Today was another productive day on the 319 roof project, although progress is never fast. I removed the other piece of old tack molding at the west end, and measured them so new poplar can be bought. By the end of the day, all of the lower tack molding was nailed in place, and I started planing it to shape with a jointer plane.
And another section of the support strip for the upper tack molding was installed. I was about to do another, but some of the wood directly over the toilet compartment is bad, so I concentrated on removing the decayed roof boards and planning for repairing the ends of the carlines.
In fact, in a few places the wood appears to be charred, although I don't know how that's possible. But on the whole things are going well.
In other news, Rich Witt, Paul Cronin, and Bob Kutella helped by cutting the big notches in the two remaining third rail beams for the 36. This is greatly appreciated.
Tim Peters continues to make progress at blinding speed. Here he is installing canvas on the lower roof of the 24.
And Bob was laying out the lettering for the newly-repainted Great Northern tank car.
In the bad news department, Tim gave me the quote he got from the foundry in Chicago for making lift tabs for the windows in the 36 -- $22 apiece, or about $700 for one car. That seems high for small, simple castings like this, but I really don't know where else to turn. 
I have plenty of free time, but living in a townhouse there's no chance I could set up my own brass foundry as a hobby. I suppose I could cast them out of epoxy and paint them to look like tarnished brass. Other suggestions welcome.
I have plenty of free time, but living in a townhouse there's no chance I could set up my own brass foundry as a hobby. I suppose I could cast them out of epoxy and paint them to look like tarnished brass. Other suggestions welcome.
3 comments:
Not your fault Randy, but mine in the mental fog I seem to live with now. DAVE ROGAN also helped on the third rail beams.
On the brass foundry topic, my seat handle castings are as expected from a foundry. They are very rough and need significant time spent grinding, sanding, and finishing. If your price includes the finish work it is a BARGAIN!! If not, from the pic, there are surfaces on your lift plate that will be very difficult to finish using hand tools and a Dremel.
Bob Kutella
I'll seee if I have any matching window lifts in stock. Give me a few weeks.
Bill Buhrmaster
Bill: Thanks, I appreciate it. Dimensions are about 1 3/16" x 2 5/8".
One other suggestion I've received was to use 3D printing. Any material other than brass would be a temporary solution at best, and from my cursory reading there are some metal alloys available but brass is not feasible with home 3D printers, at least not yet. If it ever is, that would be a huge step forward in making replacement parts of all sorts in the railway preservation field.
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