T he Wednesday crew had one charter with Warren Olt as Dispatcher and John Diefenbach, Harry Gesser and C. Ben Bates as crew. All the charters were given rides on the open car 554 and the PCC, 7407.

     Ed and I started Saturday morning working on the second folding step for 3550. By lunch the basic step mechanism was installed, including a temporary wooden step. These two steps should allow the member to easily view the interior of the car during the annual meeting. The second folding step still needs some additional hardware to be fully functional.

     Rick Obbink spent the morning repairing rail bonds. While the rails are very efficient conductors of the electrical current used to run the streetcars, each rail joint can be a source of lost energy. To minimize this loss, a wire is welded from one rail to the next to provide an easy path for the current to follow. The bond wires are welded to the rail using a conventional stick welder or using thermit. Having all the bonds in place allows the cars to operated with the maximum amount of voltage, which is also the most efficient as far as cost of operation.

     After lunch Ed and I went up to the shop to make one of the missing parts for the folding steps. The missing part is a 3/4" threaded rod with an eye at the end. Since we did not have one, we took a regular bolt, heated the head of the bolt and using the anvil hammered it into the proper shape. After it had cooled, Ed drilled out the flatten end to the size of the pin. All that is left is to get a jam nut and install it on the car.

     The Saturday revenue crew was small with Dan Lawrence as Dispatcher and Denis Falter and Greg Thompson as crew. The number of visitors was good with a number of the cars almost loaded to capacity.

     The Sunday revenue crew was Dan Lawrence as Dispatcher and Bob Cohen and Ray Cannon as crew. The Sunday visitors were less than Saturday.

John