Trolley Bus Department

Last weekend Howard Geier came out and worked all day Saturday buffing the Seattle 633.  It looks fantastic!  We are almost finished doing a cleaning of the interior also, so we finally got rid of 30 years worth of accumulated desert dust.  Jerry Saunders worked on finding replacement wheels for the street side rear since that was the tire that blew a couple weeks ago.  He found 2 for that side, we still need to search a little more for the curb side, which is still missing one.  As soon as we have a complete set of wheels, we are going to need to buy a new set of tires.  That’s another $1,500 – donations to the Trolley Bus Department are GREATLY appreciated!

This weekend Richard Schauer and I went out to OERM to identify parts that will come with the other coaches and what is needed to restore the LA coach.  It was over 100 degrees both days and inside the parts boxcars was pretty toasty to say the least.  The OERM guys helped us out by moving the boxcars into their Carhouse 7, so at least we didn’t bake out in the sun.  Thanks!

Richard Schauer and OERM's John Smatlak pick out trolley poles that will be used on the LA coach.

Richard goes through some of the stacks of trolley coach parts stored in OERM's boxcars.

We believe that we have our Edmonton coach picked out.  It will most likely be coach 181.  Richard is in the process of getting all the shipping paperwork in order – we are anticipating arrival by Labor Day.

On Thursday, Jerry replaced the faulty trolley bases on the roof of the Seattle 633.  We then took it out for a few trial runs and the poles, bases and boards worked flawlessly.  He also worked on the low voltage issues, clearing several of them up.  The coach also received some additional inspection, greasing and more cleaning inside – it needs more still as it was DIRTY!

Newly washed Seattle Twin 633 turning eastbound onto Central Avenue.

Friday saw the exterior of the 633 get a bath.  What a difference!  It will look even better next week as Howard Geier is scheduled to come out and buff the entire coach.  After washing, we had an impromptu “Seattle Day” as both the 633 and 4020 operated.  It was neat to see them both operating together.

Seattle Twin 633 leads Seattle MAN 4020 westbound on Central Avenue at Depot Street.

On Saturday, Bob Bourne visited from Iowa and operated Chicago Marmon 9553.  Since the railroad was closed for several hours for the trolley pageant, we became the only service.  Many trips during this time we operated virtually full loads.

This should be a link to a short YouTube video of the two Seattle coaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUA1YDwr32Y

Congratulations to the Car Department and all the volunteers who made the 4^th of July Trolley Pageant such a success.  Unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t cooperate, but it couldn’t dampen the spirits of everyone involved.  It was a GREAT show!!!!  WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!!!