Goodby Old Paint or Back in the Saddle Again

Al writes....

Some of you may have noticed that I have been absent from the Hicks car works blog activity for the last several weeks. I've been dealing with some medical issues that have made it difficult to help out with the restoration efforts on 36.

But it was time to get out of the house and attack that large slab of green on the lower side of 36. I had been itching to do some removal of that "beautiful" color. So I was able to get out for a short while on Tuesday and do a bit of  "paint removal work". I wasn't quite as full of energy as I had thought so my activities were limited to one window section, however progress is progress. Here are photos of that window section after scraping and sanding and after application of the primer. Still a ways to go to get the entire side completed. 

Things are really quiet at IRM on Tuesdays during the winter so a quick stroll around the property didn't yield much activity. However I was able to find the 4412 still wearing its Halloween ghost costume. In actuality this was in place for Tim Peters to put on the first coat of paint in his race to beat the turkey on his roofing project for the 4412. Here's Tim applying a first coat of paint to the canvas which was absorbing it like a sponge. Tim suggested that it might be necessary to bring a tank car of paint in order to complete several coats on the roof.

The cold drizzly day did not lend itself to outside photography. But it certainly did point out the need for indoor storage for our restored and weather vulnerable equipment.

 I hope to be able to start making regular trips back out to IRM to help Randy with the continued outside of restoration of the CA & E 36 to its proper image.