Pageant Prep

Frank writes...

I was able to make it out to the museum Sunday but didn't get there until 3pm.  Nevertheless I brought a Shop-Vac over to the 205 and vacuumed out the interior of the car.  I had previously swept out the car but now the floor is as clean as it's going to be.  It doesn't look much different than it did before so I didn't get a photo.  I'd still like to wipe down the seats but other than that, interior work (such as it is) on the 205 is done.

After this Gregg Wolfersheim stopped by and gave me copies of some photos of the Electric Railway Historical Society cars being moved out to IRM in 1973, so keep an eye on the blog for those!  I'll try and get them scanned in and posted soon.  And then I wandered over to Barn 4, where Joel Ahrendt and Richard Schauer were firing up the Army 45-tonner to do some switching.  I went along to help out, though "help out" may be a bit generous.  Most of the time I was getting an education in the intricacies of freight car hand brakes, wreck knuckles (not as bad as it sounds), the hangar doors on Barn 10, and other things that I usually don't deal with when I'm helping in the Electric Car Department.

The goal was to get things staged for the Trolley Pageant next Saturday, which meant digging cabooses and freight cars out from the south yards and also bringing the caboose train in from Schmidt Siding where it had been spotted for the weekend.  Above, I got a shot of the demonstration freight train during a break from the action as Richard goes to check the hand brake on the GN hopper.  While we were traversing South Junction, he opined that the area should be given a more poetic and descriptive name, maybe Mosquito Haven or something.

And that was about it for my day.  The Trolley Pageant next weekend is shaping up to be a great one; as with last year, visitors will be able to ride a different train about every 15 minutes!  The four CA&E woods will all be out, 36 and 319 scheduled for the 10:30am trip and 308-309 for the noon trip.  Don't miss it!

And on another subject, the 144 recently had an air compressor failure (National pump pictured above) and the repair shop has offered a good volume discount if we get three armatures rebuilt at the same time.  So please consider a donation to the cause to help get this work done!  (Just put "Electric Car Department" on the memo line.  This won't just get the 144 running again; the same type of air compressor is used on the 1374 and the 2843 (if and when it is restored), so we'd like to get this work done now while the prices are good.  Any help is appreciated!