Car Shop update, First half of 2025

 The cold of winter has long given way to the heat of summer, and oh how neither has been pleasant. 

At the top of this year, a great deal of time was put into doing fleet maintenance, inspection, and general light improvments. Between some controller issues on the west end, and other cars being urgently needed for service, much of our work once again focused in on car 16. we also took the opportunity to do some cosmetic work to the car, pulling both of the cargo doors and revarnishing them. 

16's west end controller being gone through,

servere wear on the drum propted replacement of nearly all

the elements on fingers.

One of the cargo doors with it's first coat

of new varnish applied. Each received at least 3 coats

of marine grade varnish.

Freshly Varnished door back in place on 16

With the 85th anniversary, and it's parade of trains, approaching, 16 was finished just in time to get the rest of the fleet quickly inspected and prepared. May 11th we had 6 street cars, a line car, an
interurban, and both a diesel and electric locomotive in service. We're happy to report that during the whole day there were no mechanical faults with any of our equipment. 

18 and 303 being prepped for the 85th

anniversary

After the 85th event, and partialy due to us quickly running out of places for running cars to be under cover, we've had a rather lare denizen of the shop. CA&E 303 has been living on shop track 2, where 3001 had previously been sitting for nearly a decade. Our resident control group and rapid transit, Gio, has somewhat adopted the cars and put a great deal of effort into fixing it's multitude of small idisincracies.

Due to having to run on the Chicago El, 303 

is actually quite a narrow car, leaving more room to walk

around it than many of our streetcars. However, it's 

height is immense, with only a few inches betwen the poles

and the overhead contact rail.

The true scale of 303 alongside 3001.

 The car has long had an issue where second point on the controller (both ends) is completely dead, and does not supply power to the motors. With help from the Hicks's of IRM, we were able to sort out the issue. During their time on the CA&E, the 300 series cars had their control groups modified to a C-21 version of the GE type M control. However, to save money, the CA&E just re-used the old C-6 controllers, just modifying them with an internal jumper.  What all this means, if that if you try to wire in the control stands as if they were C-6's, you end up with a second point that instead of supplying power to the contactors, loops two grounds together, causing you to loose power. Most likely, that is the source of the error. Luckily, it's an easy fix. With the correct diagrams from IRM, it was as simple as moving  the positions of a few wires, and second point returned to life.

Gios' Girlfriend, Regina, has also been spending time on 303. She has been producing curtains for the windows, intended to cover where the CA&E removed stained glass and simply boarded over where it had been. She has also been spending time to painstackingly refesh all of the painted writing and labelling inside the car. 

Curtains in 303

Refreshing the lettring inside the car

Not all of the work being done in the shop has been neccescerially just on the cars. Shop forces and expertice has been put to good use outside of building as well this year. During last december we assisted in the shipping out of two trucks that had formerly belonged to Springfield Terminal 8, a line car that was sadly lost to fire. These trucks are now off to as new home in New Jersey where they will end up under another car being restored down there. In a similar moving vein, the shop was on hand to help with the move of the "dining car" from it's location atop the parking lot and back onto the main line, to get it safely out of the way of the new drainage and paved parking lot going in. This was a difficult task that required expertly moving the fragile wooden car 90 degrees, down a hill, and onto the rails underneath the trolley wire, all whilst construction vehicles zipped around. The car is now safely resting in hartmans siding. The machine shop has also been spun up to assist track department. Joint bars for an emergency repair in Hancock siding needed to be reprofiled, and our Greaves-Cincinatti milling machine made short work of it. 

Iron Mountain's 35,000 pound forklift gently carries

one of 8's trucks from where it had been sitting for decades

The "Dining" car sitting on NR1

The Cincinnati Mill working through a joint bar.

While there has always been the background haze of running repair work, 1326 loosing a compressor motor brush, 355 having a litney of issues with it's catchers, 16's air governor jamming, as well as many MANY other issues, the major project and center of our focus, is 3001. Same as it has been now for quite some time. A lot has gone on with said car, and to go through it all here would make this post rather long. As such, a 3001 specific post will be coming shortly. 

P.Beard

Shop Manager

3001, A specific look for the first half of 2025

 As of the last update, the car had most of a roof, a functioning air system, and one complete controller. The borrowed type 5 trucks had been adapted, and the car was placed over the inspection pit. A few of these topics haven't been covered, however, so let's briefly circle back to them. 

A view of the #2 end (east) july of 2025

3001 outside for the first time in many years

while being moved over the inspection pit

3001's original trucks are Brill 77E's, and while the motors have had their armatures rebuilt, ther rest of the truks are in rather rough condition. As such, and to get the car "paying it's own bills" as it were, we are using a set of trucks from a boston type 5, which are C35's There are a few things that require adapting between the two. 77E's use a link bar to actuate the brakes, where as on a C35, there is what's called a radius bar. As such, new rods had to be fabricated to connect the trucks brakes the the linkages under the car. Luckily, a few old switch throw rods prooved to be just the material needed, and their threaded ends allowed them to be made adjustable.  The center bowls are also different, with Conn Co using a very different size than Boston Elevated. A solution came in the form of an adapter plate. However, due to the bolt holes for a Conn Co plate just slightly overlapping the bolt holes in the bolster of the C35 trucks, the Conn Co bowl had to be clocked 90 degrees from it's "normal" position. Luckily, though, as all the mating surfaces are circular and meant to rotate, this solution works perfectly, though it does look a little funny. 

One of the Adapter plates, showing the Conn Co center

Bowl being clocked 90 Degrees to how it

would normally be placed.

New Brake rod connecting to the truck. Return springs are also installed. 

The main barrel of the roof was fairly easy to complete, as it's all toung and groove boards just following a curved surface. Forming the ends, or the vestibules, presents more of a challenge. The radius is changing all of the time, and the boarding has to bend in multiple directions at once, in many cases twisting severely. This is work that is somewhat more familiar to builders of wooden boats, as a lot of the same ideas are present planking the curves of a ships hull. The ribbing to support the roof was in rough shape, and had to be replaced. Voulenteer charlie nordell stepped in and made up the ribs, which the boarding sits ontop of. The boarding making up the main barrel of the roof is half in thick, but for the rapidly curving ends this is too thick to be bent effectively. As such, a large amount of lumber had to be ripped down vertically on the table saw, giving think stripping thin enough to make the bends. On the edges of the roof, where the planking has to twist, the boards were cut down again, this time in the horizontal dimension. With much slow triming, twisting, and planing into place the east end roof is together. Work on the west vestibule has yet to start. 

New Ribbing and the start of the roofing going on

Corner of the vestibule roof, showing how the planking has

to twist and be cut into a wedge shape to fit

Steel work has also been ongoing. The car is officially now 2 doors again, with the holes made by Conn Co to adapt the car plugged by entirely new material. A local fabrication company was contracted to produce some of the custom formed pieces of steel that had rotted away, or had been removed by conn co, over the years. This includes the upper header panels abovethe motormans windows where it had been removed when the car was converted to 4 door, as well as all the window sill plates. The end sheets on both ends are hund, and the upper header panel on the east end has also been installed. Angle iron inside the car that supports the seats were replaced where missing, and a whole bunch of new seat mounting brackets were made up. Some work has also been put into covering over seams and patches with a thin layer of bondo, to hide where repairs have been made. 

Some patches being welded in on the east end door corner

Sill plates running the length of the car

Sills in and window frames test fit

Plug filling in where the added door had been on the west end,

Also showing the replacement header panel

Bondo and Primer covering up weld seams

Underneath the car, components have been finding their way into place. The line switch is mounted, and plumbed into the air system. Resistor grids are mounted, after one had to be entirely rebuilt after failing a Meg test. One modification we are making to the car is a disconnect knife switch as a saftey feature. This has been both fabricated and installed. 

Knife switch box being fabricated

Knife switch box hung from car

First of the grids to be hung. This is the

Grid that required a full rebuild

The most active current part of the project is wiring. Conecting both controllers to the resistors, and then to the motors, as well as the line switch and distribution box , is not a particularly complex undertaking, so long as you have a diagram, and a basic idea of how the system works. It is, however, tedious. To give a sense of scale, each controller has 22 wires that has to run into it those wirs split between a bank of 3 resistor grids, the line switch that supplies power, and the 4 motors, that each have 4 wires run to them. A great deal of the work has been in building the infrastructure into the car to handle the wires. There is a tough that runs inside the car for much of it's own length, all of the wiring has to be run through it. Each motor has it's own junction box, as well as a single large box for the resistor bank. Underneath the car wooden bracketry has to be built to hold up the wire runs. All of this is being custom built and fit. Nothing is an off the shelf component. This work is about 2/3rds complete, as the car has taken up the 500 foot spool,  as well as couple hundred, feet of wire we had not sooled, that consitituted our entire supply of 2 gauge railroad rated wire. We are in the process of ordering more. 

Junction boxes for each of the 4 motors

Motor 4's Junction box installed with wiring taking shape

Choke coil and hanger brackets to hold the wire

Junction box for the Resistor Wiring

Wiring beginning to fill out the box

Wiring Trough running the length of the car

East end controller mounted in the car, with 

much of the wiring installed

Earlier was mentioned that as of last update one controller was in, since then a second has been rebuilt and installed. However, things are not quite as simple as they first appeared, and we have since ended up having to go back and rebuild the first controller we put in the car. The issues have been resolved, but the details of why we had to re-rebuild a controller, as well as a few other interesting controller related anomalies, warrant their own post in the near future, so keep an eye out for that. 

P.Beard

Shop Manager

Summer + Winter 2024 Update

Hi All!

It's been a busy season for all of us here at the CERA Car Shop. Now that all the special events are over, the team is once again beginning the maintenance cycle for the fleet for the upcoming 2025 season.

Here are some of the highlights and projects from 2024

Montreal Tramways Car 2600 is a 1929 Canadian Car & Foundry streetcar acquired by the Connecticut Trolley Museum in 1959. This car ran in regular service until 2018 when there became a need for a new axle for the car. As built, most of the Montreal Tramways cars were built with Cast Iron Wheels. The result of that 89 years later is that one of the axle/wheel sets became brittle and needed to be replaced. Thanks to our friends at the Shoreline Trolley Museum in Branford, CT, we were able to source a new axle for installation under the car. In addition to the axle being installed and a thorough inspection over the whole car, the shop crew gave the car a beautiful new paint job! This car is now back in regular service to our organization. We're proud to have brought this car back after an 6 year hiatus!

2600 after being pulled out of Northern Barn

2600 first test trip after the axle replacement

2600 ready for service with a new paint job

Chicago Aurora & Elgin Car 303 also received a new paint job this season. The shop put the first of two finishing coats onto the exterior of the car to bring it back to the cars original 1906 paint scheme. This car would have come out of the Niles Shops with a Pullman Green body, Black Frame/Trucks, & an Orange Roof. For this round of paint, we focused on the car body. 303 also had adjustments made to the cars air governor and other components. 

303 getting primer

303 with a completed first coat at Dusk

3001 is progressing very well. This summer, our shop team (Lead by Chief Motorman Mike L.) cut, sanded, and installed the floor onto the car as well as completed most of the roof to the car. The West end trolley controller has been cleaned and rebuilt with the East End controller following shortly after. The air brakes on the car function as intended and will be fully connected to the trucks in the coming months. As of now, 3001 has been rolled over the pit where wiring work and connections will now be made. This car is on the home stretch!

3001 Roof Installation

3001 K1 Brake Valve being installed on the new wood floor

Wood Floor nearing completion

Half way point for 3001's floor

The pit in the shop has also been reinforced. For those who don't know, our shop is equipped with a concrete pit where shop personnel can get under a trolley car to do repairs and maintenance. This pit has been "shored up" with steel to ensure its longevity. 

We have many exciting projects coming up in the 2025 season so stay tuned!

March 2024 Update

As of the last update, Car 16’s roof has been completed. This has been an absolute race to the finish line, with the cold fighting us all the way, but the car now sports a brilliant new white roof, with roof vents and running boards picked out in satin black. The car made its first revenue runs with the new roof on March 2nd. More work is planned for the car in the future, including a complete repaint below the roof, replacement of undercar wiring, and at least one motor needing to be rebuilt. While this motor work will keep her in limited service for the time being, expect to see 16 out and about this summer and fall. 

16 in the Shop

16's first test run with new the roof

16's first test run with the new roof

16's first trip to the end of the line with the new roof

New canvas along the side of the car

New Canvas before getting tacked into place

With 16 done, we can now turn our attention to going through the service fleet and give them a full annual inspection and service to keep them in as good as possible condition for the upcoming season.

836 is the first up into the shop, and work is ongoing. All main journal bearings have been re-packed with new wool wasting, and the brake rigging has been gone through and thoroughly lubricated. Controllers are also being overhauled, with some new pieces being machined from raw stock to replace burned-up contact elements. Before the car could be brought into the shop, the Air Governor was replaced after a series of successive failures over Winterfest. Signs are currently positive that this has broken her "bad air governor curse". 

Old and worn 836 controller finger on the left. Newly manufactured finger on the right

Old and worn 836 controller finger on the left. Newly manufactured finger on the right

Over the Winter, it was discovered that Diesel 1 had a water pump leak. This is causing the majority of the radiator fluid to leak out during normal operation. This repair is coming along nicely. The water pump assembly was removed, and we discovered the sealing surface had been painted and not properly cleaned the last time it was installed. This surface has since been cleaned. Finding a replacement pump gasket also proved to be somewhat of a challenge; however, one was sourced and installed. During this process, the shop has also manufactured two new gaskets for the radiator into the engine block.

The crew removing the hood from the carbody of the diesel

Setting the hood on the ground

Just prior to removing the radiator

In other news, if anyone has a Metal Cutting Bandsaw Blade they would be willing to part with, we are in need of one! Reach out to us at wgambardella@ct-trolley.org