Labor Day Labor

It's a long-standing tradition at IRM to celebrate Labor Day with just that: lots of labor. So let's get to work!

The blue cars were running today, and generally we had a good crowd of visitors. Everything seems to have gone well. I helped a little with getting them ready for service.

And here's our operating crew: Sam Polonetzky, Ron Seavers, and Jeff Obarek.

I started by putting a finish coat of Fleet Grey on two windows in the shop. They should be ready for installation next time.

And then continued with grey around the door frame and on the handrails on this corner of the car, where the door had been removed.




And I took another trip out to check on the 321, including inside the car to see if it had been taking on water during the recent rains. The answer appears to be no.

The weather, however, was rather unpleasantly hot and humid, so I preferred to work in the shop. Al Reinschmidt wins this week's door prize. He's done a great job refinishing this side door; there was just a little more painting needed, then I was able to assemble it and put it back on the car. This will be needed whenever the car is wyed.

The inner metal panel had rusted out, so this is a replacement. I marked and drilled all the holes so it can be installed next time. And I did some other miscellaneous tasks on the 36.

Meanwhile, Frank was working on painting the 205. It looks great! Here he is working on the doors at the west end, and the east end which has already been painted.

By the way, on RyPN I noticed this article from a newspaper in Mississippi that Dudie's Diner is being restored - again. Our blog is mentioned, which is nice, although I could do without the extra apostrophe. Hick's Car Works, indeed.

Frank adds...

My father pretty much covered things in the above post.  I managed to get both sets of doors on the 205 painted orange; I ran out of time before I could paint the west end of the car but that should happen next weekend, after which I can start putting on finish paint.  At right, my father is seen assembling the side door for the 36 prior to installation.



One of the more unusual ways in which the Insull interurban lines modernized their fleets was the "Silverliner" treatment done by the North Shore to some of its cars.  Lines of shaded grey "shadows" were painted on the sides of their cars to simulate stainless steel.  At left, we see just how effective this treatment was, with one of the museum's Silverliners over the inspection pit.  It almost looks like a real Budd car!


In other news, I recently visited Bob Bruneau, longtime Electric Car Department Curator and now the Curator Emeritus, in the retirement home.  His condition is frail but his memory is sharp as a tack and he's always interested in calls, letters or visits.  E-mail me at fullparallel at wideopenwest dot com if you'd like his contact information.