Better Red Than Dead

... but not by much. That was my opinion after spending all day painting both ends of the 309 red. My experience has always been that red is the hardest color for covering, even when it's only a different shade of red. Since the 309 was last painted about 1992, we realized that the red we had used was not quite the right shade. We later had it matched to a sample from the edge of a door on the 321. It's certainly not the same as the red used in the final paint scheme, as on the 431. But since there's relatively little of it in the blue paint scheme, finding usable samples was not easy. The picture to the left shows the #1 end in progress: new red on the left, the old on the right. This took all day, but we'll probably need a second coat at some point. Now, at least, the 309 matches the 308.

To the right, here's a close-up of the top of the train door frame. Do you see the vertical grooves in the wood? It certainly wasn't made this way. These can only be due to the conductors standing inside the car to pull the trolley rope when raising or lowering the poles. Since CA&E cars never had chains across the doors like the North Shore cars do, this was the safest way to do it.

At the end of the day, a strong thunderstorm blew through, and we lost all power from ComEd. That made cleaning up more challenging. Also, the automatic gate didn't work, of course. Dave had to open the box to disconnect the motor, and I helped him push the gate open so we could go home. All in a day's work for B&G!