Variety Show

We have lots of variety to display from the last two days.  There's no easy way to organize all this activity, so here goes:

Car 36:  The side sill needed a second coat of blue.  The lighting in the barn isn't very good for this application, so I wound up doing most of it with a brush in one hand and a flashlight in the other.  Much better!

Both the 36 and the 308 still needed their headlight receptacles labeled for "Bright" and "Dim".  Gotta be ready for nighttime operation.

And look, one of the numbers still needs black outlining.

The grid box castings are now black.

I also worked on lubricating and adjusting seats in the 309, but nothing worth taking a picture of.

Car 308: Yesterday I met up with an old friend, Gregg Wolfersheim.  He's an engineer and has a varied schedule, as they generally do, so he's looking for things to do during the week.  He rode the 308 recently and noticed several details that could be improved.  So he started to work on cleaning up the heater covers for repainting.  Instead of rust and dirt, we see that they should be painted the same brown color as the floor.

Here he is wire-wheeling one of them in barn 4.

They were numbered with a punch in a form of base 5, for some reason.  On this one, 5 + 5 + 2 = 12.

After being stripped down to bare metal, the inside surfaces got a quick shot of spray paint, and then the outside a coat of brown primer.

 

In case we want to do interior painting, I went to the 321 and located four cans of green paint for the 308, which has a two-tone green interior.  At least two of them had such badly rusted tops that the lettering could not be read, but the paint is still good.  So at least we will be able to get an exact match if needed.

The 308 really hasn't had any work done on it, other than routine maintenance, since its completion in 2006.  (That's so long ago, it's before this blog started!)   It'll be great to have somebody who can work independently on projects like this.

Barns 13 and 14:

 

Maybe the biggest news is that construction on 13 and 14 seems to be starting in earnest.

They seem to be using a different system than before: these metal brackets, set in concrete, will presumably hold the wooden posts well out of the ground, insuring a long life.

 

And Max has been busy installing poles for the AC electrical service to the new barns.

Miscellaneous:  Excitement is building all around the property about Thomas, little more than a week away.  Tents are going up, signs are put in place, and so on.   I can't wait!

Speaking of Thomas, who is this masked man?  I have no idea, but he was carefully helped off the trailer and safely put in a secure location, far from prying eyes. 

Carl and another employee are working on our oldest artifact, the Marengo Depot.  It needs constant maintenance.

The Highliners have made their way to the connector track.  The 309 looks on in curiosity.

Car 24: I was surprised to see how many leather standee straps are in place in the 24.  As Tim says, Yerkes made the famous observation that the straphangers paid the dividends, and I guess the theory was that therefore the more straps, the more profit.  Still, Tim is worried that children will try to hang from them, and the brackets holding up the rods are not that strong.  Operating crews will need to be vigilant.

And he's also busy installing the new window sash.

 This Saturday (Aug. 8) will feature operation of the 65 all day, as mentioned before, and dedication of the new Wagner Loop for the trolleybuses.  Come on out!