Chip Off the Old Anticlimber

Frank writes...

I followed up my brief needle-chipping adventure from last weekend with a continuation this past Sunday.  The weather was beautiful and I ran the 36 over to the inspection pit lead to finish chipping the old paint off of the car's #2 end anticlimber and continue chipping the north side sill.  Dan Mulvihill helped out quite a bit, grabbing a second needle chipper and making great progress on the side sill while I started out on the anticlimber.  Unfortunately I failed to get a photo either of Dan or of the progress along the side sill, but suffice to say over a third of that side is now done.  The section between the bolster and the end of the car had never been stripped during the life of the car and the bottom layer of primer and Pullman green paint was like chipping tar, so that was slow going.

There wasn't too much activity in the car shop but there was a lot of switching going on, mostly done by Rod and Wes.  The primary goal was to dig out the Dallas PCC (shown below spotted in Yard 5), which is supposed to be leaving IRM for good sometime soon, bound for the great state of Texas.  There may be an arrival or two coming along soon as well, so check back often - we'll let you know if anything interesting comes through the museum's gate.

The Dallas PCC had been buried at the west end of its track in Yard 14 so a lot of other cars had to be switched around too.  The TM container car, steeplecab L3, and the Shaker center-door car and PCC were all retrieved and deposited in Yard 6 or 8, and the three THI&E cars as well as the 321 all got shuffled around a bit though all of them ended up back in Yard 14.  At some point that entire yard will need to be emptied to allow for construction of Barn 14 but that's still on the horizon a bit.  And then there is the 4001, which as shown below was put on the pit track in Barn 4 for its annual operating inspection.

And if you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd love to sell you!  Actually the 4001 was put in Barn 4 to have a new tarp put on, as the old one ripped in half and fell off.  This is one of the cars that will go inside when the next two barns are built.

And lastly, during a break in the needle-chipping action, Dan and I went up to the station to bother Greg Kepka, who forsook trolley poles for coal piles for the day and took a turn firing the 1630.  It's a large engine to hand fire (it has a mechanical stoker but it hasn't worked right for years) and, as Greg said, that big firebox gets longer with every trip!  We're not used to working this hard on these easy electric cars, but Greg certainly put in an honest day's work helping to haul our visitors, as his appearance can attest!