Starting Inspection

I started doing the inspection for car 308 today; much of it can be done without having the car over the pit, in particular the roof equipment and the interior. Here's a controller with its cover off. The jar of petroleum jelly is washed out by the flash, but that's what we use for lubricating the controller fingers.

There's a four page inspection sheet for each car. I completed about a page and half.

One thing that isn't included on the inspection sheet for some reason is lubricating the rollers for the pocket doors, as seen to the right. The top of the door frame is hinged so it can be opened to access the mechanism.

The spring latch came out of one of the window frames last year, so I got around to fixing it. This involved removing the shade tracks and taking the window itself to the shop. Then I drilled out the holes and glued in dowels. After the epoxy set, I drilled new holes and reattached the spring latch, as seen here. Then it's reinstalled.

Speaking of Amtrak, for some reason this nice flatcar lettered for Amtrak appeared outside Barn 8. It's just another part of the "Heritage Fleet," I guess.

I also spent some time working on the roof of the 277. All saddles were put back in place, and the new running boards were moved into their approximate location. I'm working on making the laps for the running boards, as seen here. I'm using treated 2x6 lumber as recommended by Bob Kutella.

I also went up on the roof of the 309 to try to free up one of the shunt cables, so far without success.

Phil Stepek gave me a fluorescent light fixture; he has several which are now surplus. I installed it over the workbench in the 321, a big improvement. Later I went back and took another one. Thanks, Phil!