Inexorable Progress

 It was a beautiful day at the Museum and just right for working on all sorts of things.  We'll start with the roof of the 319.

 

Most of the rope guard on the west end of the car was completed.  I don't have a convenient way to access the left side just now, but the rest has all of its screws installed, and it was caulked.  It will eventually be painted black.

Then I attached the guard at the east end.  Here it is suspended with twine over the trolley wire supports.  Most of this end was completed also before I ran out of the right size screws, but I forgot to take a picture.  

Rope guards are one of those details you probably would never think about until you actually have to maintain one of these cars.  Somewhere I have a picture I took of a car that had evidently been operating for a while without rope guards, and as a result the rope had worn through the canvas so that the ends were not attached to anything.  That's obviously not good!  Some lines, such as the IT, had more elaborate guards that would hold the rope out a few inches from the end, but the CA&E and North Shore had simple metal bars like these.  Because of the way the end of a CA&E car arches up, the guards have a compound curve and would not be easy to reproduce.

I also spent some time wrapping up the roof cables with tape.  The insulation is generally in good condition; what might appear as crumbling insulation is actually chunks of tar from the last roof job.  It took a while to chop most of this tar away, so a layer of rubber tape could be applied.  After a coat of canvas paint, it will look good.

 

While we're up on the platform, here are some pictures of the roof fuse box.  We were contacted by an Italian company that makes arc chutes and similar products for electric railroads.  We have several roof fuse boxes that are badly deteriorated and need replacing.  So I agreed to send them some pictures and dimensions and see what they say.

Luckily we can communicate in English.  Thanks to my vast knowledge of operatic Italian, I am easily able to say things like "I love you" and "Die, traitor!" but those have little use in the business world. 

After I got home I got a message that the wood we ordered for the running boards has arrived in Woodstock, so I will able to pick it up on Tuesday, cut it as needed, and paint it.  Progress!

Speaking of progress, lots of other things were going on at the Museum today, of course.  Here's just a sample.

Max started working on the trolley wires over the leads to Barn 8, which badly needed fixing.  Here he is in the bucket, being helped by Charlie Strong.

By the end of the day track 84 (on the right) was pretty much done; it should be evident how much needs to be done on 82 and 83, but they're making good progress.  We don't need to go through these curves at high speed, of course, but if we can get through the yard without dewiring at every frog and every hanger, it will be a big improvement.  Thanks, guys!

Tim is grinding down some metal parts on a seat frame for the 24.

Eric was working on the Cleveland PCC, as usual.  Here Lorne is installing new sheet metal in the ceiling.

And finally, some more work on the 36.  I cleaned up the car to some extent, and painted the ventilators in the smoker. 

 

Progress on the vestibule is slow, but inexorable.  That's because there's no such word as "exorable" in my dictionary.  How about yours?