For one nervous month, James Sulkowski faced oil-painting pandemonium.

His commissioned trolley painting was not coming to life, as his paintings so expertly do, and he faced a tight deadline, not to mention preservation of well-deserved artistic pride.

		Seldom Seem, David Templeton's whimsical perspective on life and times in and around Washington County, appears weekly in Washington Sunday.

In March, the 52-year-old Canonsburg artist had agreed to do a 20- by 30-inch oil painting for the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum based on the Feb. 7, 1954, moment when local trolley lines were used one final time to transport three trolleys to the new museum in Chartiers.

Onlookers lined the tracks in Canonsburg to snap pictures of the trolleys, marking an end of the trolley era in central Washington County and the beginning of what would become the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.

And it was Sulkowski's job to bring that historic moment to life with color, action and drama, with an eye toward historical accuracy.

He had numerous photographs as references, but they were dull, lifeless, middle-of-winter-without-snow shots. "I was struggling with this for the first month," he said.

At long last, Sulkowski eyeballed his painting, groaned with creative despair, sanded away the paint and rubbed the canvas with alcohol.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

And the second time proved to be a charm. His completed painting shows three trolleys rolling one last time in dramatic fashion through Canonsburg's East End.

"Good thing I got started early or I wouldn't have gotten it done," Sulkowski said last week. "But it worked out well. Now I will wait to see what happens when it is unveiled."

The unveiling will occur today during the museum's Golden Spike Celebration in honor of its 50th anniversary. The 4 p.m. event will open with appetizers and silent auction at the Washington County Fairgrounds Banquet Hall 2, then feature a dinner, dance and another auction.

Proceeds from the sale of prints of Sulkowski's painting will be used to restore the museum's first trolley car, the 1930 West Penn Railways Car 832, which has top billing in Sulkowski's painting. The restoration project will cost $300,000.

The first artist's proof will be auctioned. Five canvas artist proofs will be sold for $400 each; 50 canvas prints for $275 each; 50 artist proofs on paper for $150 each; and 500 prints on paper for $95 each.

The museum will receive 40 percent of the sale price and 10 percent of the sale of the original watercolor, which Sulkowski has priced at $7,500. If all the prints and painting sell, the museum could reap more than $29,000.

"We gave him a tough assignment, one that's really challenging, and this is proof he's a terrific artist," museum Director Scott Becker said.

Sulkowski's painting, which has more flair and detail than his original effort, features the Richfol trolley stop and trestle over the transformer plant property, with three trolleys making a dramatic roundhouse sweep along tracks along Adams Avenue, the current site of Sarris Candies' parking lot.

Sulkowski, an impressionistic painter known for still lifes, landscapes, portraits and historical paintings, included himself as an onlooker snapping a photograph of the passing West Penn Railways Car 832, with wife Sherri, daughter Monet and son Ian on the opposite side of the tracks. It's common for Sulkowski to include himself and family members in historical paintings.

Ultimately, the painting features boldly colored streetcars, windswept winter grass and a cold blue sky. Even the configuration of electrical wires is accurate historically.

Tom Rooney, of Chartiers, museum member and volunteer and owner of Rooney Sports and Entertainment Group, came up with the idea to use a Sulkowski painting to raise money.

"I wanted to do something dramatic for the auction, and I thought the painting would be the perfect way to do it," he said, noting he's a fan of Sulkowski's and owns his works. "I'm ecstatic about it. He did a wonderful job, and I'm proud of him and proud of the product that's symbolic of the volunteers and the millions of hours they've volunteered."

Rooney named the painting, "Three for the Show."

The Cincinnati Car Co. built Car 832 in 1929 and delivered it to West Penn Railways in the early 1930s. It featured the car company's "curved side" design, which West Penn Railways used to upgrade service on its Allegheny Valley division, a museum brochure says.

Car 832 represented the latest in streetcar technology at the time of the 1929 stock market crash.

The trolley car served Aspinwall, Blawnox, Springdale, New Kensington, Tarentum and Natrona until 1937, then spent the balance of its working life in Connellsville. It was abandoned in 1952.

Becker said West Penn Railways sold all its curved-side cars to a scrap yard during the Korean War, but somehow Car 832 got left behind.

The museum's precursor, the fledgling Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club, bought the car in 1953. A year later, club members used batteries to power the trolleys on the abandoned line to the museum site on North Main Street Extension in Chartiers, where the museum continues to lease property from Washington County for $1 a year.

As such, the car represents the only intact Cincinnati, curved-side, West Penn Railways passenger car, making it an important find for the new railway club and a classic trolley 50 years later.

"The car has been in storage for most of the past 50 years, though some important restoration work has taken place," the brochure states. The museum plans to restore it to original condition.

"It's very special," Becker said. "It's going to be a beautiful car when it's done. It was designed to be a comfortable car, a step above the average streetcar."

As an artist, Sulkowski said, he had no desire to copy photographs, although he wanted to be faithful to photographic details, including the fact the event happened in the dead of winter. So he worked the fine line between art and reality to make big boxes with wheels artistically exciting.

"The pictures were boring," he said, "so I had to create an effect of light." He also draws the viewer into the painting with angle and depth.

Rooney and Becker said everyone was thrilled with the work. It's bright, sweeping and historically accurate. And Sulkowski is wiping a brow with relief that it's done without any more sandpaper, alcohol and creative despair.

"I give credit to Jim," Becker said. "He's gone out of his way on this."