CLINTON TWP — The Saxonburg Area Rotary Club hopes its name on the outside of its new trolley will translate into more members joining the club.

The Rotary Club trolley made its official debut last week during the Saxonburg Festival of the Arts. The appearance marked the end of a nearly yearlong effort to refurbish and restore the 44-year-old vehicle.

Rotary Club member Loretta Pflugh said Karen Antoszyk, past president of the club, had the idea it would be beneficial for the club to have a trolley.

Club members found a trolley at D&D Auto Salvage and Metal Recycling in Tarentum. Rotarian Cory Fox was able to convince D&D to donate the trolley to the club.

Rotary president Brian Antoszyk said, “The trolley came from Gatlinburg, Tenn. A man bought it for a trolley company in Pittsburgh, but it wound up in a warehouse under the 31st Street Bridge for years.”

It was sold to the salvage yard, and the Rotary Club took possession of it on Sept. 6, 2021.

It was driven to Loretta and Chris Pflugh’s home in Clinton Township, but not without some tinkering and coaxing first.

Chris Pflugh said, “I had to spend several hours of working on it before I was able to drive it home.”

The 30-foot-long, 24-passenger vehicle powered by a diesel engine sat in the Pflughs’ driveway for all but the coldest winter months, when it was housed in a garage where Pflugh, fellow club members and neighbors took turns restoring the trolley to its former glory.

Loretta Pflugh said, “We estimated we put 800 man-hours in this.”

Brian Antoszyk said the club had taken on quite the project. Where the trolley wasn’t covered in rust, it was covered in black mold and graffiti.

“A year ago, this was sitting in the junkyard, and it wasn’t worked on for three months in the winter,” he said. “The progress seemed slow-going because Chris was doing a lot of the internal work.”

Brian Antoszyk said that getting parts often sent Chris Pflugh on a scavenger hunt —when spare parts even existed.

“There were six windows he had to make (the frames) himself. But first he had to make the machine to build the frames,” he said.

“We built it from the ground up, starting with the suspension,” said Chris Pflugh. “We tore out the interior, rebuilt the dashboard, redid the electrical system and added new exhaust.”

He added that the interior’s wooden benches were resanded, a new floor put down and the exterior repainted.

“We started at the ground and worked our way up,” he said.

Club members Jim Knapick refurbished the wooden seats, and Dave Johnston did the interior painting.

The Pflughs’ neighbors were drawn in to the project, contributing either manpower or material goods.

“If you know us, you were donating,” said Chris Pflugh, who said he even took the test to have his commercial driver’s license upgraded to allow him to drive passengers in the trolley.

Cathy Wiltrout, a club member, did all the lettering inside and out, and Wayne Sell Trucking donated its facility to have the outside of the trolley painted.

The windows sport the number 20, said Karen Antoszyk, to mark the founding of the Saxonburg Rotary in 2020. In its two years of existence, the club has grown to 41 members.

“We used the trolley to give people rides during Octoberfest, and we’ll use it for events down the road,” she said.

Karen Antoszyk said of the trolley, “We will do all the parades. I think it will be a showpiece for the Rotary organization.”

The trolley joins other Rotary Club attention-getters, such as its barrel grill, which the club breaks out during the monthly Mingle on Main events in Saxonburg. There’s also its recent acquisition, the Rotary bar — two wine casks supporting a wooden bar dispensing the club’s own Rotary Ale, created by Cellar Works Brewing Co.

Members credit the barrel grill with attracting prospects to the club.

The Saxonburg Rotary meets at 6 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the Saxonburg Hotel, 220 W. Main St., Saxonburg.