Community Service Workers

Community Service Workers
Approximately six years ago, we began researching the possibility of being involved with the Community Service Program as it then existed with the local court system in Colorado Springs.
This was for the purpose of taking on persons that had court-appointed community service hours to work off with non- profit organizations. We started this program on a small scale; it began to grow and after a short time, the operation on the court side changed drastically and a private organization - Front Range Community Service - took over the whole program. When they took over, we developed a contractual relationship with them, and have maintained that relationship.
It has been an excellent experience and one that has been of mutual benefit. We have agreed to take on many different types of offenders; however, we do not become involved with felons or sex-offenders.
In addition to receiving folks from this organization, we also have developed a relationship with Goodwill. 
This is an entirely different program, as people that go on food stamps in Colorado do so through Goodwill. Food stamps are not given away - they must be earned. The folks receiving these must put in a certain number of hours working at local non-profit companies per month - hours equal number of food stamps the folks receive. We are on Goodwill's approved list of 501©3s. Every month Goodwill sends us all the workers we can handle, and believe me, given the economic situation of the last year, there have been many. We also have recently been asked by Lutheran Family Services - which is a very large organization here in Colorado Springs that deals with people from around the world - if we would take on people from other countries for a short time and help train them until they find full time employment in the states. While they are with us, we teach them various work skills, introduce them to American customs and ways to live and adapt to the United States.
We have two additional programs - albeit smaller - that we work with from time to time. As of the end of October 2010, the number of volunteer hours that we have had with all of these programs combined this year amounted to 6241 hours. This totals 297 volunteers. Having these volunteers is a two way street. It provides labor that allows us to have work done that we could not afford to do. On the other hand, it taxes us to our limits to provide supervision, materials, and supplies to keep this number of people working and to service their needs. However, it has been a wonderful experience! As you know, we are an all-volunteer organization. As these people go through an interview process, we let them know we are all on the "same level; we are all volunteers", and we do not save our "dirty work" for our short-time volunteers. They are assigned the same jobs as our "regular" staff. Our job is to supply them with the number of hours they need to complete in a safe, clean, friendly, non-threatening work environment, and that they are subject to the same rules and privileges as our full time volunteers. One thing that we find is most remarkable is that we have - in the shop - one or two, or ten or twelve volunteers - both men and women, any color, race, or creed - all brought together for the first time. People being people, one could expect this could be a recipe for disaster. However, in the six years that we have been doing this, we have never had a problem. What we normally find in the first few minutes of working together, they find common ground, are talking and laughing, as though they'd been working together all along. We do everything we can to maintain this harmony. We have had some of these folks at the end of their community service time with us stay on and become full time volunteers. We have others that have made a point of coming back and letting us know how they are doing, or bringing their families into the museum and to just say hello. We have established some terrific relationships.
The whole program has become a very rewarding experience, and we have every intention of continuing it. We are not only working on streetcars, but are also working on people!
Howard Noble

Pikes Peak Trolley Museum Attn: Membership
P. O. Box 544
Colorado Springs CO 80901

Benefits of Membership
Semi-annual newsletter the Singing Wire. and periodic issues of Singing Wire Extra .
10% discount in the museum gift shop
Periodic notices for events of Interest Invitation to annual Members Day
Free access to museum and car barn Being part of a community-wide effort to restore street railway operation to Colorado Springs and being part of bringing a tourist attraction to the area. Successful examples include Dallas, New Orleans. San Francisco, Portland. and Tucson.
 
Our Museum, Restoration Shop. Gift Shop, and Office are located in the historic 1888 Rock Island Railroad Roundhouse. This area of Colorado Springs was once the town of Roswell, built by the Rock Island for its employees around 1888. Your visit will take you back in time, and we think •• you will find it both interesting and informative.

Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec

The local Friends group has their tent frame in place over their Denver & Rio Grande 1889, Pullman built narrow gauge sleeping car body. They’ve done a lot of cleaning in the car interior including stripping away the work car items. They have their "tent" on order and look forward to having the car fully covered. Once the fabric is in place they’ll pull off the plywood and rubber protective covers.

Museum news

Car House and Museum Displays
The interurban whistle now connects to our air compressor making sure anyone who falls asleep in the car shop does so at their peril. The Union Pacific locomotive bell donated last year serves as a backup.

Freeway Signs Put On Hold
Last year the Foundation contracted for signs on I-25 to inform the traveling public of our museum. Initially the price was the cost of the signs plus rent to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Unfortunately due to the economy, the State decided to double the rent raising the total cost to $3,000. The Foundation Board determined the added number of people required to go through the facility to pay for the higher cost wouldn’t be likely given the current economy. This put the sign project on a long term hold, possibly permanently.

Attendance Down, Hours Up
The effects of the slowed economy have been felt in two ways. First, revenues from  attendance have declined about 30% compared to previous years. Public school tours have become non-existent.
Greg Roberts

More happenings at The Barn...

Birney Car
The Birney car continues to draw closer to the day when it can once again move proudly under it’s own. The effort is now concentrated on the electrical work. Wayne Russert has completed wiring the interior lights, call buttons, the primary power and lightning arrestor wiring on the roof, and two electrical boxes for the interior. These boxes have controls and indicators for items not included in the car originally such as low pressure air alarm and turn signals. Wayne gave them a black crackle finish which makes them look like they belonged in the car all along. Jeff Smith polished the rest of the window hand pieces that Harry Nichols from Dallas acquired for us. Now installed, they make the windows look great.


Parts From Wisconsin
East Troy Electric Railroad had two former Boston transit cars headed for scrap. Contacting them enabled us to get a number of parts at a good price. They were happy to see the items saved as well. Wayne Russert was going to be in the area for a vacation and graciously volunteered to supervise loading of everything in Troy.
In addition to the two Taylor trucks similar to those being refurbished for No. 59 came a single truck with dates from the 1880s. It may be a horse drawn car truck converted to electric, probably for some piece of work equipment. Two Westinghouse DH16 street car air compressors and other parts were included.

Track Work
Rebuild of the pneumatic spike driver and tamping tools, traded to us by the Pueblo Railway Museum, was recently completed. Sue Kircher, our track supervisor, with some help, tamped track #1 where the PCC car operates. The car now runs without any wobble.

G-Gauge Garden Railway
Thanks to the efforts of Steve Pelles, Vince Morris, Paul Feibing, and Wayne Russert, the G-scale now operates. Of course we can’t forget Irene Bones created the garden. Like any full scale line multiple improvements will no doubt be coming.

Greg  Roberts

Meanwhile...back at the barn

CS&IR PCC No. 2129
This past winter the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) trucks used under the PCC car were inspected. Grease fittings on the brake system were replaced solving a problem with the friction brakes sometimes not releasing properly. Irene Bones, our senior car operator, commented after a test run, “Now that’s the way it’s supposed to feel.”

Museum of The Railway Worker
Work on the railroad cars in the east yard during the winter cold included stripping off the graffiti paint on the Great Northern No. 1203, baggage dormitory car. A citrus based stripper proved quite capable and safer than the old nasty smelling types.
The biggest improvement came this summer with the eight new windows for Southern Pacific No. 10400, the dining car. Getting rid of the plywood covers not only greatly improved the car ‘s looks externally, people can now actually work in there without having eyes like an owl.

Donation of Original
Colorado Springs Street Lights
The Evergreen Cemetery donated this year about a dozen original cast iron street light poles, including the glass globes. These were cast by the former Hassell Iron Works Co, W W Hassell president and general manager, at 331 W Cimarron. The same type of light can be seen in front of Guiseppe’s Depot Restaurant downtown. Where we will eventually use them is not yet decided.

Car Barn and Yard
The supervising crew and their helpers continue to improve the car barn and yard areas. American Stripping sand blasted the rust from two former D&RGW signal control cabinets. Back at the barn tthe cabinets got some "body work" to remove some dents and a new coat of paint. They’re now tool cabinets in the shop area. The shop also received a small radial arm saw, a joiner, and another band saw which were all donated.

Greg Roberts

CAR 59

During the past year most of the work funded by  the latest grant from the Colorado State Historical Fund (SHF) has been on the Taylor truck being rebuilt at Uhrich Locomotive Works in Strasburg, Colorado. Denver Electric, the subcontractor for the traction motors, reassembled them in June. Both field and armature windings turned out to be fine without any shorts or opens. Our only problem became the wool material used to lubricate the bearings. It couldn’t be reused and Denver Electric couldn’t find a supplier. Marlin Urhich called his brother-in-law, Bruce Thane who has rebuilt Taylor trucks for organizations back East. Bruce knew of a rug company in Minnesota who could supply the wool skein as it’s called It’s apparently a by product from rug making.
Uhrich has now reassembled the truck except for the motors. The first truck was already restored under a previous grant from the SHF. Sometime this winter the two trucks will return to Roswell and be joined to the car body. It will be the first time No. 59 will be mounted on wheels since the CS&IR ceased operations in 1932.
Almost two tons of hardwood, on order from Chicago since January 2009, ran into a problem. The ancient kiln at the supplier died. The kiln has been started again and the wood should be at  the proper moisture content and ready for shipment in December or January.
Meanwhile work proceeds on the roof and the lower frame. Everything on the lower frame should be ready for when the trucks arrive.
Greg Roberts

Photo from “Pikes Peak Trolleys”

John’s History Corner
Fall & Streetcar Employee Job Changes

The change of season had a radical meaning for many streetcar operators.  There was always a great need for personnel to carry out additional maintenance on the cars during the winter months when passenger traffic was the slowest. 
In 1906 the Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway Company began to manufacture its own cars.  CS&I stood tall beside the big boys such as Brill, St. Louis or Cincinnati, using the same materials that they used: etched glass for the windows, mahogany, ash, maple and oak. The wood had to be dried in our climate before becoming fashioned into the fine products CS&I put out. 
Under a new hiring policy, those accepted for employment as trainmen had to already possess some skill for car construction and repair.  Thus the younger and newer men gained seniority doubling as carpenters, painters and mechanics, metal workers, blacksmiths and electricians.
Prior to this policy the operators with low seniority were laid off once the tourists went home from late summer until the following spring when tourists would again flock to the city.  This system worked well with both the company and its employees, and many a trainman could continue working year-round rather than face unemployment.
Twenty-nine handsome two-man cars were assembled in the CS&I shops in the 500 block of South Cascade Avenue – this in addition to handling all winter maintenance on existing cars.
Today, businesses, such as the Convention and Visitors Bureau,  Computer Resources and South Side Johnny’s occupy the old shop and storage buildings in the 500 blocks of Cascade Ave and Tejon Street.

Letter From The President

Greetings to our members and other

interested parties!!!

With this issue of our newsletter, The Singing Wire, we are

using email for the first time in an effort

to reach more people and to cut our

printing and mailing costs. If you are a

Foundation member and received this

by mail, we don't have an email address

for you, so please provide us with it, if

you have one. You can do that by

emailing this blog.

Otherwise, we will continue to send you

mailed copies.

You can send comments to us at the

this blog s as well, and we will

address them, including those of you

who do not want to receive our email.

Our web site is woefully out of date, due

in large part to costs and the nonavailability

of service by providers in our

location. We are working on it.

If you've read the article on the Nov 28th post,

you will appreciate the delays we are

experiencing in helping to put a

streetcar system into operation. It is

frustrating to us and is hurting us

financially, as many of our members are

dropping out, not seeing much progress.

In addition, some of our most reliable

long-term volunteers are moving on to

other endeavors or have developed

health problems, leaving us with some

big holes in the management and

operation of our organization.

WE NEED TO INCREASE OUR

MEMBERSHIP AND WE NEED

VOLUNTEERS IN CRITICAL AREAS!!!

Our most urgent need is to find a Chief

Executive Officer, with experience in

fund-raising and membership

development. We are open to making

this a paid position.

The volunteer positions we are seeking

in addition include a web master (when

we can bring the management of the

website to the facility), librarian

(maintaining our library and filing

system), staff supervisor assistant (directing

various maintenance and restoration tasks -

tour guides, streetcar

restoration assistant - (will be trained in

operators,

material and techniques for restoring historic

wooden cars and more modern steel cars),

advertising/public relations specialist, event

planner and grants researcher, and

membership chairman (to work with our

current one in an outreach capacity). Please

email this blog, if you have an interest.

Lastly, if you already a member of our

Foundation, please talk to a friend about a

membership. If you're not a member, please

consider joining our Foundation. The

application form is included in this newsletter.

Best wishes from all of us to you for a happy

holiday season and a prosperous 2011.

Dave Lippincott

Moving Ahead - Slowly

As you may know, the Streetcar Feasibility Study -

commissioned by the City and Mountain Metro

Transportation - was completed this past summer

and presented to City Council, which encouraged

further work towards implementing the system,

provided no general fund monies were involved. The

study, which you can access at

www.csstreetcar.com and by clicking on Feasibility

Report, recommended as a first step, a north - south

corridor through downtown to Colorado College or

Penrose Hospital, with follow-on segments north

through the Old North End Neighborhood ending at

the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs on

Nevada Ave. To broaden community support for the

project, future routes west to Old Colorado City and

Manitou Springs, east along Constitution Avenue or

Platte Avenue and south to Fort Carson were also

suggested.

The Streetcar Task Force, on which our Foundation

is well represented, continues to meet. Although no

commitments have been made, it appears that the

Task Force is leaning towards using our fleet of cars

as restored, which would be contributed to a Public -

Private Partnership we would enter into with the City

and/or the bus system. Our expectation is that city

bus drivers would operate our newer PCC cars in

everyday service and our people would run our

historic cars on weekends, holidays or for special

events, like it is done in cities such as Dallas. For

federal funding a number of events must occur,

however, for that to happen, and this is where the

"slowly" phrase in the header comes into play:

An Alternatives Analysis must take place; it would

define the exact routes the system would use within

the corridors the feasibility consultants

recommended, along with paseenger stops, etc. At

the same time, detailed capital cost data would be

developed, along with projected car scheduling,

marketing plans and revenue and expense pro

formas.

Because Federal monies would be sought for an

estimated 50-80% of the cost of the system, an

environmental impact study would need to be

completed. Funding for this study is being sought -

both Federal and the required local match.

Detailed design and engineering work would follow,

City Council would give final approval to the system,

and with Federal funding secured for construction,

and the local match provided in part by our

Foundation through contribution of our cars

and what other assets we had that the system

could use, we would move forward with the

project.

There is one major uncertainty however, over

which we have relatively little control. The

City's financial situation has caused it to cease

funding the bus system, leaving only fare and

advertising revenues and what monies RTA can

contribute to operate the system in 2011 and

beyond. These monies are not sufficient to

maintain even the reduced levels of service that

now exist. A Governance Study is currently

being conducted with recommendations to City

Council scheduled for next February or March.

That study is evaluating alternative funding and

sustainability alternatives for Mountain Metro,

all of which will probably dictate a vote by the

people in Colorado Springs and some outlying

communities to increase taxes in some form.

How and if a streetcar system is to be included

in any referendum has not yet been addressed.

It should be clear to the reader that there are a

lot of hurdles that must be cleared before

reaching the finish line. Please be assured that

the Foundation is addressing them and has

begun the process of evaluating alternative

strategies, should events not occur as expected.

We remain committed to a streetcar system

operating in Colorado Springs and using our

restored cars. Please stay tuned and

committed.

Dave Lippincott

Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation Inc. Of Colorado Springs, CO - nonprofit corporation

2333 Steel Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Phone - 719-475-9508

Mailing Address:  PO Box 544 Colorado Springs, CO 80901-0544