Monday, May 24, 2010

Painting the CA&E Cars

IRM has hired a painting contractor to paint four of the CA&E cars from the Trolleyville collection. This is an important step in getting the cars ready for revenue service, so keep reading.

Charlie Strong, one of our volunteers, was planning to do much of this work while he was laid off from his regular job on the railroad, but he was called back and is now working full time. That's important for him, but as a result we need to find some other way to get the cars painted.

We have hired Jim Followell to do the painting; he's done work for IRM before. He will paint the 319, 409, 451, and 460, all in the final red and grey paint scheme. There's a bonus if he gets the job done by July 4th, which he believes he can. The 319 will be painted first. Everybody, including me, wants to see the 319 get painted so its place in the Diesel shop can be taken by the 409. Jim has quoted a price of $2200 for the labor including surface prep and painting the sides of the 319, not including underbody, roof, or lettering. This seems reasonable to me. Julie will pay for the three steel cars, but the 319 is my project, so I need help. Any contributions will be most welcome, and of course you will still be eligible for our own "Take the Throttle"-type runs when the 319 is operational. I'm sure we'll have the 319 ready for service by July 4th.

Charlie has already done quite a bit, of course, but Jim started today on surface prep for the next coats of paint. Here we see Jim (L) and his helper Cody (R) hard at work on the car, in spite of the brutal heat outside. (Sorry, I brought my camera but not the battery, so these are cell phone pictures. Anyway, it's proof that they're working hard!)

And I should point out that work on the steel cars is continuing, thanks to Stan and the rest of the guys. The 460 has its trolley poles installed so it can run by itself, and more work was being done today. Rod, Stan, Joe, and several others were on hand for the TV gig, and continued working on various projects as time allowed. A lot is getting done!

2 comments:

Gwyn Stupar said...

Here are pictures. Post them on the blog if you'd like. Thanks Randy! Some are really humorous ;): http://www.flickr.com/photos/44474109@N03/sets/72157624007501851/

Gwyn Stupar said...

Oops, here is the real set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44474109@N03/sets/72157624007501851/