The Museum continues to grow. With two barns in place, much of the collection is now protected from the elements, and volunteers are busy working on restoring the Museum's vast array of equipment. The Museum is still acquiring more equipment to build its collection. Articles on these pages are based on information gleaned from the Bimonthly NORM Publication, The Northern Light and other authoritative sources. Articles will be added on a continuing basis.

News Index

• Museum News Briefs - Fall 2009.  (08/09)


• Museum News Updates - Spring/Summer 2009.  (08/09)


• NORM Members Weekend 2008.  (10/08)


• Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Combine # 1088 to be used as interim Visitor's Center.  (02/08)

Fall is here and the Museum remains busy. Over the Summer we accomplished the following:

Bids for Brookins Cars - Sadly, the Lake Shore Electric Museum (sucessor to Trolleyvile USA) folded over the summer. This museum housed some 30+ cars acquired by Gerald E. Brookins, starting with four CLeveland Interurban Railroad (ex-Aurora Elgin & Fox River) lightweight interurbans purchased from the Shaker Rapid in late 1954. The collection is being auctioned, and NORM is bidding for cars of significance to Northeast Ohio. We hope to keep these cars here where they were built and/or operated. Keep watching for news.

New Tool Aids Restoration - As of July the Anson Bennett barn has a glass bead blasting cabinet. Like a sand blaster, this pneumatic device uses near-microscopic glass beads to remove rust, scale and corrosion from metal parts. Jobs as delicate as polishing electrical contacts and as rough as scaling rusty spring hangers have been done with great success. Its main job now is painting prep for TTC 2778's rear truck parts. The tool was acquired when it was realized the device cost only slightly more than sending parts out for commercial blasting.

TTC 2778 - Side sheet replacement nears completion, and electrical conduit installation is done. The rear truck has been totally dismantled. Most parts have been cleaned, primed and finish painted in light grey. The motors are being test run on low-power current, and show every sign of being servicable.

SHRT 92 - Painting this PCC has been an on-going process for several seasons. It's an "outside cat" that needs body stabilization to arrest further decay pending restoration. On one heroic July day a single volunteer primed and patched a myriad of holes and bare spots that had developed since the car was primed two years ago. Eventually vistors will see it in its original 1947 scheme - yellow with three green belt stripes.

Visitor's Center - Needlescaling and priming continues apace. Most of the frame has been primed and a sub-floor is in place.

(Photos - B.C. Gage Collection)

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Carhouse dedicated in memory of the late Father John McCarthy.

On May 16, 2007 the museum lost a good friend with the death of Fr. John McCarthy. He was a retired priest of the Diocese of Steubenville in residence, St. Philomena Parish in East Cleveland. He celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest just a few years ago.

Fr. McCarthy was a long time member and supporter of the museum. He was a strong advocate of rail rapid transit and light rail transit who both expressed his views and took proponents of buses to task through the editorial pages of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Steve Heister recalls that about ten years ago Fr. McCarthy made an around the world cruise on the QE2. He received a reduced fare for being the resident priest on board and saying daily mass in the ship chapel. He made a presentation on his trip at a NORM media night. He talked about and showed pictures from various trolley museums and trolley systems he visited during this trip. He had information on Australia and New Zealand trams in the presentation. He had a printed handout about his world wide trolley cruise.

Dale Rothenberger recalls: “I met Fr. McCarthy on the NORM fantrip to Pittsburgh in 1993. Much to my surprise, I discovered he was a priest in East Cleveland while we were talking at the Library Loop while waiting on our trolley. From then on we had much to talk about: East Cleveland (where he practiced and I was a cop), Cleveland Heights (where I used to live) and of course traction and public transportation in Cleveland”

Mark Adamcik recalls attending and participating in the choir at Fr. McCarthy’s 50th anniversary Mass. Mark also represented the museum at the funeral.

We all have fond memories of Fr. John and we will all miss him very much.

On August 16, 2009, in honor of Father McCarthy’s generosity and friendship, a carbarn at Northern Ohio Railway Museum was dedicated to his memory as the John R. McCarthy Carhouse.

Now that our two car barns are finished, serious restoration is underway. Here are some of our most important projects, completed and on-going, for 2009:

TTC 2778 - Restoration work on the Toronto Witt's frame is now finished and a fresh coat of paint has been applied to it. New end panels have been fabricated and installed on the car body and side panel replacement work is underway. The brake cylinder and associated rigging have been reinstalled after rust removal, inspection and repainting. The air plumbing is largely finished. Re-wiring the car and re-building the power trucks are the current big jobs in progress.

Car Barns - Museum Volunteers have put in many hours over the past year to make our barns safe and accessable for our summer walking tour guests and work crews alike. One of our most important projects has been installing ADA compliant pedestrian crossings & ramps in the barns. As of July 2009 we have full decks across the front of both the Bennett and McCarthy barns complete with ramps between the tracks for full access to the cars on display.

Materials have been removed from the aisles in the McCarthy storage barn to allow tour access to the collection housed there. The hard work throughout the summer of '08 moving machines and tools to more efficient locations is in evidence in the Bennett barn as the shop aisles are now clearer, providing the much needed space to continue our current restoration and construction projects. In addition, a heavy-duty work bench has been constructed to facilitate work on large items such as traction motors. Numerous hours have also been logged sorting and organizing the various nuts, bolts and other fasteners used in restoration.

CUT 018 - Thanks to the hard work of several volunteers the Buda speeder is back in service. The rear bumper has been completed and installed and work progresses on restoring its Shaker Rapid paint job. The car's charging problems were traced to a bad brush connection in the generator last Summer and the repairs allowed the speeder to reappear for rides at the 2008 member's weekend. The car is now on display in the Bennett barn.

Visitor's Center - Needle-scaling, priming and floor work continue on Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Combine 1088, which is well on its way to becoming our interim Visitor's Center. The PRR X-23 boxcar that is now housing the Museum Store also currently serves as our "temporary interim" Visitor's Center. An RTA Red Line dispatcher's control board, various electrical components that show how trolleys run and a collection of Lake Shore Electric artifacts are all on display. The car is located in the McCarthy barn and is a part of our regular Saturday walking tours.

Appreciation goes to our many volunteers who continue to donate their time and efforts to help the Museum, as well as to those whose generous financial support helps to make these efforts possible.

(Museum Photos - B.C. Gage Collection)

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The hard work of our many dedicated volunteers was evident to all who attended this year’s annual Members Weekend, held on August 9th & 10th. The event was well attended on both days, with Sunday seeing the most visitors.

The weather was nice on Sunday afternoon and Museum members and their guests were treated to a delicious picnic lunch, a walking tour of the facilities and inspection car rides from the Prunkard Maintenance Building siding all the way out to the south end of the line and back.

The highlight of the day was a 'corn field meet' out near the car barn lead switch between C.U.T. Buda Rail Car # 016, C.R.C. Crane Car # 0711 and the Trackmobile with our shop built inspection car in tow.

The event marked the first time that the Museum has had all three pieces of maintenance equipment in operation together.

A walking tour of the property showed some of the many improvements that have been made in the past year including the construction of several walkways that allow visitors to safely cross the tracks to access the cars on display.

A brief tour of the Anson W. Bennett Carhouse revealed the progress that continues to be made on two current projects; the restoration of TTC Peter Witt Car # 2778 and the conversion of Philadelphia & Reading Combine # 1088 into our new temporary visitors’ center.

On a walk through the rear barn we also found that several display stands have been constructed to provide car information for walking tours. The barn currently houses several of the Museum's interurban cars, as well as three of our PCC cars. All are on temporary display pending restoration.

The barn also houses Pennsylvania Railroad Box Car # 499369, which has been outfitted as our temporary Museum Store. The store is now open during our Saturday public walking tours as well as other special events like Members Weekend.

(Photos - B.C. Gage Collection)

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For years, NORM has owned a combine car of dubious origin - possibly an Akron, Canton & Youngstown or Wheeling & Lake Erie item. The museum acquired the car from a private collector that had rescued it from the scrapper's torches in the mid 1960s. Intending to use the car for a shop, the owners had it moved to a siding at Navarre, Ohio, where it remained until 1980 when the museum assumed ownership.

Our interest in the car was for a Visitor's Center. Since the car was last in company service on the railroad, its interior spaces had already been modified for this service. As a result, we did not feel we were going to be compromising a historical piece of equipment by configuring its interior to serve the needs of a museum visitors center.

After being acquired by the museum, the car was moved in a train to a siding at Medina for storage where it remained until 1984. It was then moved by rail a few miles south to a B & O siding at Chippewa Lake, where it was stored with several other pieces of museum equipment. By 1991, the siding had been isolated from the main line, now operated by the CSX. The car was moved the final few miles to museum property by truck later that year.

Upon arrival it was placed on an outdoor storage track with several other pieces of equipment. Over the next few years barns were raised and track work gradually snaked its way to the storage lines. Much of the equipment was moved either to the barns for preservation or to the dead line, but the combine remained on the storage track. Exposed to the elements, its condition slowly declined.

A recent assessment was made of the car's condition and the decision was made to put aside the plans for its use as a Visitor’s Center. The combine was to be put up for sale. A renewed effort was made to properly identify the car so that it could be sold. Through the collective efforts of several groups and individuals, much of the car's long and varied history has finally been traced.

When found in the scrap yard, the car was lettered with a Norfolk & Western M-of-W number. Close examination also revealed P & R stenciled on the car. As it turns out, the car was built in 1911 by Harlan and Hollingworth, a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Car Company, for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad as a day coach.

It is of composite construction, having steel under frame, truss rods and substructure supporting the wood framing and exterior sheathing. Like many passenger cars of that era, it featured a clerestory roof constructed of wood and canvas. It was equipped with trucks of four wheels outside bolster design, which it still rests on today. Originally built as a coach, additional sheathing and baggage doors were added to one end sometime after it left the Reading, resulting in its current configuration as a combine.

In the mid 1920’s, when the Reading began replacing these composite cars with all steel cars, the older cars went to several lines. Car # 58 was sold to the Mississippian Railway. During World War II, it returned north to the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway. After passenger service ended on the line, the car was reassigned to company service and the original interior was removed.

When the Norfolk & Western took over control of the line the car was renumbered for their maintenance division, where it remained in service until 1964. As the Norfolk & Western went on to absorb several other smaller lines it became necessary to trim its growing maintenance fleet, At that time the car was sold to the Luntz Scrap Yard in Canton, Ohio.

Although it seemed like disposing of it was the best option, a suitable home for the car could not be found. The Board decided once again to go ahead with the plans to make the orphan our interim Visitor’s Center.

In spring of 2007, a group of volunteers began stripping off its decayed wooden siding. In October of 2007 the car was put inside the Bennett barn to complete needle scaling and priming rusted metal. At the same time 2x4s were cut for flooring. Follow the saga of our emerging Visitor’s Center!

(Photos 1 & 2 - Museum Collection, Photos 3, 4 & 5 - S. Heister Collection)

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Last Updated 09/27/09