As usual, there were several projects to do today. For one thing, I learned that the three IT cars will be moved over to Barn 4 this weekend, so I did some cleaning and straightening, and moved CA&E spare parts into storage.
And here's an explanatory sign I wrote up and had laminated, for display in the 319. It looks good, if I say so myself, so I'll go ahead and make one for the other end and two for the 308. The 309 has scenery photos at the ends of the car, so I have car cards with similar information.
The 319 is going to need a complete roof job, and part of this is producing new tack molding. The old tack molding is completely unusable. The only challenging parts are the four rounded corners
on the lower roof, as shown by the yellow arrow (L).
On this corner most of the piece has fallen out.
So I acquired a big chunk of clear poplar and started cutting it out on the big bandsaw.
When done, I smoothed it out on the belt sander. You shall observe, of course, that this is nice new wood I'm sanding. One should never try to strip paint using these shop machines. The FBI is still hot on the trail of the last person to do this.
When done, I smoothed it out on the belt sander. You shall observe, of course, that this is nice new wood I'm sanding. One should never try to strip paint using these shop machines. The FBI is still hot on the trail of the last person to do this.
The piece has curves in three dimensions, so it's not easy. When I needed replacements for the 309 back about 1977, I handed the one good sample to Dennis Storzek and asked him to make some. About an hour later, it seemed, he handed me the four new ones, and I never figured out how he did it. I'm afraid it will take me a little longer.
Most of my time was spent on the ceiling; I believe I have the sagging portion held up as best I can, so I puttied over the screws, sanded them down, and put on a coat of white primer. I still need to reattach the corner molding strips. I also spent some more time removing paint in the vestibule. (There, that should satisfy the censor!)
In Barn 2, we see that contractor Bill Greenhill and his employee Jim are making good progress in prepping the Cleveland PCC for painting. He expects to start on the finish coats early next week.
14 comments:
Why are the IT cars being moved and other than the PCC what freezed up the space?
Typo seems appropriate given the weather!
Randy, I helped (watched) Glen Guerra put those corner blocks on the Fort Wayne car, used a similar approach when I did these for the Sand Springs car. Basically mount the block with the extra stock vertically remaining, after any rabbeting and grooves are machined on the bottom outside of the blocks to match the drip lips. After screwing them in, get an angle grinder with a very coarse disk, and hog off the extra material, fairing them into the roof curves and smoothing with a finer grit disc.
Sort of a hammer and tongs blacksmith approach to fine woodworking, but each corner of any of these old roofs can be different enough to make this workable, being able to customize each piece to the car.
Bob Kutella
Is poplar the wood of choice for tack molding? What qualities of poplar make it attractive for this purpose?
The orange train (277-518-234) are being brought into barn 4 for the winter so that additional work can be done to prep them for the IT meet at IRM at the end of April. To allow this, NSL 757 and SS 68 will be rotated out of the shop for the winter. The West Towns 141 will hold the West spot on 41 formerly occupied by CA&E 431 and NSL 749.
Bob: Yes, of course the final fitting will have to wait until installation. I can't do that now without pulling up the canvas, which wouldn't be a good idea.
David: Poplar seems to be a good choice: it's usually clear and straight, lightweight, and easier to drive tacks into than harder woods. By the way, here's our FAQ:
http://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2008/10/faq-on-canvas-roofs.html
@Dave: Randy's right. Poplar is straight-grained, easy to machine and easy to drive tacks into. It doesn't have a lot of rot resistance, but when you're inspecting cars every ninety days you can stop deterioration before it gets bad. (And of course, these cars weren't expected to last twenty years, much less a hundred!)
@Bob: I remember a couple of the slide shows Glenn Guerra put on in past years, detailing the work he did on the Fort Wayne 504 and East Troy's Sheboygan car.
Something he brought to light, that surprised me at first (until his explanations settled in) was that the original carbuilders--in the heyday of the industry--had no qualms about using similarly "crude" techniques when building the cars in the first place.
Like he said, these cars were just commodities to be punched out, and the builders were average joes who wanted to put down their tools at five and go have a beer.
That sounds somewhat exaggerated to me. Sure, this isn't Louis XIV furniture we're talking about, but I believe the carbuilders generally took pride in their work. Or it wouldn't have lasted this long. Glenn's entitled to his opinion about "average joes," but you can't say that about Hicks Locomotive and Car Works, for instance.
At least you can't say it to my face. Let him try!
Randy, we MIGHT call you an average RANDY but never an average JOE!
Choices of the best wood for tack moldings are limited. Southern yellow pine and fir are appropriate hardness and have above average rot resistance, but they can be grainy and prone to splitting from a row or two of closely spaced tacks.
Many examples of the car builders art reveal the old moldings to have been poplar. And it it is still available easily in many dimensions of stock, and in the lower tier, pricing wise, of any of the common hardwoods.
Bob Kutella
I would guess that making the originals involved a draw knife and some interesting shaped hand planes.
-Hudson
I wouldn't call their shop shortcuts *bad* work, Randy...it did the job, and for cranking out products on a contracted schedule, it made sense.
Proactive (or at least regular) maintenance took care of the rest.
Great Job on the Writeup for the CA&E cars! I think it helps people get a sense of living the history when they are placed in the position that others had to endure during time as opposed to just saying on this date something happened.
Tim Lesniak
Warehouse Point
Thanks, Tim. Feel free to adapt this to your own needs.
Thank you. I think I just might.
Tim Lesniak
Warehouse Point
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