Riveting News

You just won't be able to tear yourself away from what we have to report.  You'll see.  

First of all, I did some switching in preparation for Labor Day weekend.  I wanted to put the 308 and 309 at the door, and they will be running Saturday.  The 36 and 319 will operate on Sunday and Monday, or at least that's the plan.  At one point in this process they appeared to be a four-car train.

One reason for doing this was to check operation of both trains.  And indeed, I found a problem: a control jumper had worked partway loose.  When I started up, it seemed awfully sluggish.  Why isn't the 319 motoring?  The problem was resolved soon enough, though.  When you only have two traction motors powering a two-car train, acceleration is just pitiful.   Like L cars or something.

And since I had all four cars out, here's a photo essay on the threshold castings which serve as builder's plates on these cars.  The trick is to find the missing letters.

Also to identify which builder didn't have cast letters on the thresholds.

Obviously the builders didn't plan on having these things stepped on for more than a hundred years.

And then I did some cleaning and straightening, making sure we have enough flags, etc.

Down by the station Max was loading up line poles that he had replaced.

Then I went to examine the (12)18, our Cleveland streetcar and one of the next projects.  In case you've forgotten what it looks like, here's the rear of the car.  On the whole, it's in good shape. 

I took home a couple of windows for rebuilding, and put spare CA&E windows in their place.

And looking towards the front:

And we have some new car cards to look at.  Here's a radio personality on KYW, presumably when it was in Cleveland.  

Several cards in the 18 seem to have been stolen from the CA&E:

And this might just as well be an advertisement for IRM.  You choose when you want to work.  However, we don't have any branch offices in the Cleveland area, and you won't get a $25 signing bonus.  Sorry.

Lots of people were choosing to work today.  Ed and John were taking a lunch break in the Electroliner when I stopped in:

They've made a lot of progress on stripping down the metal surfaces in the front section:

John Faulhaber and Buzz (not shown) continued working on the 68.  Here Jonn is installing the tracks for the window latches.

And finally, as promised, the new steel on the front of the 28 is being riveted together.  Here you can see the head of the first rivet to be installed in this plate.

Here Jeff is heating up the rivet to red hot, while Norm waits to buck for the riveter, Dan Fenlaciki, whom you can barely see.  It's hard to get good pictures of this process without getting in the way, which would be bad.  I wouldn't want to make enemies of men armed with tools like this.

Finally, Norm points out the next installed rivet.  There's lots more to do, but it will go quicker.