chose a pair of 4400 MU cars without any roof vents. Interesting modification on one was door raised for high platform access. (I think this is right)
Traction and Models magazine about 1970 published a series of (fanciful) drawings of PCC cars converted to work equipment. Another railfan of the time said they wouldn't work because they would destroy the body integrity.

[trolleyboy]

Hi David, thank-you for stopping by again. You are correct about the door modifications on those PCC's. I seem to remember reading that they are a permanently joined set as well so walk through doors similar to regular subway cars were also added to them. From what I understand they are still in existance today and are still used on the Yonge and Bloor lines.

That railfans supisition may be correct,I can't think of many other work equipment conversions of PCC cars anywhere. They are essentially a Uni-body design so major surgery on the bodies could lead to structural problems.

Of interest our work forces are rebuilding W30 as a passenger car. Seats from another ex Cleveland car 4436 which we scrapped are being prpared for installation in W30. This will alow us a bit more flexability and give 4600 a bit of a break.Next year will also see MS&C 107 out of service for a fair bit of restoration so the Chicago L car 48 is being brought up to operational status.

L&PS 8 should be up and running under her own power as well. Our shop forces are heading up to Sudbury this weekend to help scrap the ex Inco steeple cabs stored by CPR there. This will give us a wealth of Pan parts and air brake equipment suitable for use on #8 and our GRR freight motor 335.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

Another update on interurban car 416. formerly of the North Yonge railway system.

The restoration crew on this car are starting to make some real headway,the new carlines for the vestibules are on their way. They are longer and are exposed on the inside of the car so we farmed them out to a carpentry shop in Guelph. This way they will have that fine furnature look when returned.

We are starting to insatll the wondows again. Originally aas built both the upper and lower sashes were moveable. When the TTC took over this class of car they made the upper sash inoperable and removed the sliders. We are going to leave it this way as the amount of extra work , is felt won't dramatically deter from the finished car so lower sashes moving only which is the way the car spent the bulk of it's service life anyway.

The big window task now is to reinsatll the glass. During the mid eighties we had lent the car to Go Transit for a transportaion disply , so a quick lets make it externally presentable restoration was done. So non-saftey glass was quickley mounted in the window frames. Now that the car will see revenue service again saftey glass is being indstalled. We are hoping that in a year the car will make it's first tentitive runs on the museum's mainline.

[trolleyboy]

So what's new today. 48 had a couple of test runs and the sweeper S-37 east end sweep motor has been tested oiled and the broom bristles treated. With our three xmas shows comming up in early december we may have need of S-37's services.

Even though the work equipment is retired from the real world does not mean it can't serve the museum in it's original purposes!

In case anyone was wondering the sweep brooms are bamboo,and they get treated with a mixture of linseed oil and turpentine to keep them pliable. If they dry out they snap and send bamboo shrapnel everywhere.

All the pan parts arrived safely so we have more flexibility again with #8 and the pan equiped locomotives we have on site ( we can go ahead with their restorations to operation as time and money permitts )


Rob

[Anonymous]

Hello Rob and fellow recreational railroaders everywhere! Our local rail museum recently started its own website. Thought you might want to see what goes on down here in the heart of former Frisco country.
www.rrhistoricalmuseum.zoomshare.com
Those of you from Our Place know that I am heavily involved with a tourist railroad in Kansas. The webmaster there received a job transfer so I'm not even sure if we still have a website.
Rob, keep up the good work and I feel this thread keeps those of us who try to recreate the past enthused and in touch.

[trolleyboy]

hey dan thank's for popping by and giving us your museum site. Looks good I haven't had a chance to completely read through it yet but it's good stuff. [tup] I encourage all who check into this thread to take a look at that site.

As always i encourage all who stop here on this thread that aren't museum members, to feel free to ask questions of the museum guys here. Better yet if you are able to join a local museum. It is nice to get ones hands dirty once in a while.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

Some bad news. i had reported several pages ago about another rail museum here in Ontario. The Elgin County Museum in St Thomas On. The old MCRR shop building they are in has a bad roof support beam ( one of the main ones ) As of sept. the building was condemned and the general public could not go in. Now as of dec 1st the members are now not allowed in. CN still owns the building and to this point the museum ahs not got any confirmed support for fixing or assuming the building from them. Looks more and more likely that they will have to relocate. Not an easy task as they have a fairly extensive collection of vehicles. CNR Hudson 5700 and the one and only MLW RSD 17 locomotive are two of their more notables. Perhaps everyone can do a web search and find their site ( haven't got it handy ) see if some moral support can be sent out.

Rob

[espeefoamer]

Here are websites for two museums I belong to.
I have been a member here for 30 years,now! www.oerm.org
and www.wplives.org
And I am a member here of course www.sphts.org enjoy!

[trolleyboy]

Espee Thanks for poping in. what do you do at the museums? runner rebuilder or moral support guy ? I know that several of our guys aare heading down to the Orange county museum next spring for a long overdue visit.

Rob

[red p]

Highlighting 175 Years of Railroading, Norfolk Southern Museum Will Open December 5



NORFOLK, Va., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Early rail, clothing, tools, locomotive parts, signage, photographs and advertisements are a few of the artifacts that will be on display when the Norfolk Southern Museum opens Dec. 5.

The opening marks Norfolk Southern Corporation's (NSC) 175th anniversary and reflects the company's partnership with Norfolk and communities across the rail system.

"Norfolk Southern has a great story to tell," said Chairman David R. Goode. "Our 175-year history parallels the economic and social growth of America, and now we are playing a growing role in the global movement of 21st century goods. We've been around a long time, but our history is just beginning.

"The museum illustrates the contributions of our company in the growth of this area and the nation. We hope it will be a resource for educators and students as well as an interesting attraction for visitors," Goode said.


Norfolk Southern traces its origin to 1830. Since those earliest days of American railroading, hundreds of smaller roads combined, reorganized and consolidated to form the Norfolk and Western and Southern railways, which joined in 1982 to create Norfolk Southern. A portion of Conrail was added in 1999, resulting in today's system covering the eastern United States.


The History Factory, of Chantilly, Va., designed and built the 1,600- square-foot museum, which includes artifacts contributed by employees, customers and suppliers, as well as by historical associations and museums. The railroad's effect on American culture, and the diversity of the people who built it, are highlighted. Exhibits bring visitors up to the present, explaining the railroad's role in modern-day logistics.


The museum is located on the ground floor of the company's office building at Three Commercial Place in Norfolk. Beginning Dec. 5, hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The museum will be open to the public free of charge.


A visit to the museum by the life-size Best Friend of Charleston replica locomotive, on loan from the city of Charleston, S.C., is scheduled for Dec. 15-16. The original Best Friend pulled the first regularly scheduled steam passenger train in America, on Christmas Day 1830, on the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Co., Norfolk Southern's earliest predecessor.


The Best Friend replica is scheduled for display on Wall Street on Dec. 12, when Norfolk Southern representatives will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in observance of the 175th anniversary.


Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,300 route miles in 22 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada, serving every major container port in the eastern United States and providing superior connections to western rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is North America's largest rail carrier of automotive parts and finished vehicles.


SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation

[trolleyboy]

Thank's for stopping in P . It's nice to see the big carriers getting involved and reaching out to the general public with museum's small and large. Along with the must see Pennsylvania and B&O railroad museum's this ones sure to be a hit. Hopefully CN / CP and others follow suit as well.

Rob

[wanswheel]

Rob, how far is your museum from downtown Toronto? Is there transportation conventient for tourists? Ideally that #8 Interurban would do. The museum I've seen is the B&O in Baltimore. Someday I hope to see Steamtown. It's great that all that mobile machinery is being saved, thanks to piles of money, I guess, and time and labor from folks such as yourself.

[trolleyboy]

Mike The museum is in Milton so about 45 minutes to an hour from Toronto's downtown. No direct public transit. The Go Milton line gets you close but you would have to cab it the rest of the way. That or a trip down the 401 by car,we are in the rural part Milton. Email me if you wish I can give you more specific instructions to our sight.It would be nice if we could run a line to Toronto and use #8 but that is not in our finacial cards. We are a non-profit so the restorations are done by love,sweat and donations. There is quite a nice streetcar museum in Baltimore as well, not far from the B&O museum, they are worth a check out as well. The anual ARM convention was there last year. This year its a Rockhill trolley museum in PA. Feb 17,18,19.

Rob

[daveklepper]

I strongly recommend a visit to the Baltimore streetcar museum. If you use the NE corridor between Baltimore and Washington and keep a sharp eye out on the right side of the train just as you are leaving the Baltimore station, you can see the in-town loop and visitor's buidling of the museum. It has a representative group of Baltimore equipment, all Baltimore wide-gauge, from early stuff to one or PCC's, including a Peter Witt and a Brill semi-convertable deck roofer, and most are in excellent condition, and operation is friendly and professional. Even though it is close to the PRR station, the walk there is not perfectly obvious, but just exit north and west of the station and keep as close to the railroad as the street system permits, and you will find it. It is also has excellent opportunities to photograph the NE Corridor.

I speak as a Branford/Shore Line member, which of course is still my favorite.

[athelney]

Just another update on Hudson #2860 up here in Squamish BC . The ultrasonic tests have been done on the boiler - only minor repairs required , a patch was inserted in the r/h side sheet of the firebox - metal a little thin - best to repair now . General cleaning of components now being done , reviews done by safety authority on work so far are satisfactory . Retubing will start in January when all retubing parts are recieved . Then its reinstallation time for all parts & testing .

[trolleyboy]

Hey thank's for the update on 2860.It will be nice to have a second Roral Hudson up and running again. Any idea as to how soon full live steam tests will occur. Hopefully you guys will be up and running regularly for the Olympics.

On a slightly more unhappy note our museum's Christmas shows were failry poorly attended this year. Mother Nature was not kind. On the upside though. The hearty riders that braved the sub zero temps, got to see S37 doing the thing she was built to do . Sweep snow, the car absolutly disapears in a cloud of white when she heads down the line. The kids truly enjoyed it. They are planning on posting some pictures of her clearing the line on the musuem site in the next few weeks.Remembering also that this car only six months ago had most of the west end wood removed to the frame posts formrestoration ( my railimages account which you can access off my signature shows several shots interior and exterior of this restoration)



We have begun some winter pole replacing along the east and west end of the property,and of coarse the shop boys are continuing to bang away on the project barn,with TP-11's and interurban 416 getting the lions share of the work.

Work safe everybody

Rob

[Cthetrains]

I am hopefully going to become a volunteer at Union Station in KC, Mo..if I do, I'll post what I can

[athelney]

trollyboy - thanks for the interest , we hope to be able to steam in April/May - 2006 , the ultimate goal is to be able to get involved in the Olympics in some form .. Time will tell , first objective get 2860 back up & running.