319 Report

In order to repaint the 319 interior, I need to fill in various cracks that have appeared in the original paint. And I don't want to sand it all down to bare wood. So acting on advice from Bob Kutella and Pete Galayda, I went to an auto supply store and bought some polyester glazing putty. This is somewhat similar to Bondo; it uses a cream hardener but is a smoother consistency and has a longer working time. It's intended only for shallow applications like this. This is what it looks like after application.

About a half hour later, it's ready to sand. Sanding off the thin layer left over the old finish paint is not difficult. I now have a nice smooth subsurface.

And once I was satisfied with the work done by my new girlfriends Polly and Esther, it seemed feasible to put a coat of primer on the entire wall I've been using as a testing ground. It looks pretty good if I say so myself.

I also started applying the putty to some other walls.

And I put a first coat of finish paint on the wrecking tools, window shade tracks, and the last four windows.

And in other news, Phil explained what the ATSF trucks we rerailed last week are for. These trucks have tread brakes and will not fit under the Silver Pony dome car, which still has its skirts. So they will go under the baggage car Olympus, (which has lost its skirts -- eek!) and the disk-brake trucks from the Olympus will go under the dome car. Hope that makes sense. If we had unlimited funds the correct trucks might be available, but of course we have at least ten good uses for every dollar that comes in.