Sanding and painting

I was out at IRM on Sunday for some sanding and painting, though not on the same project.  First up was the 309 grid box construction project, for which I painted the two grid box end castings black.

The Charles City Western 300 project graciously bequeathed us a needed mica insulation tube left over from their grid box project, which Rod Turner cut to the correct length, so we have virtually all of the parts needed for the new grid box.  I still need to grab a few taps but we have those in storage.  Hopefully next weekend I can assemble the box, after which we'll be able to install it under the 309.

Then I spent a while touch-sanding the 205 in preparation for the final coat of Indiana Railroad orange, which I hope to apply to the car this summer.  That work wasn't very photogenic, so I didn't bother.  However something that was more photogenic was South Shore 1100, shown below, which Rod and Andy Sunderland were working on.  The car has recently been made operational, and I got to ride along for a 300' trip down the inspection pit lead.  Since pantograph operation through the yards is still pretty iffy, the car was towed to and from the barn using the Commonwealth Edison steeplecab (note the IT Class B sandwiched in between).

And then of course there were the 308 and 309, which were operating as the regular service train (full report to follow).  I went along with Joel Ahrendt, the motorman, for the last trip of the day and then helped close up the cars when he got them back to the barn.  There were a few minor issues, chief of which was that the Bakelite knob on the 308's controller has pulled off of the brass handle a bit, making it impossible to fully depress the throttle button.  This has the effect of making throttle contact somewhat unreliable, but fortunately should be a relatively quick fix.  Also, I discovered that someone made off with two of the nice red flags we had made a few years back for the train!  The east end of the consist is currently making do with a pair of stand-ins, a decent flag procured from somewhere else plus a wretched thing made out of a quarter-round molding strip and part of some kind of red t-shirt.  A reward of my undying gratitude is promised to anyone who can return our flags!