Not-Exactly-Spring Cleaning

Although we got a couple more inches of snow early Sunday morning I was able to make it out to the winter wonderland that is East Union, Ill. and get some work done on the 205. The first priority was to install the MU socket that I had worked on the previous week. With help from Greg Kepka I got it installed on the east end of the car, as seen at right, completing this particular project.

Following this I spent some time cleaning up the interior of the car, which will have to be done sooner or later anyway so that it's presentable to the public. Full interior restoration is not being contemplated but fortunately isn't really necessary, as the car's interior is largely intact with the exception of wall and trim pieces in the ceiling and above the window sill. A lot of these pieces have been stored on the car's seat backs so I started removing the parts to under-seat storage where they won't be visible looking through the windows. Some of the components are not from the 205, including some large aluminum drip rails. Judging from the green paint on them I'm guessing they may be from the Yakima "Master Unit" that was owned by the same person who owned the 205 from 1959 until about 1992... if anyone with the group in Yakima would like them, they're yours! Below is a before-and-after shot of my "spring cleaning" efforts.









One of the last steps of the car's cosmetic restoration will be removal of all of my paint and body filler supplies, vacuuming the floor and wiping down the seats. I also spent some more time using chemical paint stripper to remove the old paint from the last end window for the car, and I cleaned up some parts for the vestibule of the 319 by needle-chipping and sand blasting. Seen below, the "L" shaped thing is what keeps the train door latched open, on the right is a grab-iron and in between are window shade brackets, the retainer clip for the train door and a side door handle latch.
A lot was happening in the department despite the weather. Jeff was working on weather stripping for the Michigan car, Joe, Joel and Greg were working on flooring for NSL 757 and on wiring in IT 277, Frank S. and Dan were working on seats for the Veracruz open car, and Danielle was painting windows for IT 518. Of particular interest to the "CA&E wood car department" was a spare M15B brake valve that was rebuilt by Rod and Danielle (below); this is now available to be swapped in if one of the brake valves in the 308 or 309 develops a problem. Thanks!!