What Screams May Come

 

On Friday night, I was a trainman on the Screamliner, and as always, it was a riot.  Things seemed to go well and everybody was having a good time.  There are two more weekends left if you haven't been there yet.  Phil Hehn was the engineer on the BN-1, Jim West the conductor, and Brian LaKemper and Mike Stauber were the other trainmen.  And of course there were lots of other volunteers involved, so I won't try to name them all.  It takes a lot of manpower to keep this operation going, so if you're a member, come on out and help!

On Saturday, I finished putting a third coat of black paint on the 319 roof canvas.  Rod pointed out that we now need to wait until spring to let the paint dry, and then apply another coat or two to finish the job. So I'm done with the 319 for now, and the plastic will be left in place until spring.  I meant to take a picture or two of the final application, but never got around to it.

 

The next major project will be to repaint the interior of the 36.  It makes sense to start with the ceiling, and fortunately the ceiling on the whole is in excellent condition.  I hadn't planned on starting on this project today, but Brian L. came along and wanted to help, so we started by scoping out the project. 

Due to lack of advance planning, there was not much we could do, but the paint on the center panels is in good shape except for a few small places around the edges, as seen here.  With two coats of primer and two finish coats, sanding in between, this should be pretty straightforward. 

I walked out to check on the 321.  It's a sort of time capsule.  The wall lockers still have labels written in chalk by Frank when he was seven years old or so.

And I'm very glad to say that the Dodge inspection car has been moved into the Cretney barn, so it's under cover now for the first time in who knows how long.  This is the heated section, so the Track Dept. guys can work on it over the winter, along with a tamper and a spiker, or whatever they've got there.   It looks like the North Western 1518 is chasing the car down the track, as in a cartoon.  Yikes!