Happy Holidays to You

 As usual, there's lots to talk about, and the hard part is deciding what to talk about first.

Gregg Wolfersheim put in a lot of effort to clean up and paint the replacement ventilators for the 36.  Here are his views of the progress, followed by one of them installed in the car.

 This is really a big help!

Over in Barn 4, Norm is continuing work on the 28.  New steel plates are being fabricated to rebuild the front end of the car, much of which rusted out during its many years as a cottage.  Luckily, we have blueprints for this car to help in its reconstruction.

 Meanwhile, it looks like the front end is missing even more parts than it did last time we looked.  That's pretty frustrating -- you just turn your back, and all this vandalism occurs.  (Not really, of course....)

Tim is reupholstering the motorman's seat, which is hinged to the car in the motorman's compartment. 

Another view of the east end, which is coming together rapidly.

And this is the steel plate for the bumper, which needs some more holes drilled, and can then be attached.

Rich Block and Bill Wulfert were putting the 4146 back together.  Here the motorman's cab door is being installed.  Real progress is being made on this car!

And meanwhile, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over in the diner annex!  We're getting ready for Happy Holidays Railway, which will have some improvements this year.

 

People were hard at work cleaning up the bilevels for this event.

And our newest trolley bus was being test-run again, but I didn't get a picture of it.  Anyway, it should be fun.

Back in the 36, I did more sanding and painting.  The next set of window shade tracks were taken to the wood shop and stripped.

If you're in this area, be sure to tell your friends and neighbors with little children about the Happy Holidays event.  It's new and improved, and we should be able to handle increased numbers of passengers with ease and comfort.  The cars will be heated at no extra charge!

Ventilator Adjuster

A while back, we talked about ventilator adjusting rods.  Frank recently happened to find the casting for one in an antique store in Wisconsin.   He recognized what it was and bought it for two dollars.  What a bargain!

Here it is as acquired, and then after sanding, buffing, and mounting on an oak rod.   Now the rod needs to be stained and varnished, and it will be ready for service.

 

I should have included a ruler in the picture.  The casting is about 4" long.

36 Progress

Wednesday was a reasonably nice day, so I was able to do some more sanding and painting.  The first six arm rests got a first coat of finish color.  Next step in this area will be to clean up the floor and start painting it brown.

And some more paint on the walls and window posts.  With care, the word "Utility" on the thermostat remains legible.

And Gregg Wolfersheim is working on cleaning up the ventilators.  Here's the first one he completed, and it really looks great.  These were removed from the recently-scrapped THI&E body, and will be put to good use on the 36.

Work is continuing on the Electroliner.  Now that all four sections are separated, we need eight shop trucks to support them.   This is one of the 319's trucks.

And the gates have been reinstalled on the east end of the 24, another big improvement.

Tim is making replacement trim parts for various parts of the car.

And here he is cutting them to length on our recently-donated chop saw.  It's a gift from the Great Midwest Train Show company in Wheaton, so thanks!

And that reminds me:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Local News

 Here's the folding sign on the 308 with the repro latch from a few weeks ago, by the way.  When the temperature drops and the earth is covered with ice and snow, the news tends to be all local, all the time.

 

Quite a bit more painting on the ceiling got done; the fourth section of the center, and the third section under both sides got first finish paint.

But it goes slowly (otherwise I'd lose my balance) so that's all there is for today.

Around the Property

It's time for another tour of a few different spots around the property.  Other things were going on I didn't have time to cover. 

Our Lake Shore Electric box trailer is being lettered, and the interior is being painted.  John and Gerry are doing some or all of this work.

Jeff and Norm are welding in new steel on the Michigan car.

On the 24, Tim is assembling the east end of the car.








 Meanwhile, let's look at the trucks and motors.  The trucks we got from MOT are generally in pretty bad shape, but we should be able to put together a good motor truck eventually. 



They spent many years sinking into the mud.   I've never seen a pinion that looked anything like this, and the gear isn't much better, but the other ones on this truck are OK. 

The motors will need to be rebuilt, probably using parts from different sources.  These brush holders are completely frozen.

I checked on the 321's tarp.  The heavy winds had pulled both ends out from under the horizontal strap, so I used some bungee cords to hold them down so they don't flap so much.  Otherwise it seems to be fine.

 

 The new barns still need doors at the east end, where the tracks enter.   Here the parts are laid out in barn 13.

And the first door was being installed when I went over there about noon.  So this part of the project should be completed soon.

And back in the 36, after a lot of prep, the center ceiling for the next section got a coat of primer.  Also several windows had the shade tracks reinstalled, so they're complete again.

And two cord hangers were reinstalled and painted.








And four more arm rests sanded down and primed.

And several other projects are being pursued.  You just have to be there in person to see it all.

36 Report

I'll generally let the pictures speak for themselves.  These are mostly in the third (middle) section of the car.

 

 Tim is sanding down the big block of wood ("deadwood") that goes behind the bumper on the 24, which we saw earlier.