Slow Boil Just A Simmering Away

The atmosphere in little ol’ Columbus is running at a slow boil. I like that. A steady slow boil. It is such a change of pace from where we have been. From ice cold to boiling over the pot and spilling all over the place. For years our little town was a political hot potato. Fighting, name calling, kicking people out of office, and just a whole lot of negative energy being spent unproductively. Of course the television stations in Madison just loved the ruckus. Always knew there was something happening at City Hall when the satellite truck was parked out front. Of course there are always unhappy people in any community. Always finding something wrong with whatever is going on at any given time. But Columbus is changing for the better.



It strikes me that City Hall has a vision. Very little positive can happen without a vision for the future. I can’t say as I have really felt that way until now. Projects are moving forward. People are communicating effectively and harmony is much more prevalent. Speaking of projects our City Council approved a resolution last night to support a major downtown redevelopment concept proposed by the CDA. This is a huge step in the right direction for the betterment of the entire City. Hat’s off to the CDA, Council and City Administration for taking this project forward. With all this forward thought I decided to share a photo of the downtown from sometime in the 40’s I would guess. What a great image.



So what’s on deck? We are starting in on this nice little Trap Sleigh. This unique and elegant cutter was practical, functional and attractive all at the same time. If you look at the above photo it shows this nice sporty two person sleigh.



From the rear it has a nice deck lid but if you look closely there are some joints in the back deck.



Here we see the essence of a Trap. There are Trap carriages and Trap sleighs all though I’ve seen much more of the carriage variety over the years. This sleigh has very attractive lines and here we see how it all functions. Both sides of the body swing upward to create an opening to the rear seat. The rear deck folds up as well to create that rear seat.



This is what the sleigh looks like in its four passenger variation. The term Trap is derived from your inability to exit from the rear seat once you are seated. Basically you are trapped until someone up front lets you out.



Some very nice details to this piece. All of which will be recreated as we complete the restoration. We will be following this project pretty closely over the next few weeks so I hope you enjoy the process.

Check out our website. We have given it a new look and I will be adding some interesting features over the next month or two. We have also added a new domain www.freycarriage.com. The old www.colonialcarriage.com still works and will for some time to come. Changing the name of a business is a long process. Things are slow boiling at Frey Carriage Company too as spring comes in early.

Have a great Wednesday!

Ciao!
T