Switching In All Directions

Today was an extremely busy day at the Museum.  I'm sure there were several things going on that I missed, but here's what I've got:

Mostly I was working on the #1 vestibule of car 36 again.  For future reference, I took several pictures of the lettering, in various stages.  Because the car is being painted blue, the lettering in general is somewhat different.   So you just have to gently sand the area by hand until the earlier paint and lettering appear.  The letter "L" over the side door should be obvious.

For the vestibule light switch, it turns out the earlier yellow on blue lettering was much lower down.  This may not be obvious from the picture, but when viewed in person it's clear enough.

And then there was lots more sanding and scraping.  By the end of the day I had primer on the controller and much of the ceiling over the motorman's position.

But enough of that, let's get to the interesting stuff: switching the world -- again!  For part of the day, at least, we had three switch crews at work at different parts of the property.  The first cars are now in Barn 13.  And in order for that to happen, everything in front of the barn had to be moved away while my back was turned.   Here the 966 is going in, the first car on track 134.  

Viewed from the front, the barn actually looks like this.  There's a lot of room left to fill!

The skeleton of CSL 1467, one of our oldest streetcars, was moved to the west end of 133.  Somehow it made the trip without either derailing or collapsing.

These moves usually provide the opportunity to photograph pieces that seldom see the light of day.   Like our interurban sleeping car Peoria.

Work on other projects doesn't stop.   Tim and several helpers got the pocket doors on the 24 mounted.  Some adjustments may be needed, but this is a real improvement.

The Peoria winds up at the west end of track 82.

 Max is working on the overhead at the west end of Barn 4.  The signal crew were working on the crossing gates, the track crew were working on the main line, but I never got that far.

Here's a nice selection of equipment: the CTA PCC, the North Shore Electroliner, and IT 101.  You wouldn't know it from this picture, but...

... the Liner is shorter than usual.  

This is what the observation end looks like up close.  Running the Liner as a single unit this year will save on energy costs and also give our passengers a unique and scenic experience.

Luckily for me, there are no changes on track 84.  

And as part of the giant move, the trucks were pulled out of the way and then the 321 was moved from 111 to 112.  Eventually it will go into Barn 11 on track 113, they say.  

And by the end of the day, the CSL crane X4 was on 82 next to the IT sleeper.  And switching was still in progress as I left.  Whew!

I helped out a little, but a lot of guys are putting in major hours on all the switching that has to be done, and it's going well, faster than I would have expected.  Thanks to all those who are making this possible!