2009 Work on the Telephone Museum of PEI

[Mus_PEI]

Hi All:

Just a bit of a report on work to the Telephone Museum of PEI during
2009.

A lot of work has gone into the museum infrastructure this year, which
of course has limited additions.

A raccoon break-in this spring resulted in a lot of work repairing the
roof, and replacing much of the upstairs ceiling and insulation.

Later in the year, I decided to make that occurance a thing of the
past, installing a brand new, Island Tel blue steel roof on the
building. While very expensive, I consider this a very long term
investment to protect the integrity of the building and the collection
inside.

Once the roof was done, it made the old exterior paint look so bad,
that I decided the outside of the museum needed to be painted. Old
paint was stripped off, then two coats of primer followed by two more
coats of exterior velvet paint. The molding color was changed to match
the new roof colour.

I have just completed installing commercial track lighting in the
display area - I received a donation from one of my site supporters of
54 feet of Halo track, and 43 L1760MB low voltage commercial fixtures,
along with connectors and all fittings. These had been installed in an
art gallery until they closed it ten years ago, and had been in
storage since then. When stored, they were just a couple of years old,
and fortunately are a series which is still available, so parts for
the future are assured.

The new lighting has made it possible to eliminate dark corners and to
feature certain displays through custom illumination.

Once I have the lighting arrangement finalized, I will have a limited
number of Halo fixtures available. These are designed to be used with
Halo L650, L-651, L652, and L653 track. These are heavy duty low
voltage halogen lamps using MR16 bulbs. Made of cast metal, they are
quite heavy, about 7 lbs apiece. These are commercial quality, built
like a brick out-house, and not your typical cheap track fixtures.

Now all this work is over with, I hope that next year will have many
additions, but this year, improvements had to be made to the
infrastructure.

Dave

[Mike Neale]

Dave

Photos?

Kellogg Mike

[Mus_PEI]

Hi Mike:

Well, now. I don't know whether you mean photos of the reno, or photos
of the track lights..

I haven't had a lot of time to take photos since the new roof/paint,
except I do have one poorer shot from the direction of the phone booth
which shows the Island Tel Blue on the booth as compared to the blue
of the new roof. I have added that photo to the files section. I will
take better photos when we have better weather (its pouring rain right
now, and has been for several days).

As soon as I get the light aiming finalized, I will post a new set of
photos to the museum page.

The spec sheet for the L1760MB lights can be seen at the following
page:

http://www.cooperlighting.com/specfiles/pdf/Halo/ADV990399_L1760_L1770.pdf

What is even more shocking is the cost of these pieces of black gold.
I am glad I didn't have to buy them new :-) But they sure do a great
job, and should last forever!

Dave

On Oct 10, 11:46 am, Mike Neale <mikenealete...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dave
>
> Photos?
>
> Kellogg Mike

[Mike Neale]

Cool, I will wait for the new posting, I meant the roof/paint job and the lights.

KM

[Mus_PEI]

Hi All:

At Mike's request, I have updated the photos of the museum on the
museum page:

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html

These show the museum with its new lighting. I still have more
adjustment of the light positioning, and may add a couple more lights
on the track, but it is a definite improvement, eliminating dark
spots, and allowing certain displays to be highlighted with light.

Photos of the L1770MB lighting fixtures have been added to the file
section here, as well as a photo of the exterior of the museum. It
isn't the best, taken from and awkward angle, but shows the roof
colour vs. the Island Tel logo blue. If this dark, rainy and gloomy
fall weather ever gives us a break, I will take more exterior shots.

Dave