A Good Mail Roll Model

Getting tired of the puns yet? Anyway, Sunday was a gorgeous day with perfect weather to close out RPO Weekend. There seemed to be a good crowd according to the operating crews. I even managed to witness one of the mail bag grabs, though my photo came out a bit late.
And what better complement to a blue sky than a red interurban car?
The 319 and 309 were in service all day under the care of Henry Vincent, Joel Ahrendt and Jim West. There are a couple of minor issues with the 319 that we'll want to fix before our next operation date on July 3rd, but overall the car is performing quite well and already seems to be a favorite of the operating crews. I think we'll keep her! There was even a visit from "Mr. and Mrs. Hicks Company," Randy and Margaret Hicks, who stopped in briefly to check up on the cars and discuss DB-15 contactors with Norm Krentel, who is helping with rewiring work on the 36.
I worked more on the 205 and managed to get most of the remaining bare metal on the car covered with primer, including the west end letterboard and the last of the side window piers (shown below right after priming). Below left is a shot of me wiping down the west end letterboard before priming courtesy of Mike Stauber.









I also took some time to go over recent progress on Michigan 28 with Norm, so watch for an item on that in a future issue of "Rail & Wire," and I painted a piece of cardboard with a sample of Indiana Railroad orange provided by Jon Fenlaciki to use in getting paint matched this week. With only a couple of spots on the 205 still in need of sanding and priming, we're basically ready to start with the first coat of orange as soon as the paint and rollers are procured.