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Recalling the National Capital Trolley Museum Fire:
Six Months Later
Guest Editorial by Wes Paulson
National Capital Trolley
Museum
Editor's Note: in this article from the newsletter of the
National Capital Trolley Museum, NCTM Board member and RyPN
reader Wes Paulson looks back six months later on the Museum's effort
to recover from a carbarn fire and loss of 8 street railway vehicles in
September 2003. We reprint it here with the permission of the author.
People continue to ask me "How are you doing after the fire?"
Elliot Pfanstiehl, Executive Director of Strathmore Hall (Editor's
Note: a large classical music venue in Montgomery County, MD), is
a colleague of mine. A resident of nearby Stonegate, Elliot is a neighbor
of the Museum. In a recent e-mail, Elliot commented "I drive by
the Museum twice a day and wonder how does someone recover from something
like that fire?"
Each of us involved at the Museum has felt the impact from the fire
in some way. I have spent a lot of my emotional energy in working on
the salvage and demolition of what I called the ruins. Working with
Bob Schnabel, Ken Rucker and others, I helped to identify parts and
pieces for salvage, carry larger parts and artifacts away from the building,
and help secure the property each day after the demolition contractor
had finished for the day. All went well until the day I arrived and
the remains of JTCo. 352 were in the dumpster, and the trucks had been
pulled outside the building. There was an empty space on track three
where the car sat. The car was gone.
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| Johnstown Transit Company 352 in happier days, March 2003;
remains of JTC 352 the afternoon following the fire. Erik Ledbetter
photos. |
My outlook slowly improved in the days following the removal of the
Johnstown car. I stopped closely examining the contractor's demolition
work and that seemed to help my attitude. Soon after that, the architect
delivered some good news about the plans for the new building: we are
almost ready to file for approval of plans for the design of the display
carbarn. Last week Charles Tirschman reported that our visitor counts
for February were higher than the previous two years. Museum educator
Sonya Kearney reports a full schedule of groups for the Spring school
program dates. The most recent good news was the announcement that the
County Executive recommended funding the Museum's request for sprinklers
in the Visitor's Center and remaining carhouse. The recent good news
does not minimize the fact that the Museum has suffered a major loss
from the fire. Each of us will carry this loss for many more months
and into the coming years. Rather I see and feel the hope for our continued
future in these new developments.
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| Vienna power car 6062 in happier days, October 1999. Erik Ledbetter
photo. |
After the fire I copied photos for my screensaver at work from the
Museum's website. Images of JTCo 352, CTCo 07 and CTCo 1053 parade across
my screen each day. I selected a photo of the Vienna train for my desktop
wallpaper on the computer. I have looked the images each day for the
last six months. One day last week I took a long look at the image of
the Vienna train, framed by some pink dogwoods, and for the first time
I smiled and recalled the happy times I have shared operating cars and
working with friends at the Museum. The cars are gone, but the memories
will always be there as we move ahead together into the future.
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