Images
- Front Streetside View
- Molly is a classic Toonerville II complete with original mahogany wood trim outside and in, brass buttons, lamp house, and bell. How fun is that?
- JDRF Promise Gala 2014.
- OZ: Journey to a Cure.
- Runners before us, Runners behind.
- All of a sudden, we got passed up by the lead runners in the 2013 Susan Komen Race for the Cure.
- Survivors in pink
- Survivors on the Balcony
- 1101 at TARC
- We picked up 1101 in December after a Thanksgiving auction. This is what twenty five years of service will do. Not bad overall...
- The Girls Board 1101
- Cindy, Mom and Carolyn view the world from the balcony as we pick up 1101.
- The sanding station
- We planed the wood where possible to remove the old polyurethane finish, stain and patina, and sanded the pieces to prep them for new stain. Cindy and Sarah sand wood newly removed from the planer. Where am I? Well, working hard taking the picture.... (Actually, at that time I was taking wood off the skirt panels and running them through the planer.)
- Preparing for the next coat.
- The wood is taken from the drying oven and stacked to await the second clearcoat.
- It gets prickly
- As we work our way around the exterior, we begin to appreciate how much character the mahogany adds to the trolley overall. After removing the skirt wood and the middle wood, the whole trolley looks like a porcupine. All the pop rivets that held the wood on are sticking out of the skin. A crew clips the rivets and punches them back through the outer skin. I know... TMI...
- Working on the Artwork
- Carolyn copies the original banner artwork to develop the new Louisville Trolley artwork. We really are trying to preserve as much of the original feel as possible and work the new stuff into the old. We do hope you like the final look.
- Metal Meister
- Metalwork is a science and an art. Throw in a polar pop, rust, dirt and some rock & roll and you can get a feel for what is going down as Randy sets up his welding rig to stabilize some of the framework steel. Man, he is good!
- When Sparks Fly..
- Sarah decided that dremel tools are for sissies. She wants a real grinder that shoots sparks ten feet. Randy is hard at it. Thanks so much.
- Rivetting 101
- Sarah and Richard are the first to arrive at the party. This is how you hang wood with your eyes at half mast. Not sure if they had breakfast, but they eventually wake up.
- Seriously....
- They really were awake and running on all cylinders...
- Three Musketeers at work.
- Their instructions were that if you put the wood in place and ALL the pop rivets don't go in freely, take it back off because something is wrong. The Three Musketeers at work. I'll let you decide who who is Athos, who is Porthos, and who is Aramis.
- Almost finished Roadside
- We are almost done with the roadside work. Blue tape marks are 'Sallys' (oopses) that we have to revisit. That is turning into one pretty trolley.
- Checking the guys work.
- Porthos, Aramis, and........ Charlene?? Well somebody has to make sure they do it right to the proper degree. The three Musketeers 'aren't completely domesticated, you know'.
- Cardinal Express
- One of the really cool things about this is that all of the original signage (from 1987, the year after the Louisville Cardinals won the National Basketball Campionship) is still with the Trolley. We even have the Cardinal Express destination sign. What a great way to show off your pride in the Cards and Lady Cards. One day (when we grow up) we want to carry the Cards in the Derby Parade.
- Door detail work
- The back door had to be carefully restored. Ralph did the wood repair work and Andrew is doing the finish work. See firefighters do all kinds of good things.
- Woody and the Drill
- Look! Woody is drilling holes in that beautifully finished wood post!! Well..... actually he is down crawling under the seats drilling holes in the floor to mount the benches that will allow us to seat four more passengers when the handicapped spaces are not needed. He came up for air and posed so you would think he was working. (He really was working hard. See the flushed face?) Now you know the rest of the story.
- Oohh.... Shiny!!!!
- We reattached the side brass which has been cleaned, polished and lacquered. This keeps getting 'purtyer and purtyer'.
- Now we are in business!
- The Louisville Trolley artwork comes in and gets added on. This was one of those "Wow! We are really gonna make it." moments. See all those dots? yup.. we are getting down to the Brass Tacks (buttons?) whatever.. Molly has 500 brass earrings. Classy! or Goth, or more TMI.
- Rear Streetside View
- Brass rails, beautiful mahogany, and more brass rails. Waving to your friends and loved ones from the balcony as you head into your next adventure is one classy way to make an exit.
- Rear Curbside View
- The rear exit closes securely for a safe trip away from your special event. Just smile and wave...
- Trolley Interior
- The original solid mahogany benches face each other so you can talk, gawk and make faces at each other. Hand straps allow 16 additional standing friends in addition to the 21 who got in first to grab a seat. Brass railings and an updated sound system with Ipod dock complete the environment. No face forward school bus seating in here.
- Raising the skirts
- The first thing we tackled (the biggest perceived job) was the stabilization and refinishing of the exterior wood. Hitting the 'low hanging fruit', we remove all the skirting panels and start the task of restoring the exterior wood. I counted 150 pieces of wood that needed to be removed, refurbished and reattached.
- StJohnBanner2017
- Celia Inside Molly
- Wedding inside Molly
