Larry Stone came out to the Museum to help again, so we worked on underbody equipment on the 36. Good progress was made, and these were projects I didn't really want to work on by myself, so the help was much appreciated. The last grid box was dropped out for rebuilding, but we were busy so I didn't get a picture of the box itself; it looks much like all the others.
But first, let's see our new crossing gates in action! Bob Olson kindly gave us an opportunity to see them working. Just like downtown! I'm sure the flashing red lights will be much more effective at night.
And here's the control box. Mike Alterio did the very professional wiring job.
In the car shop, journal boxes for the 24 are being cleaned up. I should have gotten a better picture of him, but on the left is Jay Ellis, a new member. On the right is Dan Fenlaciki.
Out at the pit, you might never suspect work was going on.
But if you know the secret password, underneath the thermal insulation it's nice and warm, and Tim is making good progress on fixing up the control system.
And as usual, several other Car Dept. projects are being worked on.
After the grid box, Larry and I dropped the air tank on the 36 that had started leaking. This was a two-man job, but everything went pretty well and after a while the defective tank was lying on the sidewalk. This sort of work is not easy, but I suppose it's a welcome change of pace from the usual sanding and painting.
We then picked an identical tank from our stock of spares. Tom Schneider at the Steam Shop kindly agreed to hydro it for us, so we carried the tank over there for eventual testing. I think we should have the other main reservoir tank on the 36 tested also, so we'll plan on dropping it out next time. We were unable to get the pipes loose from the old tank, so Joel and Dan helped us take it back to the shop for heat treatment. Tanks for all the help!
4 comments:
I suspect that was Bob Olson who gave you the crossing gate demo. Not to be confused with Bob Olsen who works in the coach department. Bill Wulfert
Sorry. I've only known the guy for forty years, you would think I could get it right. Maybe I can blame it on that stupid road we're located on.
A question that's been nagging at me: why is Barn 4 not heated? Eyeballing an aerial image on Google Maps, it's smaller than Barn 2 and looks comparable in size to the Steam Shop, both of which are heated. I understand the adjacent woodworking areas have heat, but I'm surprised that the barn itself does not, especially when one considers all the rolling stock that the Electric Car Dept maintains.
Cliff McKay
Cliff: I don't make the decisions, of course, so I can only offer some opinions on why it hasn't happened. It's a very expensive proposition to insulate and heat a barn, and so far with our heated shop facilities enough work can be done during the winter that it hasn't become a priority. I should point out that only the east half of Barn 2 is heated, and that half has no train doors. A new partition was built inside the barn to provide a heat barrier. Since Barn 4 has doors at both ends, it's much more problematic to heat even half of it. It's our oldest barn, and has a huge collection of tools and parts and whatnot stored against and on the walls, and the very idea of emptying it out in order to insulate the barn gives me a headache. We're all volunteers, you know. We would certainly like to have a heated facility, but it would probably be better to have a new building designed for that purpose. Just my two cents' worth, others may chime in.
One of these days we should take a trip up to Phantom Woods to examine the new shop building there, that might provide some good ideas on what to do. Or not.
Hope this helps.
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