Get Out and Get Under

First of all, while we had a lot of rain yesterday, it wasn't as bad as last week, and there was no damage at the Museum.  It was closed yesterday, but today went fine, and there was a good crowd of visitors for a weekday.  The signals all work, no trees down on the main line, etc.  

The Schnebles were running the 415, doing their usual efficient job.

Meanwhile, Thomas is hiding under a mask.  Come back this weekend.

And here we are in the Percy photo line.  Stop shoving, you'll get your turn.

And I had some time to wander over to the creek, which was running high, but not enough to cause any damage.  It was probably even higher earlier, but here it's almost up to the bottom of the Met car foot bridge:

 But still well below the level of the main line trestle.

I shall remind you that the 309 is going to need some new motor bearings, and we're working on that.  In the meantime, two months ago we checked the bearings we have now.  One of them was missing the two pins, and why the bearings were still in position was, and is, inexplicable.  Richard made new pins for us, and these were unavoidably loose, because the holes in the casting are so worn.  So let's ask ourselves: "What could possibly go wrong?"  Well, the new pins could become wedged at an angle and start scoring the axle bearing surface, which would not be good.  We've run the car for a few mainline trips since then, and I wanted to see whether any scoring was taking place.

Because I always carefully plan ahead, the wooden frame that was made for installing contactors in the 36 was still around and just about the right size for supporting the axle cap.  It's sitting on a piece of plywood on the ties, and after undoing the bolts, the heavy cap can be slid back.

No marks on the bearing surface are evident.

So far, there's been no scoring in this game, and that's good.  So put it all back together, bolt it up, top off the oil, and we should be able to operate the 309 for several more days this season.   The only problem is that it took me longer to clean up than it did to do the work.

What else is going on?   As mentioned, the truck for Sand Springs 68 is being put back together.  Here are the two motors, sitting on pallets in front of the truck:

And here's another view of the truck itself.  It's very exciting to see this project nearing completion.

Tim Peters continues to work on major structural repairs to the 1754.

 When the 319 and the steel cars were sprayed back in 2010, there was insufficient masking for the underbody equipment, and some red overspray got on various parts, such as this fuse box cover with its slightly illiterate message.  Many of these boxes say "Use 1 Fuse Only" and there's no room for an extra S.  For a two-motor circuit you use one fuse, and for a four-motor circuit you can use two fuse, but don't try to use three fuse.  Anyway, rather than try to remove the cover, I decided to repaint it in place.  I repainted all the black, leaving the yellow lettering for next time.   It looks much better, but due to the poor lighting you'll have to take my word for it.

 And the 319's scrap fuse box needs repainting.  You can see it's been scratched, and in places the red is flaking off.  At least the grammar is better.

 So it was traced, stripped down to bare metal, and taken home.

And until Thomas starts up again on Saturday, we'll all just have to find some way to control the excitement.  I'm sure I can think of something....