Give Me a Buzz

Although spring has not yet sprung, we have only so many days during the winter to do restoration work before inspection season starts, and visitors start wandering through the barns, and one's controller hand starts itching, and so on.  So we need to just keep on stripping and painting.

I'm making slow but steady progress in the #1 vestibule of the 36.  This part of the front wall was sanded down and painted with primer.  The brake handle will have to be removed for stripping, but so far the set screw has resisted all attempts to loosen it.   Resistance, however, is futile. 

And the vestibule door was stripped, sanded down, and painted with first primer.  There's just no way to get far enough away from the door to take a good picture of it. 

 

On my one visit to the car shop, it was apparent that work continues as usual on the 24.  Tim has finished several of the seat backs and cushions for the Bowling Alley, and here they have been covered with paper for protection, and are stored on this rack.

The next one is in below-average condition, so it will need more structural repairs than the others.  

It looks like Keith is proud of the work he has been doing on the chandeliers.   There are three of them in the car: two have three bulbs, and one has four.  That adds up to ten, which is a multiple of five.   So the math works out.  The two clear bulbs are the type to be used; these are special bulbs with carbon filaments and high vacuum, so they're approved for railway car use.

 

And on the subject of equipment, here's the buzzer interrupter box on the 36.   The bare spots on the ceiling above it shown by the yellow arrows are the unmistakeable (to me) footprint of the earlier type of interrupter, as used on the 308 and 309 (below).  It's not clear whether the interrupter was replaced at Wheaton or at Cleveland, but it was obviously after the car was painted red, so it would be nice to go back to the earlier style. 

The long cylinder houses a basically inaccessible 5K resistor needed to drop the voltage to the buzzers.  I'm not aware that we have any of these in storage at IRM, so I'd like to find one that could be made operational if there are any in private collections.  Therefore, if you happen to know of one that we could acquire by donation, purchase, and/or trade, please give me a buzz.   Thanks!