Before canvas can be attached to the roof, it must be thoroughly soaked. Here's the first section laid out on the grass, getting a nice gentle bath. This causes the canvas to shrink, but once it then dries out, it can be stretched to final length on the roof.
It's not easy to get it all in place without sliding off (you've heard of the one-armed paperhanger, right?) but once it's there, the slack is taken up as much as possible. And then we wait for it to dry out.
In any case, I needed the exercise.
Then the last side door on the 36 was put back into place and assembled. And I worked some more on the third rail beams. I couldn't find quite the right mounting bolts, so they'll have to be ordered, and then at least the first two can be mounted on the trucks.
And I worked on the walkover seats in the main compartment of the 309. With some adjustments and lubrication, we're down to four that don't work properly. This is a big improvement. The defective ones are scattered, so at least the cable ties holding the seat backs together are gone, a big improvement to the general appearance.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of switching going on today. The CGW combine has been painted, in post-merger North Western colors, but it looks great. And back at the Cretney barn,there are several pieces that are seldom seen.
This is CTA locomotive S-105, which Scott Greig is working on.
And the Lackawanna IR boxcab, coupled to the 803, are seen outside in the sun for a change.
And in L car news, the two new Budd cars have acquired retriever mounting brackets. These are trolley bus retrievers, but they'll look right at home mounted as shown. Rod did the engineering and welding on this project.
8 comments:
The push continues and as always I am impressed by your elbow grease applied to resuscitating history.
The Budd cars are 2200's, Randy. It only took 16 days to get the poles and related equipment all installed on them. Hopefully they'll be joined by a pair of 2400's yet this year if we're lucky.
Did either of those L cars come with an ad for the North Coast Music Festival? I saw one days before those cars were retired. The artwork was cool featuring the Chicago skyline and cartoon CTA trains. Some day someone might bring their kids to the museum, and see a reminder of their "heady" days. I didn't go to the event, but I heard people had a good time the previous year.
Chris- I don't offhand recall any such car cards in our pair. I Googled it and it appears to have been held at the end of August. Our cars were retired in early June 2013 and saw little service during the month of May. I think they may have been retired before such an event would have been advertised, but I'll check next time I'm in them. I remember seeing a card in them for something happening in May, as a point of reference.
R. W. Schauer
This might be the card, it has the right aspect ratio anyway. Someone somewhere probably snagged one.
http://magneticmag.com/2013/05/the-4th-annual-north-coast-music-festival-returns-to-union-park-with-the-wu-tang-clan-nas-afrojack-big-gigantic-and-more/
I was also wondering about the pole setup for the 2200s. Is it just one pole each with the retrievers on the drawbar end of the cars? And what had to be done to get the power from the roof to wherever it has to go?
Each car has just one base, on the drawbar end of the car, and the main roof cable leads down over the end of the car to the electrical equipment beneath the car. You can see the roof cables in the photograph, actually: right now they are attached with cable straps, but aluminum channels will be fabricated to hide them, I'm told.
Chris- The card doesn't look familiar. I'll check next time I'm there.
Randy gave the right answer to your other question; there is really no attractive way (in appearance or practicality) to get the trolley lead "downstairs", unlike 6000s and 2000s. It'll be neatly run down the exterior, along the collision post, make a turn at the end sill (behind the retriever bracket), and run underneath at the end of the anticlimber. Everything we do in a case like this (modifying an artifact) is intended to be safe, minimal, and as reasonably reversible as possible.
R. W. Schauer
Chris- No luck on that card. The only cards advertising a dated event are one for the Mother's Day Komen cancer walk, and two for an anime convention in May. Last year, of course!
R. W. Schauer
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