Saturday, January 2, 2010

News from Decatur Shops

That should be in quotes: "Decatur Shops" has now shrunk to the baggage compartment of the 277. But there's always something to do, even in this frigid weather. First of all, I had to fill a crack in one of the 518 windows, then sand it down and give it a first coat of primer. I was also able to stain the inside surfaces of both 518 windows currently in the shop.


I removed the metal plate which was barely attached to one of the body posts. This is certainly the most rotted out section of the car, and I would like to start by patching it. From the picture you can see how the outer half or so of the post has rotted away, but the inner half is still OK. I measured it for making patch pieces. The horizontal blocks had already been patched by Bob Bruneau at some point. And then I did some sanding and scraping on interior walls of the front compartment, where it's at least tolerable.





There was a stream of members coming through Barn 8 to see the recent acquisitions.
There wasn't anything I could do on the new cars except take a few pictures of the roof. Notice that the 36 never got "Utility" ventilators like the newer wood cars. Instead, there's just some simple louvers, some of which (L) have metal baffles to direct air into the car. There are only three per side, so less ventilation than on the others.

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