Wednesday Report

Wednesday is usually the busiest day of the week at IRM, and today there were lots of people around working on various projects.  While waiting for our precious supply of acetylene to show up, I started with more sanding in the vestibule of the 319.   That by itself isn't very interesting, but I thought I'd point out one more minor detail on the car.

On each side of the wooden plate over the train door, there are two little brass catches of the sort used with spring-loaded latches, such as on the flag box.  The plate itself is attached with screws and cannot move.

Those brass castings would only make sense if the plate were originally hinged at the top, and needed to be opened for some reason.  But the main cable to the bus jumper passes through the plate, so how it could possibly be hinged I have no idea.

Jon Fenlaciki worked for the Canadian National for many years, and is now retired.   At Jon's importunity, the company has made a generous contribution to IRM for restoration of IRR 65, his favorite project.  Of course, we are very grateful for their support.  Today CN sent a professional photographer out to take pictures of Jon receiving the check from Museum President Norm Krentel.

These pictures will appear in the company magazine.

But remember, you saw them here first, even if you too work for CN.

Anyway, back to work.  Gerry fired up the torch and heated up the last stuck pin holding the south truss rod.

This makes me nervous, but Gerry knows what he's doing and did not set the 115-year old wooden car on fire.  Once the pin was out and the rod was free, we then heated up the rod and worked out the last major bend.

Then we put the rods back into place, and started inserting all the parts.  Did I mention that those rods are heavy?  Once the turnbuckles are tightened up, the rods are nice and solid.  And they look almost perfectly straight, a big improvement.

And then first primer on more parts of the vestibule.  Painting the ceiling gets old in a hurry, but who am I to complain?   At least it's nice and warm in here. 

Buzz has finished two new door for the Marengo depot, and started putting a first finish coat on them as seen here.

Jeff and Norm and Rich and Pete and several others were working on their projects, but I didn't get a chance to photograph them.