Hot time in the old town

Frank writes...

I was out at IRM on Sunday and boy was it hot! The heat index was up somewhere around 105, I believe, and the humidity had to be close to 100% with thunderstorms moving through the area (though it didn't rain in Union). I'll be the first to admit that I didn't get much done.

What little I did get done was on the 150, where I painted about half of the window frames on the left (wall) side of the car with a finish coat of Tile Red. I started with the oval window at the back left corner, which was originally the toilet compartment, and worked forward. Above, the first couple of windows done; note that a folding screen sits in one of the windows to keep air circulating through the car.

The big public event this weekend was Diesel Days, but I arrived while the "Parade of Power" was in progress and managed to miss it. The highlight, apparently, was an operating A-B-A set of E-units. People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing that they like. I believe this lash-up was a first for IRM, made possible by the arrival during the past week of our ex-Union Pacific E-9B. It left in July 2006 as a hollowed-out shell that had been converted to a steam generator car and returns from a 10-year lease as a fully functional B-unit. When can we try this trick with interurban car bodies?