Grando, Nix, et Cetera

Over the weekend the Chicago area got about a foot and a half of global warming dumped on it, one of the bigger snowstorms in recent memory.  But IRM has the tools and the talent to take care of these things, so the property was well plowed out on Monday, and everything was more or less open for business on Tuesday.  Thanks, guys!!!

I started heating the car up, and worked on sanding in the vestibule and other tasks before putting a first finish coat on the remaining arm rests in the vestibule.  There's not much left to do.

Since the ceiling is completely painted, the cord for the conductor's valve was reconnected and tested.  But while the paint is drying, let's see what else is going on today.

 Jeff Brady (not shown) was welding up the sheet metal covering for the wall of the baggage compartment in the 28.  Here we see the custom brake for bending the steel, with two pipes as handles.

 

Tim is working on the long seat frames for the 24, as mentioned before.

The 2100's have been moved from 2 to 6, where the guys are installing grab irons and I don't know what else.  Across the aisle, it's Line Car City!

And Gerry is working on the D-13.  A few weeks ago, I posted a recording of the whistle.  Did you wonder why it sounded so bad?  There was a large wasp's nest stuffed inside!  With that gone, it should work much better.

And I slapped some black paint on the grid box beams.  In front of them are some of the parts Gerry is finishing for the dump motor.

Well, enough railfanning, back to the 36.  Once the smoker was nice and toasty, the entire floor got a first coat of finish brown.

Here you can see the difference between the dry primer and the (wet) finish paint.  The floor certainly looks better than it used to: see the last picture here.

(By the way, the title of this post means "sleet, snow, and the rest".  It's a quote from Orff's Carmina Burana which I happen to be rehearsing these days.  Quite appropriate.)