Trolley project plays key role in couple’s relationship and wedding

Because the trolley replica in front of WMU’s Bernhard Center played a major role in their courtship, Corey Hendricks and Amy Levering used it as part of their wedding earlier this month.

They would have held the wedding in front of the trolley, but lack of room for chairs on the site required the couple to wed across the street at the Oaklands.

Corey, a process engineer at Select Millwork and an alum of IME’s manufacturing technology (MFT) program, was part of a four-man senior design team that created the full-size, historically accurate replica of the landmark Western Trolley. The project had special significance because it was a highlight of WMU’s 2003 centennial celebration.

“The Reincarnation of the Prospect Hill Trolley” project illustrated a genuine reverse engineering of the trolley’s original design, materials, and construction features in order to ensure authenticity.

With neither blueprints nor records of the original trolley, Corey and teammates Brian VanderPloeg, Aron Murphy, and Jeff Clausen used an original bench from one of the cars, archival photographs, alumni recollections, and information about an existing incline trolley out West to create the replica.

For over six months, the students sometimes spent up to 80 hours a week superimposing photo enlargements of the trolley on computer-aided design programs to determine dimensions and details. According to Corey, Amy, a senior in business management, was there to help for the entire project.

With the Western Trolley replica as a backdrop, IME’s James VanDePolder (left) and Fred Sitkins (right), advisors on the senior design project that created the trolley for the 2003 WMU Centennial, celebrated the wedding of Amy Levering, a senior in the business management program, and Corey Hendricks, a 2003 IME manufacturing technology alumnus who was part of the four-man team that created the trolley replica that was placed in front of the Bernhard Center.

Among those attending the wedding were IME professors Fred Sitkins and Jim VanDePolder, two advisors on the trolley project, which was presented at the 32^nd Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects in April 2003. The other project advisors were IME professors Tom Swartz and Betsy Aller and IME emeriti professor John Lindbeck.

From 1908 to 1948, trolley cars transported students up and down Prospect Hill on the East Campus. Before being dismantled in 1949, the Western Trolley had carried as many as 2,000 passengers a day. It was the only incline railway ever built and licensed in Michigan.

Engineering students wash cars to help Katrina cleanup

WMU engineering students washed cars for 12 hours last Monday for the American Red Cross’s relief effort in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina.

Most of the societies and organizations affiliated with the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences worked in teams of 15 to 20 in front of the Parkview Campus engineering building. Students from other academic programs also joined the effort.

Many students from several classes also participated in the car wash. IME Professor Dr. Betsy Aller said that her IME 4920 Multidisciplinary Senior Project students went out to the car wash site en masse following their class.

According to Dan Higgs, president of ASME, which assumed responsibility for counting the money, the event collected $7,559.41.

 

IME’s Dr. David Lyth challenged students and other professors to hit the target that dunked him into the water.

The students also sold coffee and doughnuts. Everyone was also offered an opportunity to “Dunk the Dean” or one of several professors.

 

IME Professor Dr. David Lyth estimated that students and professors had dunked him at least a dozen times in water that he said “looked like it might have been imported from the hurricane floodwaters.”

Greene praised the students for organizing the car-washing effort in less than a week. Six days before the event, representatives of at least 22 different engineering societies brainstormed and divvied up responsibilities for various aspects of the project. “This was a great example of team work and leadership,” he said.

As her car was being washed, WMU President Judith Bailey praised the students for their efforts in the 91-degree heat.

Several area businesses and organizations supported the event. Goggin Rental provided the dunk tank, which was filled with water by Kalamazoo Public Safety Fire Station 7.

Wal-Mart supplied car-washing supplies. Sweetwater’s Donut Mill donated ten dozen doughnuts and discounted even more. Qdoba Mexican Grill will donate $1.50 to the American Red Cross for every redeemed meal coupon handed out at the car wash.

CEAS provided all car-washing equipment, and Greene expressed appreciation for the efforts of the WMU grounds people who came to Parkview before 7 a.m. to set up hoses. “Besides helping us get things ready, they were also the first people to get their cars washed,” he said.