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Greg Morrissette of Trackside Restorations
Pat Hedenberg
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- A bright cherry red against a less-than-cheery winter sky.
Nearly a dozen volunteers armed with brushes painted the walls of the Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum Nov. 14. Pat Hedenberg said volunteers joined the effort from Putnam, Dayville, Pomfret and even Plainfield. The complete renovation of the boxcar, which started in March 2019, is in the homestretch. Hedenberg said the goal is reopening the museum in May, Warner's birthday month.
Restorer Greg Morrissette from Trackside Restorations of Palmer, Mass., said, "This is like a finale. There's only a few little things left."
He said they should finish up the interior walls in a couple days and then the floor will go in, along with the door and the window. Because it was pretty much a ground-up restoration, Morrisette said the crew had a chance to implement changes that made sense. For example, the window was moved across from the door so that some cross ventilation would be possible.
Steel has been replaced or strengthened. That and the walls got a coat of exterior flat paint. The most tedious part of the effort, volunteers said, though, was making sure that what seemed like thousands and thousands of bolts got painted.
Volunteer painters included: Marlene O'Connell, Jan St. Jean, Paula and Sara Ramos, Hedenberg and Morrissette, MarcArchambault, Bill Zamagni, and Toby, Cathleen and Adelyn Snyder. The effort counted as community service for some students.
The original New Haven boxcar was made of wood in the early 1900s. In the 1930s the structure was swapped out for steel. Some of the original steel still bears the stamp of Carnegie steel.
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