Wire goes up at NORM
Trolley wire is now up at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum (NORM). It was strung on Thursday, December 10th. Used were Cleveland Railway differential crane 0711 to move Cleveland Transit System (CTS) line car 024 around. The 0711 has a gas generator(58 Chrysler hemi!) /rectifier set up on her deck to provide power. Line car 024 held the reel of 4/0 grooved trolley wire and was used to string the line. Line car 024 was home built in 1960 by CTS from Shaker Rapid center entrance car 1217. 1217 was built in 1914 by the Kuhlman Car Company for the Cleveland Railway, Cleveland’s city system streetcar company.
During this year complete bracket arm assemblies were assembled on the ground and then hung on poles set a couple years earlier. Ground anchor wires and anchor plates in concrete were set on the end poles. Museum volunteers Chuck Legree, Susan Legree, Tim Lassan, John Kostelnik, Walt Stoner, and Steve Heister worked on this. Then line
car 024 was prepped by Chuck Legree and Tim Lassan. The roof was repaired, the swing out work platform rebuilt and a reel brake constructed. The original reel brake was missing when we got the car. Line Department head Chuck Legree designed and built his own brake. It worked great, although it did moan like a love sick cow when the reel
was rotating as wire was reeled out. It was amusing to hear!
On wire day, the train of 0711 and 024 was taken to the end of the line. Our Gehl skid loader was used to pull the overhead wire out of 024 and past 0711 to the first pole. Then using our bucket truck the trolley wire was attached. Then our train headed north to the first bracket arm. Here the wire was tied off loosely with rope, then went to bracket arm 2 and repeated the process. This continued until the leading north wheel of 024 was up against the car stops at the north end of the line being electrified. Then Using a come along, slack was taken out of the wire and attached to the end poles. The pantograph on 024 was raised for pictures. In the coming days the wire will be properly tensioned and hangers attached at all the bracket arms.
The crew that did this consisted of Line Department head Chuck Legree. He was directing the work crew. He worked primarily on the roof of 024. He monitored the wire as it was reeled out and then tied it off to each bracket arm. Inside 024 working the reel brake was Jim Mladonicky. Jim Rivers was motorman on 0711. Walt Stoner was on the
ground watching the train operation, another set of eyes on the wire at a different angle and relaying signals from Chuck to Jim for train movement.
Thursday, November 10th was a good day at NORM.
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File comment: The wire being reeled out of 024 off the wooden reel. lrDSC_4389.jpg [ 168.24 KiB | Viewed 6941 times ] |
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File comment: Our wire train. Notice the wire exiting the roof and going up to the post with the pulley on top and then it’s over the train. lrDSC_4365.jpg [ 215.47 KiB | Viewed 6941 times ] |
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File comment: The end of the line with the Bucket truck next to the end pole and the wire train going down the line. lrDSC_4334.jpg [ 153.19 KiB | Viewed 6941 times ] |