This is the start of Michigan Transit Museum's newsletter to its members. The active members felt that there was a need for a form of communication for its members, so this is the result. It was decided that Richard Humphrey and W. Fred Cosgrove would be suckered,Oh! I mean..VOLUNTEERED into producing this newsletter. (Best of luck to both). Any member with information concerning the museum or relatived traction items, please contact the Editors, Michigan Traction Gazette, care of M.T.M.'s address above.

          We would like to thank the following people for their assistance in making this newsletter possible: Larry Cosgrove and Computer Graphics Company for printing, Richard Humphrey and Apeco Corporation for the paper, Debra Cosgrove for typing, and all who gave articles and photographs as named throughout the newsletter.

RH and WFC

          Frank Petrat located a 1962 Chevy dump truck for sale at $300. After informing the M.T.M. board of trustees about its advantages, the truck was approved for purchase. The truck has a seven yard capacity with 55,000 miles on the odometer. The body is in good shape for its age. Thanks for letting us know about the truck Frank.

          William Henning has worked out a deal with the South Shore Railroad for its former R.P.O. car #503. Since the car is used for storage only now, the South Shore agreed upon trading it for a boxcar. Bill then wrote to the General American Transportation Company which donated a boxcar and had it delieved to the South Shore at Michigan City, Indiana. Good work as usual Bill.

          Craig Harris and Kenneth Schramm reported to the board of trustees about a possible museum site in Ida, Michigan. Since the first report in November, Ken Schramm has been handling this deal, with assistance from Bill Henning. This location has three and a half miles of track. Running from the edge of Ida to Federman Junction, where at this point the Ann Arbor Railroad crosses. This line was one of Michigan's first rail lines, built in the 1840's. It is now a Penn Central branch line which the last train ran on it up to a few years ago. We're pulling for you Ken and Bill!

WFC

          Over the past year, Shoemaker , the present home of the M.T.M., has had muck work done to it. When we first arrived, we had about five hundred feet of weed covered, at places dirt covered, broken down track. Add to this two old D.S.R. work trolleys in various states of disrepair, and the reader can see what problems the then operating crew had to face. The following six months provided both the technical people and the track crew with plenty of work in the evenings and weekends. During this time, ties were replaced, track was put back in guage, and weeds as well as the dirt were cleared away from the long abandoned right of way. We now had some track ready for operations and had the power source activated.

          During these months, thanks to the efforts of John Maxfield, enough repairs were made to one of the trolleys, 7284, to allow it to operate without much fear for life or limb. It was soon found that five hundred feet was not enough to really have a good operation on, so the track crew went back to work and proceeded to extend the right of way past D.S.R. property to a connection with the Detroit Terminal Railroad. This extension increased our operating line to about one thousand feet. To add more excitement to the operation, the track crew, under control of Supervisor of Track, Frank Petrat, reinstalled the switch at a place called Chrysler Junction. This now allowed our trolleys to operate on about five hundred feet of an abandoned spur that use to servce the storage property of Chrysler Automobile Company. This switch has proved to be a blessing and a problem to the operators of M.T.M. trolleys. On the good side, it has increased our operating pleasure and trackage. It has also provided derailment headaches, due to its tight construction and the coming of winter. We have already had one derailment at this switch which made our track crew work about six hours attempting to rerail the trolley 7284.

          The lastest problems that have hindered the operation of our trolleys, is a project being worked on the D.O.T. (D.S.R.). They ate turning part of their Shoemaker shops into a training ground for the operators of the Washington Blvd. Trolley Project. To accomplish this, the present track at the shops had to be uncovered and raised. When this had been done, it was found that the track was located too close to a building called the Box House. At the present time, this track has been torn up and will be relaid this spring. The unfortunate removal of this track caused a break in our power return ground and thus forced the closing of M.T.M. operations. About eight weeks after this occurance, it was decided that we should again be operating, so our section crew stole over to Shoemaker and buried a three hundred foot long cable in place of the missing track. It was found that indeed we had done a good job for the power was restored to our line.

          On January 31, 1975, we had our first operation with our restored power and all went well-almost! When operation was just about done, and our trolley, 7284, was being put away for the night, it rode up over a large pile of ice and derailed. New Year's Eve was not a night to have a derailment party! All personal at the site had visions of spending hours trying to put the car back on the track. But thanks to the track crew and the throttle skill of Frank Petrat, within ten minutes, the car was back on the rail in operation. It was decided due to the foul weather and snow and ice on the ground, that further operation was not to be attempted for the rest of the year.

          The Michigan Transit Museum would like to thank the following people for their labor in getting and keeping our rolling stock in operation: Willim Henning, John Maxfield, Frank Petrat, Richard Humphrey, W. Fred Cosgrove, Raymond Cochran, Richard Fountain, Kenneth Schramm, and Craig Harris.

CH