Thursday Car Shop News

Thursday was another productive day at the Museum.

Brand new third-rail beams have been installed on the 460.  A couple of them still had the fuses unattached at one end, so they were sort of waving in the breeze, and might pose a hazard.  I was asked to fix that, as seen here.

Work continued on the 319's beams.  #1 got its sleet scraper attached, and #2 got its shoe assembly installed.  

Then there was more painting to do.   Yeah, I know, you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

But you haven't seen this before: Jack is building a new vestibule door for the UP doodlebug.  On the table, it looks very short and fat, but that's because it opens over the stepwell.  And of course the doodlebug isn't designed for loading from high-level platforms like our L-compatible cars.

My next priority is to get new springs made for the 36.  Here's the crate I made at home, which is custom fit to a single leaf spring and will be shipped to the manufacturer as the guide to making new ones.

Out in the shop, the 306 crew (in this case, Fred and Gerry) were working on pilots.  They need some body and fender work.

The east end control stand is essentially finished and in its original configuration -- something nobody has seen for about 90 years.

Work continues at the west end of the car.

And last but not least, Tim is making sure all of the clerestory windows open and close properly.

The Doodlebug Evening News

Many thanks to our redoubtable roving reporter, Gregg Wolfersheim, who sends along the latest news on the restoration of Union Pacific M-35, our EMC doodlebug.

Work has resumed on the doodlebug with some fresh paint. This is the left side door.

The left side of the rear corner is in primer.

The rear door is painted and back in place.

More recently, tan paint has appeared on much of the area.

One of the trap doors has been cleaned up. Primer is next.

Simms Collection -- NY and Philly

Here we have a few pictures from the East Coast, and all but the first have interesting info written on the backs.  Their accuracy is not guaranteed, so constructive comments are welcome, as always.

RH: Not labeled, but obviously Red Arrow #78.  Exact location?

ERA's #1 leased From T.A.T. Corp
Mt. Vernon, NY   April 1944

Southern N.Y. RY.
Combination Interurban
at Hartwick, NY
June 20/36
Orange

10/3/43
P & W southbound as seen from Penna. RR
freight cutoff
CHARLES H. BRADY
CLARENDON HILLS, ILL.

10/3/43
LVT going W. on P&W near
Penna RR freight cutoff
CHARLES H. BRADY
CLARENDON HILLS, ILL.

International Rys.    Buffalo Lockport Int.

Pittsburgh near Monongahela River

Baltimore, West Arlington Barns

Photo by R. W. Merriman
Cap. City Transit No. 1234
At Girard, Ill.     On July 1940
New "PCC" car on way to
Wash DC from St. Louis Car Co (Snapped going thru
town on ITRR Train #202).

Monday Report

Things were busy as usual on Monday.  The west (front) side of Barn 7 is being replaced, and of course many other things around the property were happening.

But I'll stick to Barn 4, as usual.  I did a lot of wire-wheeling to clean up the various cast iron parts for the beams, and got rather dirty in the process.  But as seen here, the #1 end beam for the 319 now has a scraper installed.

And the cylinder for the #2 beam was cleaned up and attached.  I started mortising the holes for the bolts that support the shoe assembly, but that's not quite done.

Several of the 306 crew were at work but I didn't get any pictures.

Fritz helped me lift the cylinder onto the table, and showed me what they've been doing on the interior of the 28.  I guess it's no secret that the interior was stripped out when the body was made into a house back about 1929, but it can be replaced.   They are planning to move the storage shelves (seen at the left in this picture) from the smoker compartment to the coach area, so work on restoring the walls and ceiling can commence.

Meanwhile, the baggage compartment is starting to look great.  It's always difficult to get a good picture of such a small space, but I can tell you it's really nice.

Fritz is working on reproducing the various storage spaces in the front compartment, as seen here:

And here he is making a replacement wrecking tool box.  

Tim continues to work on the 268.  The hinged clerestory windows are very difficult to keep in operating condition, because the tolerances are very small.  It doesn't take much for them to become stuck and inoperable.  We have the same problem on the 150, but at least that's not an operating car.

Finally, I'm going to be helping with the 36's leaf springs.  Here's what a single spring looks like:

And I should have moved it to make it more visible, but that's one of the end castings in the upper-right corner.  Those should all be reusable.

Disassembly Day

Frank writes...

The big news on Sunday was major progress on the project to replace the leaf springs in the 36's trailer truck.

When I arrived, Dan, Brian, and Greg were already hard at work on the truck. Above, Greg is on the forklift and Dan is to the right. They've lifted the truck bolster, taking the weight of the spring plank off the swing links, which allowed them to remove the pins holding those in place. However, the swing links themselves have what are effectively thick bosses where the pins are attached, so those prevented the spring plank from dropping.

To move the swing links aside and free up the bolster, it was also necessary to remove the top pins that the swing links hang from. Here, the spring plank has been blocked up and then the bolster weighted down with the fork extenders. That got the weight off the swing link bosses and allowed Brian (left) and Dan to drive out the pins.

With that, the swing links could be moved aside, and voila - the truck bolster was lifted free of the truck!

Here's what was underneath the truck bolster: a pair of three-wide elliptical, or leaf, springs. The car sits on the truck bolster, the truck bolster sits on these, these sit on the spring plank, and the spring plank is hung from the main truck frame from the swing links.

We removed the leaf springs, which was pretty easy because the assemblies aren't bolted together, they are just held together by gravity and the restricted movement of the bolster. You may notice something amiss with this particular spring: a couple of the "leaves" are broken. This is why the 36 was taken out of service. The plan is to replace all leaf springs on this truck with new ones manufactured to the original specifications.

While we have the truck apart, we intend to clean it up and repaint it. Greg and Steven helped rig up the spring plank and lift it out of the truck for easier cleanup.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing being worked on. For my part, I spent much of the rest of my time working on spare parts-related things. One of the projects was moving some spare seat frames from the 309, shown here, to a new storage location. Thanks to Steven, Ashtin, Will, and Richard for their help with this work!

The shop was abuzz with activity. Jimmy, Richard, Brian, Steven, Ashtin, Nick, and Will were working on various things, plus Zach and Joel were operating during the day. Seen above, the streetcar contingent was present, too. Steve is up on the ladder, removing parts from the roof of the 755, while Mike looks on. This past week Mike repainted the running boards on the 19, visible on the left. They look great!

Simms Collection -- Mystery Quiz #3

Time for some more excitement and thrills, with challenges you can't find anywhere else!   

To start with, I was actually going to include this picture, when I suddenly realized how obvious it was.  This car later became the 144, and how I wish it could have been saved!

OK, time to put on your thinking caps.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Finally....

#6

Simms Collection -- Miscellany

I've been busy with other things, so this next installment has few real challenges.  The first image is badly damaged, so your guess is better than mine, but the rest are mildly interesting, I hope.

Signed for Belleville and East St. Louis

How often do you see something from either of these two lines?

St. Paul Southern #2

Grand Rapids Grand Haven and Muskegon #10

Finally, we have several views from Atlanta, I believe.  Some or all of these may be a fan trip.