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Latest News |
2010 News
Will you become part of it?
Rockhill Trolley Museum depends on volunteers, people just like you, willing to contribute time, skills, knowledge, and financial support so our museum can constantly evolve for the benefit of our visitors and volunteers.
Can you help?
Thanks for supporting what we do!
(Latest news and photographs appear first on this page. Scroll down for earlier material. Past years' pages are generally in calendar-order.)
July 2010
Let There be Light
« Carbarn Two now has lights installed between the tracks illuminating inside the barn.
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PCC Progress
« Harry was recently working on the interior of Philadelphia PCC car 2743 touching up paint improving the appearance inside.
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CA&E 315 Progress
We have made good progress on our 101 year old interurban recently.
« The anti-climber was recently separated from the bumper, cleaning out the decades of corrosion between the two.
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« The air temperature was not the only heat in the shop recently as a vintage rivet heater was fired to heat the rivets used in riveting the anti-climber to the bumper of 315.
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« Courtney brings the red hot rivet out of the furnace and places it in the bumper.
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« Keith, Nicholas and Courtney stand with the finished product.
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« Keith "fine tunes" the position of the bumper on the end of the car.
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« Car 315 is constructed with a steel underframe beneath the wooden exterior. Corrosion on one side has pushed one area of the car side out. The wood siding and wood underframe has been removed and the worst of the corroded steel framing has been cut out for replacement.
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« The exterior of 315 has changed dramatically from how it looked just a few months ago from our October 2009 update. Your donations are making this work possible.
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All Aboard for ice cream
« Open car 1875 arrives at Meadow St. from Blacklog Narrows with a group waiting for the next ride.
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« A group of passengers disembark from 1875 to head for the ice cream under the pavilion.
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« Nearly everyone likes ice cream.
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June 2010
Opening Day - 50th Anniversary of the EBT
The museum participated in the 50th Anniversary program for the EBT celebrating 50 years of operation as a tourist railroad.
« Here is the group of speakers and members of the Kovalchick family and EBT officials.
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« The Keystone Sax Quartet entertained visitors at the museum with numerous melodies for several hours on opening day.
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May 2010
Members Day!
Our Annual Members Day for the past few years have been moved to May to allow a more flexible schedule for all volunteers to have a good time and not have the worry of regular public trolley operation. This year was another enjoyable day even if the weather did not cooperate completely. A surprise was in store for all those attending. The Liberty Liner was moved outdoors for the first time in many years.
« Philadelphia & Western 402 arrives at the Brick platform to load passengers for a trip to Blacklog Narrows.
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« No snow today! P&W plow 10 made a few trips for Members Day as well.
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« Walter operated sweeper 09 from his hometown of Washington DC. Sweeper 09 is our oldest operating trolley. It was constructed in 1899!
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« The Liner is outside!
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« Riding aboard the Liner to Blacklog Narrows. Many of our volunteers and members of the museum today have never seen the Liner outdoors, let alone ride it; the train is always stored inside Carbarn Two.
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« Rachael will have along wait for a drink. The bar is closed. The Liners featured a tavern lounge car, complete with a bar and liquor licenses while the trains were in Philadelphia.
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« The Liner at Blacklog Narrows. Due to the length of the train it does not clear the pocket track. The M-25 and freight motor 402, which pushed the train to Blacklog, are at the west end of train.
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« The Liberty Liner Independence Hall made a strange site at Blacklog Narrows.
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Rockhill Trolley Museum on Television
The Rockhill Trolley Museum was visited by TV 27 personality Chuck Rhodes on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 for the recording of a Chuck Rhodes "Out & About" segment, which aired on Thursday, June 3, 2010 during the 6PM local news program and again at noon on Friday, June 4. You should still be able to see it on the ABC 27 website http://cfc.whtm.com/external.cfm?p=chuck
« With York car 163 at Blacklog Narrows, filming proceeds for one scene of many that were taken over the four hour visit.
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« Jack, the ABC 27 cameraman, Ed and Chuck take time for a picture taken by Al, who was also responsible for inviting Chuck to visit the museum.
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April 2010
Let there be light
A project we have wanted to get started on for quite a while is lighting inside Carbarn Two. Volunteers got started on the project in April.
« Up in the bucket, Frank runs wire assisted by the ground crew of Doug and Ron.
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« With cars moved out of the barn to allow the bucket car inside, a good look at our 1895 Valley Railways car was able to be seen.
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Trolley Operations, April 2010
It takes many volunteers to keep the trolleys in operation each day that we are open for our visitors. Here are the training students and instructors form our spring training sessions. We're always looking for additional volunteers that want to learn to operate our trolley cars. Check the membership page for more information on how YOU can help!.
« Oliver, Rick and Jack taking practice runs on York 163.
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« Here's the crew of students and instructors for another day of training with Budd, Rob, Rick, Marjorie, Jack, Valerie, Kimber and Peter. Yes ladies, you too can learn to operate trolleys!
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Track maintenance Spring 2010
Each spring volunteers embark on a major track rehabilitation project. Volunteers this year replaced 101 ties and resurfaced nearly 1,000 feet of track. The museum's recently acquired tamper was a huge help in accomplishing the amount of tamping accomplished this year.
« A rail was replaced with a different rail due to a bend near the joint that would have been difficult to spike straight.
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« Volunteers use the custom tie nipper car to aid in installing the ties.
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« The nipper car holds the tie securely to the rail, while volunteers drive the new spikes into the ties.
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« Charlie, Nicholas, Steve and Henry take a break after all 101 ties were spiked.
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« The ballast train is loaded with new stone ballast.
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« Nicholas, Tyler and Kimber unload a car of stone the old fashioned way. This is how we had to always do ballasting at the museum before the dump car was built. Before the Bobcat loader was acquired, we even loaded it by hand!
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« Gravity is a huge help with unloading stone into the track with the dump car.
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« It may not look pretty, but our tamper is a valuable machine to our volunteers that maintain the track!
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March 2010 Car maintenance
Our Johnstown 355 had worn pinion gears. All four pinion gears were replaced with less effort than was originally anticipated, once the tricks were discovered.
Making pinion stew
« After the removal of the old gear, the new pinion was boiled in hot water to expand it. The enlarged gear would then slide over the tapered shaft with ease. Matt looks over the "cooking" pinion gear.
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« That shiny tapered shaft is where the where the new pinion will slide onto and mesh with the bull gear. The bull gear is mounted on the axle.
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February, 2010
A year of snow
It's been many years since we've had winter weather like we had this past winter. Volunteers gathered for a special trip in late February to use our Philadelphia & Western plow 10 to clear the line of snow.
« Blacklog Narrows, here we come!
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« The crew at Blacklog Narrows after the trip was made.
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Caboose renovation
Calling all woodworkers! The Central of Georgia Caboose entered the shop late in 2009 for renovation. Volunteers use this vehicle as a bunkhouse for overnight stays.
« Volunteers began the removal of the rotten plywood siding in February.
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« The rotted siding is removed from the caboose revealing some structural woodwork that is required.
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« Henry assesses the work that is required for replacing the rotted main beam on the lower portion of the caboose.
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January, 2010
It's cold in here!
« With no real heat in the shop, Valerie and Judy still volunteered a few hours of removing paint from our 100 year old interurban car.
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