Minor Difficulties

On Sunday, the crew noticed a few minor difficulties with the 308. First of all, the brakes don't always release after a light reduction. I checked the operation to make sure it wasn't a feed valve problem; no, it's the triple valve. This happens sometimes because after a light reduction the brake pipe comes back up slowly and the valve doesn't move. We'll try lubricating it some more.

Then it was noticed we had a broken spring on one of the trolley bases. I'd never had to replace one before, and got a much better appreciation of little things like this. It was quite a project, and took me about 3 1/2 hours to complete. I had to run the cars outside so I could have the pole pointing straight up. Here we see the 309 with the big blue flag, and the 308 with its pole reaching for the sky. After what seemed like hours of pounding, I managed to remove the pins holding the springs, and replace the broken one.

Just getting the replacement spring out of the spare base was a difficult project. Each pin holds the ends of two springs, and they're held by cotter pins which are hard to remove, etc.

The replacement spring is rusty; the others are still coated with tar from when the CA&E was tarring the roofs back in the fifties.

I'd had enough of working on the roof, so nothing got done on the 277. Instead, I started repainting the ceiling in the main compartment. I recently got the paint mixed, and it seems to be a good match. Here we see it after painting, both before and after removing all the masking tape and drop cloth.

I was sent a video starring Joel Ahrendt picking up flimsies on the fly last Saturday; it was made from Tom Hunter's pictures by Jason Nates. I'm unable to include it here, but if you want to see it, send me an email and I'll attach it. Warning: 3 MB.