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Wednesday, September 12. 2018Bus Stop Shop To Open Early!!
According to the calendar, the Bus Stop Shop is scheduled to open on Bus Day, September 29. To say "thank you" to everyone for their patience over Labor Day weekend, the Bus Stop Shop will be open throughout Showcase Weekend, September 15-16!!! This will be the largest Bus Stop Shop ever, giving you the opportunity to purchase surplus items from the Museum's collection. Stop by the Andersen Trolley Bus Garage from 10:00am - 4:00pm on Saturday 09/15 and Sunday 09/16. The Andersen Garage is conveniently located at the Electric Park stop on the streetcar line. On Saturday you will also be able to ride the trolley bus right to the front door. Of course we will also be open on Bus Day as scheduled, Saturday 09/29.
Thursday, September 28. 2017Bus Day Tentative Schedule
We
are scheduled to run 6 trolley coaches and 2 motor buses on Saturday for Bus
Day. Depending on mechanical condition
and operator availability, here is what we envision. We will start with Chicago Marmon-Herrington
9553 at 10:00am. It will be joined by
Seattle Gillig 4123 at 11:00. Both will
run until 11:45. At that time 9553 will
be parked. At 12:00, Milwaukee
Marmon-Herrington 441 joins 4123. At
12:45, 4123 is parked and at 1:00 Seattle M-A-N 4020 joins 441. At 1:45, 441 is parked and at 2:00 Dayton
Flyer 925 joins 4020. At 2:45, 4020 is
parked and at 3:00 Seattle Twin 633 joins 925.
Finally at 4:00, 9553 goes solo again until 5:00pm. Throughout the day motor buses CMC GMC 605
and Janesville RTS 412 will supplement trolley bus service but will not run on
a specific schedule (again subject to condition). The Bus Stop Shop will be open for business
again this year, selling surplus items from the Museum's collection to raise
funds for a new bus garage. We
appreciate the tremendous support and feedback we received after last year's
inaugural event. We hope this year will
be even better!!!
Wednesday, September 28. 2016Bus Day (10/01) - Wednesday UpdateExcellent progress is being made on the construction on Central & Railroad. We are anticipating being able to provide service on Bus Day!!! Our plan is to run 6 different trolley buses throughout the day, with 2 motor buses supplementing that service. All trips will originate and end at the Andersen Garage - home of the Bus Stop Shop. Trolley buses will depart Andersen at :00, :15, :30 and :45 past the hour. If able, motor buses will run trips between those times, so vehicles will alternate between trolley and motor buses with every trip. Here is our tentative schedule (as always, subject to change due to equipment/road conditions or other factors): First 4 trips (11:00am - 11:45am) will be Seattle MAN 4020. The next 4 (12:00pm - 12:45pm) will be Dayton Flyer 925. 1:00pm - 1:45pm will feature Seattle Twin 633. 2:00pm - 2:45pm will be Milwaukee Marmon-Herrington 441. 3:00pm - 3:45pm will see Seattle Gillig 4123, and finally 4:00pm - 4:45pm CTA Marmon-Herrington 9553 will be in service. The two motor buses providing supplemental service will be Janesville RTS 412 and CMC GM 605. We will not have set times for them due to condition and other factors. We also invite private owners of former transit buses to bring them out and display them. There is no registration required. If you would like to display your bus, come into the main parking lot and go all the way to the gate at the east end of the entrance drive. There will be someone near the Wagner loop to assist you to enter and park you bus on the grass just south of the Wagner loop. These privately owned buses may not be driven around the property nor give rides, but it does give you the opportunity to "show it" to all our Bus Day visitors!!! Should anything change, an update will be posted on this blog. Don't forget, no matter what the road conditions, the Bus Stop Shop will be open all day in the Andersen Garage, where you can browse through and buy excess items from our collection. We hope to see you out on Saturday!!! Sunday, September 25. 2016Bus Day (10/01) - SERVICE UPDATEAs many of you know, construction has started on the streetcar track that will be located down the middle of Main Street, and will eventually become part of the Carline extension. That project has resulted in the intersection of Central & Railroad being torn up. Of course that is a part of our Trolley Bus line. B&G and our contractors are working feverishly to make one lane of that intersection at least passable by Bus Day on 10/01. At this point, NO GUARANTEE could be given that the line will be able to be used on 10/01, but it looks good for limited operation. If all goes as we hope, we will operate westbound on Central, turn north on Railroad and around the Wagner Loop. On the return trip southbound on Railroad, we will hop the trolley poles to the northbound wires and operate back on the "wrong" side until the double wire ends at the used bookstore. No matter the outcome of the construction issue, we WILL have motor bus operation (as always, based on condition) on 10/01 using the Janesville RTS 412 and the Chicago Motor Coach GM 605, which Vince Allen and John LeBeau were able to get running reliably yesterday (09/24). We WILL have many of the trolley and motor buses outside the garages, open for inspection and for photos. We WILL have several trolley and motor buses inside the garages open for inspection. We WILL have the Bus Stop Shop open for business, selling excess memorabilia from the museum's collection. As I receive further updates I will post them on this blog. Thanks to everyone for their questions, inquiries and interest in this event!!! Wednesday, November 25. 2015Thankful For A Lot! New Trolley Bus Arrives 11/25/2015.At 10:15am on Wednesday 11/25/2015, Seattle Gillig Trolley Bus 4123 rolled off the truck trailer under its own power! The bus was loaded in Seattle on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to the guys at Extreme Trucking, it safely made the cross-country trip in about 3½ days. As usual, the guys at MEHVA (Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association) out in Seattle took care of us. They chose a coach that was in great shape and mechanically sound. They also sent along ever critical extra parts.
Our coach has a build date of February 13, 2002. It is exactly 13 years, 9 months and 12 days old. It may very well be the youngest piece of equipment ever to join the museum's historic collection.
We were able to make two test trips and it performed wonderfully. As this is such a new bus, there are a couple things that we are figuring out as we go and we have a couple outstanding questions for the MEHVA guys, but it was great running a bus that could easily still be in service. We are immediately getting busy emptying, cleaning, inspecting and testing the bus and will hopefully have it in service for the Christmas event in a week and a half.
In this season of giving thanks, those involved with this acquisition come to mind. First, thanks to all the guys out in Seattle for arranging this and taking care of the loading. Thanks to the Board of Directors for having the foresight to approve such an exciting new acquisition. As always, a HUGE thank you goes to Richard Schauer. He arranged the trucking and took care of all that was necessary to "de-shippify" the bus once it arrived - putting back all the things that had to be done/undone in order to ship it. Finally, THANK YOU to everyone who has supported the Trolley Bus Department over the years. With the previous acquisitions from MOT in St. Louis and this one, our trucking costs are in the $15,000 range. Even though vehicles are either donated or made available at scrap value, it still costs a considerable amount to transport them to the museum. Your past and continued support allows us to keep working and (hopefully) keep acquiring as exciting opportunities (like this one) arise.
We in the Trolley Bus & Motor Bus Departments wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!! |
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Comments
Sun, 02-21-2021 21:12
Hi Ethan The 428 has been worked on recently but the focus now is on the maintenance and repair on the 1630 and the Shay. This Spring we will [...]
Sun, 02-21-2021 15:10
How is the UP 428 Steam locomotive engine is most done being fixed. OK Roger.
Sun, 02-21-2021 13:18
Hello Max The answer is Yes, the Dover will be used along with our other Pullman cars only in special event operations. When not in use [...]
Sun, 02-21-2021 12:30
Hello Jim We will be operating the Dover this year depending upon its mechanical condition. I hope to use the car in display venue as well as in [...]
Sun, 02-21-2021 12:24
Hello Kirk Hello, Yes the Dover is now in great shape. There are a couple of little projects to accomplish when the weather changes. I am [...]
Sat, 02-20-2021 18:55
Will the DOVER STRAIT be operational for Museum trips
Sat, 02-20-2021 17:06
I’m really impressed with the wonderful job your volunteers are doing to restore this historic passenger car. Once the restoration is complete, does [...]
Sat, 02-20-2021 14:02
It is great to see the work that Bob Hunter and Gene Macowiak started in the 1990’s. Great work done in finishing the two bedrooms and the buffet [...]
Fri, 02-19-2021 18:41
Very good article. I definitely love this website. Continue the good work!
Tue, 02-02-2021 10:15
I know it is wintertime, and the Virus is making getting people in to do work is difficult, so in a few months, when it's warmer, would someone please [...]
Sun, 01-31-2021 14:37
Hello Jack Thank you very much We in the coach dept are working very hard to have these trains restored Thanks Roger
Sat, 01-30-2021 18:45
pre oiler is a great idea saves lots of wear and tear on engines. a pat on the back for the diesel crew