Preparing for new arrivals

With the war over, attention turned to the home front - and the acquisitions we expect to be arriving shortly. Most of my time Sunday was spent working on preparations for the new Brookins acquisitions. These cars are in very good shape and will be put indoors as soon as they arrive - which means something else needs to go outside. The chosen candidates are the three THI&E bodies, two of which are still tarped from their 1996-2002 stints of outdoor storage; CA&E 321, which will make way for identical sister car 319; and CSL 4001, which has the advantage of being built entirely of aluminum and hence is largely immune to weather damage. The latter two cars had been conveniently stored right behind the 308 and 309, and swapped places with the blue cars Sunday so as to be right at the barn door. The next step will be to empty any needed parts out of these cars (321 has been the workshop car, as regular blog readers may know) and then tarp them. This was the first time the 4001 had seen daylight in over 10 years and the first time the 321 had been outside since 2006.

Thanks to Joe Stupar, Andy Sunderland, Stan Wdowikowski and Greg somebody for working on the switch move. See video of the switch move here.

Afterwards, everyone trooped over to Barn 10 to replace the tarp on THI&E 50, the "Clinton." This interurban car had been the brief focus of some intended cosmetic work a few years ago until it became obvious that the car's structure was in such bad shape, it was impossible to attach any siding or plywood to the car's window posts. A gang of people including the aforementioned Joe, Andy, Stan and Greg plus Dan Mulvhill and Jeff Obarek were able to get the 50's original (1996-2002) tarp back onto the car. (At left, Andy and Stan hoist a ladder while Dan and Joe look on in the background.) It will be tied down in the coming weeks before the car goes outside to make way for a CA&E steel car from Ohio.

Finally, during breaks in the action I was able to successfully test-fit the new window post caps for the 205 (see photo at right). These will dramatically improve the appearance of the car and eliminate - or, rather, cover over - most of the remaining rusted metal. I took the post caps home with me to spray with primer; I'll only have a few more days out at IRM before my job takes over my weekends for the winter, and I plan on spending those days working on preparation for the Brookins move!