I spent much of today making structural repairs to the 205 with Bondo - or, at least, they might be called structural repairs considering how much Bondo is holding the car together these days! I did Bondo and sanding work on the second wide window post from the west end as well as the letterboard at the east end and southwest corner post. I got enough done on the wide window post that by the end of the day it was ready to prime, as show at right. I also primed half of the letterboard at the east end of the car, which is a marked improvement in appearance. (Unfortunately the east end still doesn't look "right" because the MU jumper receptacle and headlight have yet to be installed.)In other news, I spray-painted one and a half of the HL switch group boxes under the car with a first coat of black paint before running out (below left). I also figured out that there is enough room at each end of the 205 to allow the poles to be hooked down - when the 205 was switched back into Barn 8 the poles were swung off to the side since they stick out past the end of the car a few feet. I hung a block reading "look up" at approximate coupler/floor level from the trolley wheel at the east end of the car to ensure any switch move ground personnel won't miss seeing the trolley wheel (below right, block circled). For the information of anyone who might be doing switching in Barn 8, the 205's pole can simply be unhooked and moved off to the side if needed.
I really like the "look up" sign. Seems pretty unique. The car is looking good!
ReplyDeleteWe've had enough mishaps with trolley poles (including one recently) that this is a real concern. Frank's earliest memory of IRM seems to be when we got to ride along as Bill McGregor switched the 604 out of Barn 2 for us, so we could run the 309. He forgot that the pole on one end of the 604 sticks out quite a ways from the car, so as he pulled it back in on another track, he punched the pole right through the metal skin of the door. Kaboom! It dropped the sub and blew out the AC circuits in the building. We don't want something like that to happen again.
ReplyDeleteI've witnessed a similar incident involving a live pole hitting a caboose during some switching at another museum (which shall remain nameless). It didn't have quite the spectucular outcome that Randy described, but it did drop the sub station.
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