36 Report

Yesterday work started in earnest on stripping the #1 end of the 36. I moved the platform across the track to access the upper parts of the car. Stripping the wood isn't too difficult, although there are a lot of moldings to work around. The train door and end windows will have to be removed at some point for overhaul.

The metal plate over the train door, however, needs to be taken down to bare metal to get a good clean surface for painting. I'm using the department's big wire wheel. While the work's in progress, you can see several layers of paint: Brookins green (1963), CA&E red (1950), brown primer (also 1950), and blue (1946). The plate may date back only to the last rebuilding; before that the underlying wood would have been painted. But we're not going to disassemble it to find out.

I've also done some archeology on the side sill of the car. There's a lot of alligatoring, which makes it harder, but the layers appear to be, starting with the latest:
1. Black (Brookins, 1963)
2. Red (1950)
3. Brown primer (1950)
4. Blue (1946)
5. Black (1939)
6. Red/maroon (1930s)

In the afternoon I turned to painting windows again, to escape the heat. Nothing too exciting, but we just have to keep going.

This Sunday will be Vintage Transport Day, so I decided to switch the cars around again and have the 308 and 309 in service.



We should be running both Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting, and we could still use another trainman both days, I believe. In any case, you won't want to miss the extravaganza!