SEPTA working to bring historic trolley rides back to Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some historic rides will return to Philadelphia. SEPTA is making progress on a multimillion dollar project to restore trolleys that date back to the 40s.
The goal is to bring back the trolley cars that once ran all along Girard Avenue from Fishtown and Port Richmond to West Philadelphia.
"It's a start to finish full restoration on a 1947 trolley. It's not easy," SEPTA director of rail maintenance Brian Aaron said.
Inside a workshop in West Philadelphia, SEPTA workers have taken on a tall task: fully restoring the fleet of Route 15 trolleys which date back nearly as far as World War II.
"The frames on these are 1947. Over time, the deterioration. We're pretty much doing a full frame replacement and restoration with some skilled body mechanics," Aaron said.
After decades of wear and tear and weather damage, crews tell me a lot of the trolleys came in looking completely rusted out. They say the most labor-intensive part of the project is having to replace all of it.
"With each car there are dimensional inconsistencies, so every car is unique. So when we were working to create drawings for the replacement parts, we had to make drawings that would cater to every single car," senior project engineer Sabrina Eisl said.
After stripping down each trolley from top to bottom, mechanics get to work fabricating replacement parts so they can weld together the old and new.
When the frame is finished, they seal it shut to shield it from the elements.
"For the future, we want to make sure that the metal is actually protected. These cars are out in the snow, in the rain, they're on the street 24/7, to protect the metal for down the road," Aaron said.
The history trolley cars are upgraded with modern amenities including new floors, windows, wheelchair lifts and HVAC units.
"It's like a resto-mod in the car world. It looks exactly like it did in 1947, but you have the comforts and safety features of today," Aaron said.
Finally it's off to the test track to make sure the restored trolleys are ready to hit the road. The entire process takes a lot of time and effort but workers say seeing the final product is well worth it.
"It's very satisfying when [we get] the appreciation for the work that we do here and also that SEPTA does with preserving some history like this," Aaron said.
"It was just fun to work on such a historic fleet, and I think a lot of the guys here just enjoy that aspect," Eisl said.
Workers have finished four trolleys and they're currently working on six more.
The goal is to complete 18 trolleys in total and have about a dozen of them up and running alongside the buses on Girard Avenue by September.