The Heat Is On

Nobody gets left out in the cold at IRM, at least during a heat wave like this one.  We have a nice air-conditioned shop facility in which to work, but that goes only so far.  Railroad cars don't fit into the shop.

Working outside can be brutal.  But we watch over each other and make sure everybody's drinking plenty of water and taking breaks as needed.  The heat must have fried my usual sense of concern for you, the viewer, since I failed to take many pictures of what was happening.  But I can describe most of them.

The first thing on Wednesday was to switch the 36 over the pit.  The brakes badly needed adjusting, but that went smoothly and the system now works much better.  Adjustment changed the standing travel from 7+" to about 3 3/4", just about right. 

And I inspected the motors.  They were rebuilt at an electrical shop in Cleveland and look great.  Pole clearance is fine, the commutators are beautiful, etc.

After the 36 and 309 were at the pit, a string of five freight cars was switched onto the lead for inspection, which occupied many of the freight car guys all day.

 I also put a finish coat of silver on the two trolley poles and hook.  And went to the container to collect parts, but it's unbearably hot inside, so I didn't get very far.

And Rich Witt now has assembled the first complete first aid box, and it's ready for paint.  See the department blog for more details. 

 On Thursday the 36 was brought back on the pit lead so that the two trolley bases could be lifted onto the roof.  Rod ran the big forklift, of course.  The base is just perched on one fork.  It looks rather precarious, but with the right person at the controls (not shown) it goes quickly and smoothly.  I can climb onto the roof and pull the base into position with little difficulty. 

The bases need to be bolted down at some point, before the poles are inserted, but we have all the parts.  Another big step forward.

And there was some more cleaning and painting of parts for the grid box we're planning to rebuild.  I showed Pete Galayda the various parts on Wednesday, and he thinks we can probably reuse pretty much everything from the original box (apart from the melted grid elements, of course.)   So progress on the 36 is more than satisfactory.