Saturday, March 6, 2010

Step By Step

Inch by inch, slowly I turn... we're making progress on restoring our new acquisitions to operation.

Much of the day was spent sanding down the south side of the 319, as seen here. I now have the lift available, so it went fairly quickly. The rest of the goofy decal lettering was removed.

I also dug out a CA&E trolley hook for Rod, who will use it to make several new ones. Some of them were lost or stolen in Cleveland.

Les Ascher was showing some visitors from Montreal around, and they got a tour of the interior.


Dan Gornstein was here today. He was our expert on how to install the tower platform on top of the South Shore line car. It was pulled over to the steam lead so it would be out from under trolley wire, then the platform was lifted into place with the fork lift. Dan had lots of helpers: Joel, Joe, Stan, Tom Hunter, Rod, Warren, and I'm not sure who else.



By the end of the day, I had finished this side of the car. I also removed four windows and took them to the shop to be repainted, and installed one which was already repainted.






Meanwhile, Greg C. sanded down four window frames and painted them with primer.


And Rich Witt finished making a wooden frame for the sign box on the 409, and here he is painting it with primer. It looks great!


Of course, there were many other projects being pursued, too many to mention.


By the way, does anybody know for sure what this device is for? It has no obvious function.

I won't be out next weekend, I have something else to do: the Verdi Requiem at Rockefeller Chapel. You won't want to miss it!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"By the way, does anybody know for sure what this device is for?"

Thermostat?

Pilot lights?

-Hudson

Anonymous said...

It's an indicator that the car was assigned to owl service.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the mystery device on 319 is a light bulb used to illuminate car's interior at night.

Scott Greig said...

Looks like a receptacle of some kind, like you'd plug something into it...but up so high???

Randall Hicks said...

Ha ha, I knew somebody would say it's a lightbulb.

Inside the two holes are two little rods which look like they might be pushbuttons, but can't be pushed. Perhaps they pop out to act as an indicator of some sort. They might be connected to the motor cut-out switch which is directly below, or to the heating circuits. Maybe we'll figure it out once the car gets running.

Anonymous said...

Although I question Scott's suggestion at my own admitted peril (he's far more knowledgeable at these things than I am),, I don't think it's a receptacle, at a minimum, not a plug in type as Scott suggested.

The "insets" don't really suggest a plug in type of housing, especially considering the era. Back in the day as it were, I think we'd more likely have something big/boxy/bulky, this looks almost "I-Pod"ish with the scooped bowl design. My opinion only of course.

I'm guessing some sort of push actuators, but again, for what, why so high up,why not just a simple button or two, very strange indeed

John C