You have to get up pretty early in the morning to stay ahead of the volunteers at IRM. Henry Vincent, for instance, continues to make good progress on the train door for the 36, as seen here. The new wooden parts and the various other pieces have all been painted and appear to be ready for installation. I marked where the holes need to be drilled for attaching the new kickplate. This part of the 36 project is progressing quite well.
Most of the time I spent stripping paint, and then painting other surfaces in the vestibule of the 319. The metal parts, such as the grab iron and the handle for the Armstrong window wiper seen here, need to be wire-wheeled down to bare metal. There's now more red, and more white primer, than before. The nice thing is that it's much easier to heat up these tiny vestibules than the whole main compartment.
But why is it so dark in here if the sun is shining?
I also worked on stripping and starting to repaint the next side door on the 36. The door has the usual problem of alligatored paint, but the wood is in very good condition, better than the original doors on the 309, for instance. Probably that's because it was stored inside a barn much sooner after acquisition. Hmm, maybe there's a lesson there....
In fact, I'll let you in on a secret. Don't tell anybody except two dozen of your closest friends, and any very rich people you may know. We're getting close to building a new barn to house more of our historic artifacts, and we need your help. We wouldn't ask just anybody, but you are special, so we're asking you!
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