When our newest dome car, 'Silver Shop', arrived on museum rails, it wasn't as Silver as we've seen in photos from its past lives. After sitting at the Via Rail Shops in Canada for many years, our car was heavily vandalized inside and out.
Since the car's arrival, volunteers have been researching methods and products that would best remove the colorful coating of graffiti. We also had to wait until the weather was better, as most removers were not usable in cold or rainy weather. This last weekend, the 'Silver Shop' began to shine a little brighter as volunteers tested a couple painter remover tricks. Here's the after effect of our better solution:
Yes, this progress is small, but for our volunteers - it was encouraging to see the faded purple and black give way to hearty stainless steel! However, there’s still a long ways to go and a ton of elbow grease needed to remove all the layers of paint she acquired in Canada.
As always, APTHM is ran by an entirely volunteer team who need your help to restore and present the artifacts in our collection. Please reach out if you have any interest in preserving and sharing the history of the American passenger train.
Stay tuned, we will be rolling out plans for the depot renovation campaign in the coming weeks and hope to have an exciting and productive 2022 season!