crew and Joe Trench, a local contractor, friend and volunteer (when he isn't building things for us) we got it done in time for the Easter Bunny Train Ride! Some features of the new car are a beautiful all Maple interior with almost twice the shelf space as the old car, a storage room, carpeting and a new computerized point of sale system. Top: Looking down at the floor, wait, there isn't any! The whole length of the car we had to replace the support beams and floor pan. T his winters big project (other than the steam locomotives 5 year inspection) was the rebuilding of the gift car. It was the only car of the fleet that was never rebuilt. These cars are known for having problems with leaks resulting in rusted out floors. The first thing we did was demolish the old interior and then pull up the linoleum so we could inspect the floor. Surprise! There wasn't any (floor that is)! The linoleum, rust and crumbled concrete was about all there was. CMO Gary Matthews worked very hard making the car water proof. For the first time in years we have nice new windows you can actually see out of! The job included demolishing the old interior, ripping out the rotted flooring, welding in a new floor pan, new side purlins the length of the car, new “rock wool” insulation covered by welded in expanded metal topped off with a half inch of concrete. On top of the concrete we fastened 3/4 inch of marine grade plywood topped off by 3/4 inch of exterior finished plywood. The result was a very strong floor! The most amazing part of the project was that it had to be completed in 2.5 months! With the help of the NYSWTHS shop 6
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