Wednesday Report

It was raining all day today, most of the time.   That doesn't stop us from most of the things we want to do.  However, it makes it clear that there are several leaks in the roof of Barn 8.   Most of them, for whatever reason, are over the sidewalk, but it appeared that there is one over the 319 and one over the 150.   Luckily, the 319 has a nice new roof job, so there's no damage being done to the car (yet).  I put a piece of plastic over it, and by Saturday, I hope the wood will be dried out and I can patch the leaks with caulk.   This has been done before.  As for the 150, it still has tar paper in good condition, so water isn't leaking into the car, what there is of it.

I wanted to continue with the same things we did last week.  Frank had needle-chipped several parts of the 36's underbody, and they needed wire-wheeling.   I couldn't pull the cars outside, so the work had to be done inside.  Artificial lighting is not as good, but it will do.   Here I am working along on the truss rod.

And next, this is the last pilot that hasn't been painted yet, after being cleaned off.  

By the way, the photo gives a good idea of the way the pilots on the wood cars were modified during WWII.  Below, we have an artist's impression of what it looked like originally.  The vertical bar has been moved inward, and the third horizontal bar was cut off.  The reason for this appears to be that the North Shore needed extra equipment on weekends to handle heavy traffic on weekends for swabs on liberty, and the CA&E had surplus cars on weekends because of no commuter runs.  In order to move trains between the two lines, they had to negotiate some sharp curves on the Met L lines never used before by CA&E cars, and the pilots were liable to short out on the third rail.   

However, these equipment trades only happened a few times, and it appears only steel cars ever appeared on the North Shore.   Nearly all wood cars had this modification made; the 303 at Warehouse Point is the only preserved car with the original pilot.

And after painting, it looks like this.

One of the stepwells.

And later, I painted black all of the parts on the 319 that were painted with primer last week.

Say, did we tell you about the lighting ceremony for the big Santa Fe sign this Saturday?   You'll want to be there.  Two big Santa Fe locomotives will be on display, and they've been staged in front of Barn 9 in preparation.

This is your chance to get some pictures of the 2903, which hasn't been outside for a long time.

I don't know how far down the wye this engine will be moved.  I well remember watching it being moved up the west wye after it arrived back in 1995.  It has the longest rigid wheelbase of anything we own, and it barely made it around the wye.   The ties were moving back and forth several inches, as the big Northern tried to straighten out the track.   They had people watching all the wheels, and several times the movement had to be stopped as the wheels started to rise up on the flanges.  It was pretty amazing.  

And next, it appears all of the paving blocks have been installed over on the street scene, the concrete has been poured, and gravel is over the blocks and just needs to be cleaned off.   That's just my amateur opinion, of course.

While finishing up several parts of the 24, Tim has also started working on some doors and windows for the 1754.

Rich Witt is still working on blueprints for new parts for the Dover Strait.

Gerry showed me some welding he's done on the Michigan car.

And there were other things going on, too many to list.