Today, we'll start with a quick view of what's happening on the 24. The main object right now seems to be extracting usable wheelsets from the trucks we got from MOT. That's not as easy as one might think, since the journal boxes seem to be frozen to the pedestals. Here we see Tim trying to pry the box loose, while Erik and Bill offer encouragement. Rod is running the forklift, out of sight to the right. After a good deal of frustration, (and my suggestion of dynamite was politely ignored) we decided to roll the truck back into the barn and let Kroil do its work for a few more days. So I went back to painting.
If you do the math, you'll see that the 36 is half again as worthy a project as the 24. So let's get to work. Today was mostly surface prep, not very photogenic, and also changing out the window shade tracks, which is time-consuming. For the record, if you look closely at the #2 bulkhead, it appears that a circular light fixture (or something) must have been located below the light that is still there. Exactly how that worked I have no idea.
As you can see from earlier photos, the upper panel on the #2 bulkhead had badly alligatored paint, much worse than the other end. So I decided to try stripping it carefully. Fortunately this seems to be a solid wood panel, not veneer. Heat stripping on veneer causes the layers to delaminate, which is bad. And to my surprise, the original stencilling survived the process quite well.
I take it this must be gold leaf.
The number 36 I want to preserve, if possible. Anyway, the gold pattern is quite interesting, and this panel is a good indication of what the car looked like when outshopped by Stephenson in 1902. Perhaps I will leave this unpainted for a couple of weeks if anybody wants to stop by and see it. And I can hardly wait for the suggestions that maybe we should strip all the paint and leave the interior in its original form, etc. --- which will be an entertaining throwback to the beginning of my career, about forty years ago with the 309.
 |
| 309 smoker ceiling, c. 1978 |
And then after that there was some more painting, but these windows all look alike.
5 comments:
Cool design. It looks like DNA.
Excellent point. If only they had known what they were doing, they could have won a Nobel Prize.
Randy,
I thought the trucks were purchased for the motors. Are the trucks needed for some specific project? Or are the just spare parts?
Ted Miles, IRM Member
At a minimum, we need the wheelsets from the MOT trucks because they have the right diameter axles for the available motors and axle caps, whereas the motor truck that came with the car had wheelsets with the wrong axles due to the flashover during the fan trip, or something like that. It's complicated. Tim or Rod or Bill could give you more accurate information, I think. Help???
If I remember correctly, the motors on the 1024 flashed over either on a fan trip, or during the move to North Chicago over the North Shore. The cars were operated under their own power to North Chicago. I have heard some people say the car was already being operated as a control trailer during the move to North Chicago. At some point after this, those motors were removed to be traded for other, good, motors from the CTA from cars being scrapped. I believe some museum members who worked for CTA helped organize this. Unfortunately, the motors that were acquired came with axle cap support bearings which were not the right size for the axles on the 1024. With wood cars from 4 different companies and changes made over the years on an individual basis to keep old equipment running, or make things compatible, it was not uncommon to have little differences like this.
Either the museum members believed they could fix this, or the original motors and bearings were already gone by the time they realized this. The trucks acquired from MOT have the same motors and are very similar to the 1024 trucks. I don't know all the details, but I believe the plan is to scavenge the motors, axle cap bearings, and axles from the MOT trucks. Either way, the plan is to assemble enough parts to make mechanically complete trucks for the 1024, with various other parts left over.
Post a Comment