Tuesday Report

Today's first activity was putting a coat of blue on the side doors of the 36 -- a second coat on the two at the #1 end, a first coat at the #2 end.  

And then, in the major repairs department, I replaced the whistle cord that had broken at the #2 end.  It was still usable, but it should be attached at both ends.  Anyway, that's now fixed.  And let me say that the next motorman who breaks a whistle cord will face immediate disqualification.  Unless it's me.

Let's see what's going on in the shop.  First, Frank Sirinek wanted to show off the new motorman's window shade for the Kansas City car.  The shade box has a couple of brackets that were surplus for our needs, so I let him have them.

And then I looked at what Pete Galayda has been doing on the Class B.  Here's one of the new windows that he has installed. 

And here are the new control resistor tubes that have recently been installed.  Bob Sundelin developed the specifications and ordered them.

And the MD car door is still being worked on.

 On a more serious note, I also opened up the boxes and inspected the contactors on the 36.  #3 does indeed look in bad shape; the tips are badly pitted.  Notice also that there's a large spot on the bottom cover directly below the arc chute, where it is when the cover is closed.  That indicates that this contactor is indeed breaking most of the current when power is shut off.

 On the other hand, contactor 11 appears to be OK; I had thought it might have welded itself closed again.

Notice that underneath the two trolley contactors, #1 and #2, the cover was patched long ago, but no longer appears to be getting flashed.  Perhaps we need to reconsider how we operate the controllers.

I also checked and topped off the oil on the 308 and 319.

Next, we turn to the 1218.  The temporary lights that had been in the 205 were moved to the 1218 on Sunday, so today I took some time to string them up.  It's an improvement.

And while we're here, here is the conductor's station.  Ignore the trolley base on the floor.  We see the movable seat, two brass handles for operating the sliding doors, and the fare register.

I put in another spare window so a good window from the 1218 could be removed.  I noticed that inside each pocket for the drop windows is a removable frame, which keeps the windows from being dropped down all the way.  In this picture, you can see it in the middle of the pocket, with a piece of rubber hose to act as a bumper on top.  On the left is some old newspaper a long-ago rider must have stuffed down inside.

 And then I worked on stripping various parts of one of the windows removed earlier.  I think pretty much all of the lower rails will have to be replaced.

I wire-wheeled the brass channels for each side.

At least the car comes with a good supply of chocks.

Finally, let's see what's happening in the 1754.   Progress continues.

You have probably heard of the proverbial one-armed paper hanger; here we have the one-armed paint stripper.  He's continuing to work on the interior, and hopes to have the car on display this weekend.