Wednesday (10/1)

     Fred Schneider was Dispatcher with Dennis Falter, Charlie Plantholt, Ben Bates the elder and Jim Robertson as crew for a charter.

Saturday (10/4)

     Ed and I worked on 7407 for a stuck track brake that was reported the previous week. During our investigation we noticed that the motor/generator brushes were getting worn down (new ones were ordered) and that the batteries were not holding their charge. Rick Obbink went out and returned with a new set of batteries (four 8V batteries) while Ed and I continued to check the battery charging circuit.

     Ed and I then went over to 6119 to add more fluid to the controller. The controller has a small leak in the cylinder that controls the acceleration and after a period of time the fluid leaks out to the point that we need to add more.

     I then cleaned and lubricated the controller on car 264.

     Rick Obbink and JC worked in the shop.

     Dave Naujokas was Dispatcher with Dennis Falter, Dom Homberg and Bernie Sachs as crew.

Sunday (10/5)

     Ed Amrhein was Dispatcher with Sharon Higgins and Mike Citro as crew.

Saturday (10/11)

     Ed Amrhein, Chris McNally, Mark Hurley and I removed the pole base from 7407. During the original building of the car the trolley pole base was isolated from the car body by a mounting structure that used rubber inserts. Rubber as old as was on this car (at least 50 years) gets hard and brittle and had finally unbonded from the metal structure. While the pole was still securely fastened to the car, it would make a thumping sound. The only solution was to remove the pole base assembly from the car, remove the old rubber inserts and insert new ones. With the base removed, the assembly was sent to the shop to be rebuilt.

     6119's controller required additional fluid and the leak is becoming worse. More fluid was added.

     Ed, Chris and I then went to the Library to research the flood history of the museum for use in a FEMA grant.

     Mark Hurley was Dispatcher with Dennis Falter and Dan McCaffery as crew.

Sunday (10/12)

     John O'Neil was Dispatcher with Mel Boteler, Jim Robertson and Dennis Falter as crew.

Saturday (10/18)

     Chris Howell was Dispatcher with Dan McCaffery and Dennis Falter as crew.

Sunday (10/19)

     Carl Merson was Dispatcher with Buster Hughes, Dan McCaffery and Don Homberg as crew.

Saturday (10/25)

     Sam and family continued to work on recycling the soda cans.

     Charlie Plant holt cut the grass around the Visitor's Center.

     Ben Bates was Dispatcher with Joyce Boblitz, Dennis Falter and Fred Schneider as crew.

Sunday (10/26)

     John La Costa was Dispatcher with Cath La Costa, Dan McCaffery and Mark Dawson as crew.

Wednesday (10/29)

     Ray Cannon was Dispatcher with Mike Citro and Charlie Plantholt as crew for a charter.

Saturday (11/1)

     Ed Amrhein, Chris McNally and Dan McCaffery replaced the pole on 7407 with the rebuilt trolley base.

     Dave Crow and Chris McNally replaced pull offs on the North Avenue loop.

     Mark Hurley was Dispatcher with Dennis Falter as crew for a charter.

Sunday (11/2)

     Ed Amrhein was Dispatcher with Dan McCaffery, Joe Naujokas , Dave Naujokas, Chris McNally, Dennis Falter, Andy Blumberg and Ben Bates as crew.

Sunday (11/9)

     Ben Bates was Dispatcher with David Baynes, Mike Citro, Joyce Boblitz and Sharon Higgins as crew.

Thursday (11/13)

     Ben Bates the elder was Dispatcher with Mike Citro and Charlie Plantholt as crew for a charter.

Saturday (11/15)

     Ed Amrhein, Dan McCaffery, Chris McNally, Chris Howell and I continued replacing the siding on the track four side of the Car House. The Siding had been removed to allow the welding of roof supports for the new track four extension. Now that the roof beams were in place, we had to seal up the side to keep the rain out of the car house.

     John Engleman and Buster Hughes replace to old torn El Paso PCC cover with a new one.

     Rick Williams started working on the Visitor's center decorations for the upcoming Christmas opening.

     Rick Obbink, CJ and Joyce Boblitz continued working at the 22nd Street Shop.

Sunday (11/16)

     Dave Crow was Dispatcher with Don Homberg, Carl Thistel and Joyce Boblitz as crew.

Saturday (11/22)

     Rick Obbink and CJ replaced the temporary repair I did the night before on the 22nd Street Shop door. It seems that the day before the crew had been at the shop working all day and had been using the wood stove to head the shop. When they left for the day they just closed the stove up and let the fire die down like they always did. Later that nigh the alarm went off (unrelated to the stove) and when the police arrived they saw smoke coming off the roof. They called the Fire Department and when they arrive they force open the door to put out the "fire". Needless to say there was no fire and by the time I arrived the door was no longer lockable. Given the late hour I did a quick fix and left it for the shop crew to fix it next morning.

     Carl Merson was Dispatcher with Joyce Boblitz, Mike Citro, Sharon Higgins and Chris McNally as crew for a charter.

Sunday (11/23)

     Dave Naujokas was Dispatcher with Joe Naujokas, John O'Neil, Dan McCaffery and Dan Lawrence as crew.

Saturday (11/29)

     I first measured the RPM on the air compressor on 6119 so that the spare unit that was being rebuilt could be dynamically balanced.

     Up at the shop CJ was working on rebuilding 3828's truck.

Sunday (11/30)

     John La Costa was Dispatcher with Joyce Boblitz and Dennis Falter as crew.

Saturday (12/6)

     This was the first of four days of Tinsel Trolley fund raising. While the crew was ready, Santa was ready the weather was not. It was a small turn out given the bad weather ( I had driven up to Wilmington that morning to run a steam engine an it was the worst driving weather I had ever seen). By afternoon it looked great, as long as your street was plowed.

     Ed Amrhein was Dispatcher with Drew Paren, Dan McCaffery, Joyce Boblitz and Dave Naujokas as crew.

Sunday (12/7)

     This turned out to be a slightly better day and the turnout for the Tinsel trolley was a little bit better than yesterday, but far below normal.

     Dan Lawrence was Dispatcher with Paul Ritterhoff, Dan McCaffery, Drew Paren, Joyce Boblitz and John La Costa as crew.

Saturday (12/13)

     At last good weather and a good turn out for the second week of Tinsel Trolley.

     Dave Naujokas was Dispatcher with Joe Naujokas and Dennis Falter as crew for a morning charter.

     Dave Crow was Dispatcher with Greg Thompson, Carl Thistel, Drew Paren, Dave Noujokas, Joyce Boblitz, Dan Lawrence and John Engleman as crew.

Sunday (12/14)

     It turns out that yesterday was to be the only good day of weather for Tinsel Trolley. The turnout was lower than normal.

     Carl Merson was Dispatcher with Joyce Boblitz, Ben Bates, Dan Lawrence, Bernie Sachs and Mark Dawson as crew.

Saturday (12/20)

     After much discussion, I modified the wiring on 6119 so that it would go to the full parallel position mechanically but stay in full series electrically. This change will accomplish two things. One it will prevent the car from running at too high a speed and should minimize the controller fluid leakage until we can rebuild the unit. This rewiring was done with the help on Dan McCaffery and Ed Amrhein.

     Just to make the day complete, just as we were leaving #2 Car House came off the tracks and Ed had to wait for the overhead door repair to be completed.

Sunday (12/21)

     Bob Krueger was Dispatcher with Mel Boteler, Bernie Sachs, Mike Citro and Sharon Higgins as crew.

Sunday (12/28)

     John O'Neil was Dispatcher with Paul Ritterhoff , Drew Paren, Dan McCaffery, Jim Robertson and Dave Wilson as crew.