Preparations for Winter

 It's that time of year again in the shop at the Connecticut Trolley Museum! The shop crew is hard at work serving the fleet cars and making repairs to get the fleet ready for holiday service.

This past week, the crew has been working on Line Car S-193. S-193 is the main service car used by our volunteers to string over 10,000 Christmas lights that create the "Tunnel of Lights" on our mainline. 

S193's Roof Platform Half Retracted

Stringing Christmas Lights around the Section House. Photo Credit Sam MacMunn

Car 3001 Update

 Progress is being made on the Restoration of CT Company Car #3001.

Roof Carlins have been made and will be installed soon

Seats are starting to be painted and put back together 

One set of Trucks have been straightened and reinforced. The truck hangers have been milled and welded to the body of the truck 

16's Truck Work

 For the past few weeks, the shop has been hard at work disassembling the East truck on Springfield car 16. The ware components of the truck have worn down to the point that they needed to be replaced, starting with parts of the leaf spring and the bushings. This work will be continuing throughout the next weeks. 

One of the Reassembled Leaf Springs

The bushings will be replaced in the two circular holes

836's Motor Replacement

 The shop was delighted to take delivery of car 836's motor which unfortunately failed around this time last year. The day after delivery, the shop crew was in the shop working tirelessly to mount, wire, and test the motor to the car. Overall it took 2 days and totaled to about 12-18 hours per volunteer. 

The first step of the project was to jack 836's car body off the East truck and push the truck out from under the car. 

836 on support stands

The door mechanism had to be removed for the truck to clear the car body

Next was unwrapping the motor from its protective housing on the pallet and inspecting the motor for damage from shipping, as well as other components. 

Front view of the motor

Side view of the motor with Pinion Gear

After inspecting, it was time to mount the motor back onto the truck frame and line up the gears and mounting points

Putting the truck into position to lift and mount the motor

The crew guiding the motor into position for all the bolts to line up

The motor mounted to the axle and resting on the frame

Over the following day, the truck was rolled back under the car. The car body was then lowered back onto the truck.

The next day, the motor was lubricated, rewired, and tested. The motor will still need to have a break in period with the car and will need to be continually topped up with oil and grease to ensure the new motor is well lubricated. 

836 Returning to the shop after a test run

Thank you to all those who helped in reinstalling the motor on to this car!

The Wiring Begins

 This past weekend officially began the rerunning of wires in car 16.

Wire runs now begin through the terminal block in the cargo compartment of the car and run through the side panels to the auxiliary systems

Wires for auxiliary systems now running through the terminal block

Phil created wire organizers out of wood in the shop to further help make the wire runs clean and organized for later maintenance/inspection. 

New wire runs down the length of the car

A New Terminal Block and Knife Switch

 This weekend began the process of rewiring 16. It took a long time but all of years of cloth and sheathing has been removed from the main 600 VDC bus wire to make ready for a replacement wire dropping in from the roof. To ensure easy repairs in the future, the shop is routing the main 600 volt wire from the roof of the car into a Terminal Block and Knife switch. The terminal block will be able to control power to auxiliary systems of the car such as the lights and heat. The knife switch is going to be the cutoff for the main propulsion system of the car. There is still a lot of wiring to be done, but this is a large step in the right direction. 

Beginning to construct the box to house the knife switch and terminal block

The box with the terminal block and knife switch mounted

The finished product. The door to the terminal block will be screwed in once the wiring is complete

Tracing the Wires

 As with most equipment from the 1900's, it is very difficult to find any sources of documentation about the equipment. That is no exception for trolley cars. 

This weekend was spent tracing various auxiliary system wires from the main 600 VDC Feeder on car 16. At this point, all the wires for the heating, lighting, and line switch circuits have been traced. This means that in the coming weeks, 16 will begin getting  rewired to make repair work easier in the future and ensure the safe operation of the car. 

Ceiling Panels and Trim have been taken off to trace wires