This Canvas Is Not For Sail

You probably do not want to see more whining about the weather, so let's stay inside the shop where it's nice and warm.  I painted four of the Car 36 windows again; with white primer on 21 and 22, finish grey on 19 and 20, and a first or second coat of interior butterscotch on all four. They all look alike, so no pictures.

Another good project for a day when nobody else was around seemed to be working on the canvas for the 319.  I removed it from its box and rolled it out to check its dimensions.  It is indeed exactly 12' wide and about 60' long, or at least 59', close enough.  Six feet wide is the largest we can get in this material, so there's a nicely sewn seam down the middle.  For a railroad roof car, we need three separate pieces.  After rechecking the width needed for the lower roof one last time, I marked out the cutting line as seen here, and then went to work with scissors.  While doing this, I started to wish I knew more about how sail makers used to go about their tasks!  Just last year we visited Old Mystic seaport....

After cutting both sides, we have three rolls of the correct width.  There will be little or no waste in the transverse direction when the canvas is installed.  When the weather warms up, I should be able to start installing the lower canvas in the 319's current location on 84.  

Also, Rod ordered some steel pieces for the third-rail beams, and they arrived today.  These are bent into a shape which probably isn't obvious from the picture, but these hold the copper buss fuses in place on the beams.  Many of them have disappeared, or are nearly as rusted as the one in the picture.  This will be a good project for home.

And Kirk Warner was visiting this morning; he lives in Florida but was in the area for a business meeting.  He's involved in a group setting standards for tank car design, and he was telling us about that, which was quite interesting.

And then since it's election season, talk of politics fills the air.  I think maybe this year we'll eschew any political talk on this blog, unless candidates for the Board want to place paid political advertising.  We can always be bought out.