Don't Let Cabin Fever Get You Down

As usual, our Museum was very busy today.  The April-like weather encouraged everybody to get out and be active, so a lot got done.

To begin with, Tim found this blueprint in the archives and set it out for public entertainment.  It's a proposed design for a new shop building by Dan Gornstein from 1979.  Nothing like this ever got constructed, but it's interesting to look at.

I brought out the replacement window I had made for the 1218, and Buzz cut the glass to the correct size.  It happened so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture.  But here it is, sitting in the frame, and I will put it all together at home.

Larry Stone was out today, and we spent most of the day making new saddles for the roof of CA&E 451.  First, we determined the proper curvature for the lower edge of the saddle, as seen here on the pine sample:

Then we ripped the white oak I had bought, and Larry marked the outlines, and we started cutting out a total of 17 saddles on the big bandsaw.  With two of us to take turns, it went pretty quickly.   

Then all the parts were sanded down, and finally taken outside for painting with white primer.  It's nice that we can do this in January.

And Larry helped with a few other miscellaneous tasks also.

Tim wanted me to point out that he's been making a complete set of clerestory windows for the 1754.

And here he is sanding them down:

And here are metal parts for the doors:

One of our members brought out an interesting artifact as a donation to the Museum.  It's a carrying case for a North Shore conductor.  It has compartments for holding his hat, a special lever used for opening stuck car windows (the green wooden piece in the third picture), and other items.

I would like to point out that the Museum is always glad to accept donations of historic items like this, and they are much appreciated.

Rich Witt was working on blueprints for Michigan Electric car parts....

Buzz Morisette was painting the new doors for the depot he has made...

Dave Diamond and a helper were fixing up barn doors... 

And (L to R) Chris Buck, Dan Buck, and Bill Wulfert were busy cleaning Kevin signs in Barn 8.  In this particular case, it's nice to see somebody else caring about the 150...  anyway, there were lots of other activities going on that I didn't get a chance to photograph.  As always, we could use more help.