The first priority now is getting at least two of the wood cars ready for revenue service. The newly-cleaned feed valve was reinstalled in the 308, and seemed to work perfectly; I adjusted it to 70 psi on the car's clock with no difficulty.
The 319's compressor is another story, however. I found that the bulb we put in it about two weeks ago had burned out, so that wasn't doing much good. I replaced it, and removed the brushes. Rod later dressed them for me. I meggered the armature; with the battery dying, it's hard to get an exact measurement, but commutator to ground is definitely less than 1 meg, but well above a dead short. With the recent rain and variable temperature, that may not be as bad as it sounds. And I talked to Rod about the switching that will be needed to move cars over to the pit for inspection. Right now 84 is blocked with the Shaker PCC outside the door.
And we're making plans to meet at North Freedom next Tuesday about 1pm to load up the CA&E seats and bring them to IRM. Rod has already lined up some Wednesday guys to help us unload them Wednesday morning. And I have cleaned out some space in the 150 to store them.
Our friend Rich Witt has been cleared by his doctor to resume work, and he would like to keep working on windows for the 36. That's good news. So I removed the latches from four of them and transported them over to the shop for stripping and repainting as time permits. Thanks in advance!
Then I walked out to check on the 321 again; the tarp seems fine. I went inside to look for evidence of more leaks, but it seems OK. Awfully hot and humid inside, however. We really need another barn as soon as possible. Yes, I'm looking at you. Donate to the Carbarn Fund!
After that, I had run out of brake work to do, so it was back to repainting the 36 for a while. I stripped, sanded down, and painted the rest of the letterboard and upper siding all the way to the end of the car, as seen dimly here.
The 319's compressor is another story, however. I found that the bulb we put in it about two weeks ago had burned out, so that wasn't doing much good. I replaced it, and removed the brushes. Rod later dressed them for me. I meggered the armature; with the battery dying, it's hard to get an exact measurement, but commutator to ground is definitely less than 1 meg, but well above a dead short. With the recent rain and variable temperature, that may not be as bad as it sounds. And I talked to Rod about the switching that will be needed to move cars over to the pit for inspection. Right now 84 is blocked with the Shaker PCC outside the door.
And we're making plans to meet at North Freedom next Tuesday about 1pm to load up the CA&E seats and bring them to IRM. Rod has already lined up some Wednesday guys to help us unload them Wednesday morning. And I have cleaned out some space in the 150 to store them.
Our friend Rich Witt has been cleared by his doctor to resume work, and he would like to keep working on windows for the 36. That's good news. So I removed the latches from four of them and transported them over to the shop for stripping and repainting as time permits. Thanks in advance!
Then I walked out to check on the 321 again; the tarp seems fine. I went inside to look for evidence of more leaks, but it seems OK. Awfully hot and humid inside, however. We really need another barn as soon as possible. Yes, I'm looking at you. Donate to the Carbarn Fund!
After that, I had run out of brake work to do, so it was back to repainting the 36 for a while. I stripped, sanded down, and painted the rest of the letterboard and upper siding all the way to the end of the car, as seen dimly here.
Frank Sirinek has been hard at work repainting the floor and running boards on the Veracruz open car. Here we see the various floor hatches being repainted in the shop.
Frank asked me if I had been on the infamous CTA charter trip. He said he had gotten about ten calls from friends who assumed that he must have been on the trip, that the train had fallen off the structure, and were afraid he must have been injured or killed. Fortunately, of course, he wasn't. That's funny, I didn't get any calls like that. Evidently nobody I know cares if I get killed in a train wreck!
Frank asked me if I had been on the infamous CTA charter trip. He said he had gotten about ten calls from friends who assumed that he must have been on the trip, that the train had fallen off the structure, and were afraid he must have been injured or killed. Fortunately, of course, he wasn't. That's funny, I didn't get any calls like that. Evidently nobody I know cares if I get killed in a train wreck!
And then I spent some time helping Tim with these huge planks which will be the roof boards for the 1797. First we ran them through the big jointer, then the table saw to set the width to exactly 8". The wood shop is laid out optimally for processing window sash, but when you have 2x8 boards that are about 14' long, several machines have to be moved back and forth.
Here Tim is getting ready to feed another board to me; I'll be taking. The board has to be inserted partway into the Berlin sander due to its length. But once everything is set up, it goes pretty quickly.
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