This report will cover two days, Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the time was spent painting the ceiling in the 319, as before. The work is progressing nicely.
Here's a few progress shots, we needn't bother you with the details.
Henry Vincent has offered to help on the 36, which is really great news. His first project will be this train door from the #2 end. From the inside, it looks pretty good.
(I should point out that all of the CA&E wood cars have thick train doors, made by essentially fastening two separate doors together. Evidently when the line started, this was thought necessary for high-speed operation. By the time the steel cars came along, this idea was abandoned.)
However, the outside was patched with a piece of plywood, hiding who knows what sort of problem. With the door removed, we see that the bottom rail has rotted away and been replaced with some scrap lumber.
And when the plywood is pried off, sure enough, there's a big gap. I believe the inner door can be saved, and replacement parts of the outer door will use it as a base. We did something similar to this with one of the doors on the 308.
Also, I finished filling and priming the end window that was in the shop, and today it got a first coat of finish red. It will get at least one more before installation. Then I flipped it over and put brown primer on the inside, which will be painted blue. 
On Wednesday Nick, Paul, and Bob Olson (L to R) spent some time assembling the trucks for the dome car. The large pipes over the truck are extenders for the forks, and are used to lift the frame so the wheelsets with journal boxes can be slid into place.
And then Tim Peters is hard at work making new windows for the 1024. All of the sash will be replaced, so he's making 24 clerestory frames, 24 uppers, and 24 lowers. Here we see him mortising one of the 144 rails.
The parts are carefully stacked on a shelf in the shop.
Finally, I walked out to yard 14 to check on the 321. Everything appears to be OK;
the tarp is fine, and there's no evidence of leaks inside the car. The operating position still has its half-finished, multi-color appearance. More importantly, I suspect it's against the rules to operate a car with a tarp in the way, although that doesn't seem to be stated explicitly. It sure would be nice if this car could be back inside a barn somewhere....
Say, did I ever tell you we're planning to build a new barn? No, that's not just another rumor -- it's true! And we could still use your help. It's easy: all you have to do is go to this link to the Museum website and donate through our secure connection. Any donations will be greatly appreciated, you can be sure of that.
5 comments:
It sure was considerate of the CA&E to put all of those hooks for hanging paint cans all over the ceiling for the benefit of the workers!
And about the 321 being multi-colored, I think I figured out that for a brief period around 1997 - when we were switching from Early American to Coffee and Cream colors - the car would have had something like ten colors on it at the same time: blue, red, grey, maroon, tan, cream, brown primer and white primer, plus a bit of orange (318) and green (IRM). Quite the color riot.
Would the door which was made several years ago for a CA&E car be a correct replacement on this car?
Kirk Warner
The end door "repair," is that a CA&E repair, or something that our friends in Cleveland did?
Kirk, unfortunately no. The door that was made a few years ago is an original-style side door for a 300-308 series Niles car. Actually a good home for that door would be Warehouse Point; their car 303 would need four of that type to be authentically restored so that its physical condition matched its Pullman green livery. At the moment I don't believe they have plans to do all of that backdating work though.
I'm also curious about the answer to David's question, as I was wondering that myself.
To answer David's question, no, this was certainly not a CA&E repair. Under the flimsy plywood are two pieces of wood subflooring, spaced with pieces of cardboard. From the paint, it appears this repair was done before the door was painted red at Cleveland, so it dates back to about 1963. Some of our other train doors were patched at the bottom by Wheaton, so we have examples of how to do it right.
Post a Comment