Boxcar
closing in
on finished
Sign needs helping hand
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — As the long-awaited finish line looms for the Gertrude Warner Boxcar Museum overhaul, the boxcar’s stewards are looking for help with finishing touches.
Pat Hedenberg, director of the boxcar committee, said she anticipates the opening of the boxcar museum for the first week of October.
While the last few projects are getting done, Hedenberg is looking for help with one important finishing touch — a replacement for the 15-year-old sign on the South Main Street side of the boxcar. She’s looking for monetary donations and/or perhaps the donation of a sign. The wooden sign needs to be 4-feet by 4-feet and double-sided. Carving or routing on the sign, if at all possible, would help the museum stand out. She said the sign might make a perfect community service project for perhaps a woodworking class at a local school or university, or a builder who wants to help. If you’d like to help with a monetary donation or “building donation,” call 860-207-6044.
In the meantime, a few final projects are being done. Greg Morissette of Trackside Restorations of Palmer, Mass., this week is installing the oak flooring. Aug. 31 he was about a third of the way finished. “That could take a while,” she said, since “he’s a one-man band” on the job. Once that’s finished, a subcommittee will revamp the interior design before bringing the artifacts back in. Outside there will be some caulking, and touch-up painting. She said they would be getting a banner for the museum facing Union Square.
In addition, she said the town was generous enough to drop off some loam this week. Aug. 31 Morissette and a helper spread the loam to regrade the area around the boxcar so that one section of the very long ramp can be removed. The picket fence will also be put back up.
“Then we can move in,” she said. “I was hoping for September but the work goes slowly. All of these details — that’s what’s holding us up.”

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