Paint by Numbers

'Twas cold and damp today, so painting was confined to primer. But there was plenty to do. It's relatively warm and dry inside the 321. All of the new roof parts got a first coat of brown primer on all surfaces, as seen here on the workbench. If you look closely, every part is numbered. We use Roman numerals for the same reason the Romans did -- it's easy. All you need is a screwdriver (for wood, at least) and a hammer to whack it with. I also finished putting primer on the running boards, which are on horses in the center aisle.

Then some work on the interior of the 277. Bob had refinished all of the window shade boxes, with his usual flawless precision, and reinstalled them. But they're in the way of trying to replace the missing wall panels, so I started by removing one of them. Then I noticed that one storm window was coming apart, and indeed I was afraid the glass would fall out the next time we moved the car. Note (circled in red) how the rail is coming out of the stile -- the tenon has rotted away completely. So this sash was removed -- that's a time-consuming task. I started on another one, but I really need to rig up better lighting inside the car.

I also picked out the parts I need to repaint for this section, such as the upper sash shown below. Originally it held a leaded stained glass window, but now it's just a piece of Masonite. I cleaned it up, and now need to get some new white primer, but that's no problem. Note that there are no screw holes -- these sash are not fastened in, but just rest on top of the window shade box. I really don't know why the IT cars are arranged this way.