T he Wednesday crew had a number of charters with Warren Olt as Dispatcher and Harry Gesser, John Diefenbach, James C. Robertson and Tom Phillips as crew. Harry helped during the morning and Jim took over for Harry during the afternoon. C. Ben Bates was also present but Warren did not need him to help with the operation on the cars since the charter groups were spread out during the day. All the charters were given rides on the open car 554 and the Witt, 6119.

     Thursday evening was the annual band concert. This is the one time during the year when the museum truly transports peoples to get them to another location, in this case 27th street to enjoy the concert. This operation is very typical of a regular transit operation since the people come in somewhat spread out in time before the convert and all want to leave at the same time after the concert. This results in a lot of museum people sitting on their car during the concert waiting to bring everyone back. Mark Hurley was Dispatcher, Justin Thillman was cashier, Dan Lawrence as Starter, and Andy Blumberg, David Baynes, Sharon Higgins and Charles Plantholt as crew.

     The crane crew continues to work on replacing the wood on the boom and paint the interior of the cab. They also have started to accumulate the materials needed to rebuild one of the Philadelphia truck to Baltimore gauge. The major structural steel has been purchased and I have to order the long bolts to hold everything together.

     Saturday morning started with Dave Crew, Ed Amrhein, Rick Obbink, Josh Lepman and I unloading the Horse car from the trailer back to its normal location in the car house. Due to the old age of the Horse Car it is taken to and from parades on a trailer to reduce wear and tear. This was a somewhat involved process now that the Car House is so packed and it was about 10 AM before the unloading was completed.

     The next task was to continue replacement of the insulators at 28th street loop. Dave had brought enough rebuilt insulators to do another pole (8 insulators) and after getting all the tools together we went out with the line car and line truck to 28th street. The rest of the day Dave, Ed, Rich and I spent replacing the set of insulators attached to that one pole. The construction requires that all insulators be replaced at the same time. It took three ratchet hoists, and a lot of coordination with the Dispatcher, but by 5 PM everything had been changed out.

     While we were out at the loop Paul Ritterhoff came by and showed us the tool he had built to make offset carriage bolts. We will use this tool to custom fit the bolts used to fix the steps on 1050.

     The Dispatcher for Saturday was Ray Cannon with Greg Thompson, Mark Dawson and Jim Robertson as crew. The number of visitors was average, and almost all were treated to seeing the line work in progress a 28th street. A number of visitors got off the car and came over to the line crew to ask questions and take pictures. Greg Thompson completed his on car training during the day and was qualified as a motorman. Congratulations!

     Sunday I was Dispatcher with Dave Crow, Cath La Costa, Sharon Higgins and Don Homberg as crew. There was a reasonable number of visitors and no problems. Rick Obbink and Ray Cannon worked on track related items. Rick also adjusted 554's fender so that it was not dropping to one side.

     The PCC still looks good after last week's bath!

John