Scranton Transit trolley #505 has been progressing well. This past summer, the shop that has been performing our metal work, AES LLC, moved to a new location a few miles away. This slowed work for a few months but also gave us a chance to really study the original Osgood Bradley plans and sort out the rest of the parts cache from RTY and the scrapped Queensboro Bridge car 601.
When the car was at Magee in 1972, about 8" was cut from the bottom of the side sheets on both sides. Despite their looks, the side sheets were still solid above the cut line so the decision was made to repair what was there and preserve as much original steel as possible. This included new angle down both sides and cross bracing where needed to square up and strengthen the shell.
The window tee posts had corroded heavily where they intersected with the top of the side sheets. Fortunately, we had several good tee posts from car #601, which were welded in as patch sections. The same was true for a handful of roof carlines that had been damaged. One still needs to be welded in place.
One of our biggest steps forward was the fabrication of two brand new bolsters. A quarter century of rust belt operation had heavily deteriorated the originals so the decision was made to just fabricate replacements. There is way more work than it looks like to build one of these, but AES knocked them out in short order once the originals were dissected and compared to the builder's drawings to make sure we had it right.
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The second big step for 2016 was the start of work on the platforms. This started with brand new knees being fabricated, and following into what will be the base structure for the woodwork to anchor to. There is a tricky, curved structural piece to be fabricated yet before the platforms can move any further; we had the original pieces from #601 but the profile is different than the Scranton cars.
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Sometime within the first half of 2017, the shell will be media blasted to remove the remaining rust scale. We also need to run electrical and the air piping before the chan-arch flooring can be installed. At the same time, we hope to start work on the trucks. The last few pieces of the puzzle will probably be the traction motors and the bulk of the woodwork in 2018.
We operate on donations and of course any amount is greatly appreciated. Probably the best way to stay updated on the project is our facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/scrantontrolley505. You can sponsor a seat on the car starting at $225 each, or dedicate an Operator's station for $1000. We also have tee post souvenir sections for sale, ornaments, t-shirts, art prints, etc. Our email is Trolley505@yahoo.com.
Thanks and Happy Holidays
