Lets begin with something of a history lesson. 3001 was at one point a star runner of this museum, and was running in service here for decades. In 1986, this came to a crashing end, literally. The car was hit by Car 4, its long end swing grabbing the front of 3001 and ripping it off. A new front end was made, but with other projects coming up, and the car needing further work anyways, it was sidelined, and floated between Woods and Northern barn. By the mid 2010,s 3001 came back into focus, and was pulled into the shop to finally begin its restoration work.
Plans, though, quickly changed. If we're already taking a lot of the car apart, why not redo the floor, why not redo the roof, why not do a whole lot of steel work? And while we're at it, why not rebuild the car back to it's as built? For those unfamiliar, 3001 was built as a 2 door car, but was rebuilt in the later 20's for service in New Haven, where two treadle doors were installed. Cutting in the whole, framing it, and adding all the extra equipment changed the corners of the car quite a lot.
There are arguments to be made about scope creep, and just how much of this work was really necessary, but this isn't an article meant to go into that, nor is it meant to be a condemnation of those who made the decisions. All of this background is to give some sense of where this current generation of work on the car started. The car was a shell, no trucks, no floor, no roof, very little plumbing, and absolutely no wiring. It was truly just a skeleton.
A complicating factor on top of all of this is a running down clock. When work began, a grant was received from the state for much of the work, with a due date and a nebulous requirement of "completion". The project, unsurprisingly, took far, far longer than intended, pushing us up to and past our deadline.
This has been and continues to be, an incredibly difficult project. We have minimal documentation, and no one who took apart the car is still around to help put it back together. Pieces have been lost, documentation has gone missing, and a lot of questions have had to be figured out on the fly.
So, with the lead sufficiently buried, what makes this post "The big one"?
It ran.
January 17th, 2026, the first time in 40 years, 3001 ran on its own power. There are asterisks to that statement, which we will get to later, but first, what did it take to get to that point?
The current shop crew took over the project in late 2023, and we were informed that completion of the car was highest priority.
A view of the car as it was late 2023.
We started with the Floor, need something to stand on, and something to run the air piping on. First, blocking had to be installed within the steel frame in order to nail down the boarding. The floor also had to bend following the ramped contours up from the vestibules of the car.
As the floor was finished, the car was jacked up, and the shop trucks were removed. For a few months the car sat on steel stands, while the main barrel of the roof was completed. At the same time, underneath the car, the beginnings of plumbing left previously were all connected. The Air Governor and K1 valve were mounted to the new floor.
Freshly installed K1
Already by this point, not even a year after taking over the project, we got to give the car a little bit of life. Shop air was supplied, and the brake was tested. No rigging was connected, so we had to watch the brake cylinder.
Needing to get the car back onto wheels again, the car was lowered onto trucks borrowed from 5645. Major work was needed to adapt them, as the center bowls were different, as were the height of the wear plates. Why did we not use the original trucks? Well, one was, and still is, in pieces in the back of the shop, and the other is sitting outside sans motors. The motors themselves are also not assembled.
Adapter plate to fit a ConnCo centerbowl to
a Boston type 5 truck.
3001 on stands with the borrowed trucks lined up
for adaption and install.
Back down on wheels, it was time to finish that 2 door back conversion. Plugs were made up and installed, following as closely as possible the original construction, though there are some differences. Mainly, the structural re-enforcement installed when the new doors were added was retained, and used as an anchor point for the plug. Custom formed steel was ordered from a local fabrication shop, and installed to replace the original pieces long removed.
First fitup of the #1 end door plug
Plug complete and installed.
Bondo and Primer to hide the seams.
Work now turned to components. Resistor Grids were tested, and one was found to be failing. As such, it was stripped down and rebuilt. A cracked plate was eliminated from it, slightly changing the resistance, but only by a fractional percent. The line switch and Overload relay was also completely rebuilt and bench tested.
Around this time, the west end vestibule roof was installed.
The car at this point moved outside for the first time in years. The move was simple, moved from track 1 to track 2. This was so the car could go over the inspection pit, allowing for all the heavy undercar components to be installed.
Under tow, being moved from Track2 to Track1.
The first controller was rebuilt, and not long after the second was begun, though this had to be more of a new controller made of pieces. This would later become something of an issue, but we'll get there.
Controller being rebuilt.
The west end controller was installed just before the door plug was installed, the east end a few months later. With all the major electrical components mounted, it was time to start wiring.
A new part was made, a knife switch not original to the car, but present as a safety feature, as it allows for the car to be powered, with all auxiliaries on, but the motor circuit cut out.
Box being assembled.
Brake rigging also had to be made, as the originals were missing and the borrowed trucks used a different manner of actuation. New rods were fabricated from old track switch hardware.
With all the components mounted, it was time to begin wiring. This was a slow, tedious process. We in fact ran out of wire, and had to order more, a shockingly slow process. In a way, this was fortunate, as we discovered an issue. As one of the controllers was a different revision of the K6, both controllers didn't match. There was also a discrepancy between the west end controller, and the wiring diagram we had. As such, the west end controller had to be removed, and extensively modified.
Mounted controller and brake stand.
Wiring began to wrap up by the time that our Winterfest event kicked off, which did slow down the progress. Just over the line into the new year, we did some low voltage tests with a bell box, just to test that all the wiring had been connected together correctly.
The scene outside on the day of the big test.
The day finally came. A thick, heavy snow was gently falling, painting a bucolic winter's scene. The select few who knew the test was that day had told their select few, and soon the shop was bustling with activity. As the roof is yet incomplete and the car has no poles, the stinger cable had been freed of one of its hooks, and the lug bolted directly into the knife switch, with the other side hung from the shop's overhead contact rail. Shop power was turned on, 600 volts was going into the car for the first time. It was silent as the auxiliaries had been left off, but that silence also meant that nothing was arcing to ground. Tentatively, the rotary switch was turned for the compressor, and alive it came.
It sounded awful. It clattered and clanged, and was making the distinct sound of pistons scraping past decade old ring ridges. Pressure built, but only to around 30 PSI. With the motors cut out though, it was enough to test the line switch operated, as well as re confirm that the brakes were still functioning. The compressor was clearly going to be a problem, but it was not a show ender. We still had the shop air, and could plumb it into the car with an air hose. Fittings were attached, and the car was fed external air. This did improve the situation, but we still failed to get past 50 PSI as the volume passed through the hose is quite small. This was still satisfactory to test the rest of the car though, so the motors were lined in.
For a first test, we decided to hold the brakes on, and just see if the motors would take power and try to pull against the brakes. The controller was pulled into the first notch, and nothing happened. It was tried again, and still nothing. We then attempted the other controller, nothing. Just as a thought, how about releasing the brakes? That made a difference. For a moment the car sat still, then it hopped forwards. As it turned out, the car, having sat for some months, was simply not making good electrical contact through the brushes, and once it was able to move just a slight hair, it cleared itself out. We kept moving it forwards, inches feeling like miles, the stinger cable a constant worry hanging off the side of the car. Once as forward as far as felt possible, the reverser went the other way, and the car promptly responded in that direction. Forward and backwards once, then twice, then four, six, and onwards. The car never travelled more than 6 or so feet, but considering the situation we'd been in not even 3 years earlier, it may as well have been the moon.
First movements of 3001
And what has happened since? It's been many months since this happened. Other shop blogs should give some indication of other projects going on, and 3001, despite a renewed deadline, has had to sit for some extended periods of time. Work has continued though, as has its endeavours. The compressor was an obvious issue, so it was taken back off the car and opened up. The rebuild that was claimed to have been given years ago proved to be little more than revarnishing the motor, as well as taking out the pistons and rods only to do nothing to them and install them upside down starving the wrist pins of oil. There were indeed ring ridges in the bores, as well as generally bad pitting and corrosion allowing pressure to blow past the rings and into the crankcase. Judicious use of a cylinder hone and an improvised blanking plate to test compression allowed us to get it better, though not perfect. The compressor is back under the car, but it may yet be replaced when a better rebuilt one becomes available.
Home made testing plate for checking compression.
The number 1 end controller as it turns out was not only suffering from issues with dirty wheels and commutators, but it was also not firing the line switch. This was traced down to a single bent contact finger on the interlock in the controller, a 30 seconds and a screwdriver fix.
A couple months later the car was fired up again, this time for our Operations Manager Roger's birthday. The car once again made its short back and forths in the shop. An idea though began around this time. Everything that moves was coming up, and well technichally.....
June 21st of 2026 3001 eclipsed its moves earlier in the year by many orders of magnitude. There was no way the car was going to make it out into the parade, with the truck swap the curve of north road 2 is a disaster waiting to happen. So instead we took the car to a safe spot alongside of Kelly barn. Out the car rolled, no windows, no doors, not even all of a roof, but it made it. Some issues were found. The car's brakes bound up going through the curves out of the shop, and for some reason the #1 end controller's reverser is backwards.
3001 alongside Kelly Barn
3001 and 1326 together.
3001 traversing the crossing towards the shop.The
stinger being used to supply power can be seen in the back.
Shop Manager/ Article author operating on return to shop.
So what now, is yet to be done. Clarification on the grant came very recently. They, themselves, were unsure of what the exact verbiage meant, so all progress considered, though much slower than hoped, they were greatly pleased with the progress. As such, a clarification was made, to be considered complete, the car needs to be cosmetically complete and on display for the opening of the 2027 operating season.
The reason for this shift to a more cosmetic, for now, approach, is mostly on the trucks. They are rough, and while they are something we could rebuild in house, that is a task that takes a significant amount of time and effort, and will consume an already crowded and busy shop. At this point it's been decided the best move is to work on fundraising and get the trucks sent out to be done by a contractor. This is going to take time, and while borrowing 5645's trucks worked to get the car to come alive, it's not enough to run the car long term. Obviously, 5645 is going to need its trucks back, but the differences between the trucks have resulted in 3001 being too tall, and too wobbly. A car sitting on display doesn't have these issues. It can rest on lower shop trucks, and be much more stable. As of writing work is under way, though slowed due to other projects, to finish up the steelwork of the car, with plans coming together to complete the roof. The roof is one of our most major hurdles going forwards, followed closely by constructing the wooden framing for the windows in the door plugs, as well as glazing all the car's windows, which combined total 70 some odd pieces. Construction and finishing of the interior is planned for this winter, with the car moving into the visitors center so we can work in a warm environment, and so it will be on display for next season.
3001 has been something between a marathon and a sprint. There have been months where all energy has been committed, and others where the car has simply gathered dust. Though 3001 has been the "Primary" concern of the shop, and the highest priority, many other projects have, and continue, to come up all the time. 16 has also received major truck work, 836 received a freshly rebuilt motor, 2600 became its own saga multiple times. The Diesel had its water pump worked on, 18 has been brought back to life, line car 1 was given major work and a repaint. 303 is also currently in the shop having its roof redone. This is a far from complete list of other projects that have gone on.
The car has long been a fixture in the shop, and a project considered by many to be a "Forever" project. Unfinishable, in too deep, too in over our heads, and best simply shoved into some corner of some dusty storage barn and forgotten. Through the hard work of all involved in the project, this seeming inevitable glum fate has turned around. We're not out of the woods with it yet, and the work is still immense, but there is hope.
