Let's Fix It With Duct Tape

 "Let's fix it with duct tape" is not an approved method of repair at IRM, for good reasons.  But we'll get to that later.

 

The weather was just right for painting today, so the morning was occupied with finishing up the surface prep, and then applying the first coat of primer to the rest of the letterboard and upper siding, as seen here.  And I did some more paint removal on the corner post.

Then as sort of a change of pace, since I had the tools available, I started removing the old paint from the bumper at the #1 end with the big wire wheel.  On the flat parts of the bumper it goes pretty quickly.  I then found, however, that with the attachments we've got it's not possible to get all the inside parts of the anticlimber.  I will try to find a wire brush attachment that will work in smaller spaces.  Otherwise, we can do needle chipping, but the car would have to be moved over to Barn 4 for that to happen.

I went ahead and finished all the areas I could, and primed them also.  These parts will be painted blue.

By the way, when looked at closely, the bumpers are not very flat.  They must have bumped into a lot of different things over the years.

 The 4412 is making great progress.  Here Tim is bolting grab irons onto the roof, helped by Bill Wulfert inside, who's holding the wrench on the nuts.

And most of the roof hardware is in place.  The bases have been lifted, but not yet fastened down, so the poles are just lying there.  But it's getting close!

Ever since we acquired the 36, the kingpin at the #2 end refused to drop into place for some reason.  It appeared to be slightly bent, so a while back I took it over to the steam shop, and our buddies there straightened it out for me on the big press.  But that didn't help.  It was still sticking up a foot or more, a real accident hazard.

The answer, as all too often, turned out to be greater violence.

I found a large plank of wood in the barn and out of frustration tried using it as a drop hammer, and miraculously the pin started to go in!  After a  few more blows it was all the way down, and I reattached the cover plate with screws.  Of course, once it's out of sight there's not much to see.  But that's a great relief.  I was always afraid of stumbling over it in the dark.

So let's look at the other end of the car.  The kingpin was no problem, but for some unknown reason, while the car was at Cleveland, the cover plate was fastened in place with multiple layers of duct tape instead of screws.  That's great -- Cleveland Chrome. By this time, the old duct tape has vulcanized and is very hard to remove.  I don't want to use heat or chemicals on the floor, as that might damage the old linoleum.  (The brass cover plate shouldn't be much of a problem.)  But it's down to scraping the tape off with a putty knife.

This is really annoying, another one of the unnecessary indignities the car suffered as a result of the preposterous scheme to run it in revenue service on the RTA.  Oh well.  At least the car has always been stored indoors, under cover, protected from the ravages of the weather.  That's the important thing, isn't it!