Wednesday, May 7, 2008

309 Report

On Monday and today, most of the work involved putting a final coat of varnish on woodwork in the ceiling of the main compartment and some other areas - not something that shows up well in pictures. It appears now that we are hoping to move the 321 into Barn 4 in June, so I've started putting seat backs in place in the 309. All of the seats have been stored in the 321 since Sept. 2006, but most of the interior work is done, and it's much easier to move them now. Here's what the main compartment looks like today.



And there was more cleaning and sorting in the 321. Here is some of the "parlor car furniture" set up. It's been my home away from home for thirty years now.

On Saturday, weather permitting, I plan to run the 308 over the pit for its annual inspection. It will be run in service on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. Anyone who wants to help with inspection would be most welcome!





And in totally irrelevant news, I happened to be in the city and had some extra time. Below is a picture of the current end of track on the Lakewood branch. As you can see, the last industry it served has been torn down, so it's probably not long for this world:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

309 looks great! I like the interior shot with the covered up windows.

Any chance that IRM will remove the outside cover to expose those beautiful elliptical windows?

Charles

Randall Hicks said...

Thanks. As for the outside windows, originally there was a separate set of arched upper sash on the outside; these were a completely different pattern from the interior windows that are still there. In 1941 the outer windows were removed and replaced with wood, not just covered over. And as far as we can tell, there are no samples still in existence, so they cannot be accurately replicated. So I'm afraid it cannot be done.

Randall