No Hissing, Please

The filming for The Letter seems to have gone very well, but a few minor operational problems appeared, which we might as well fix sooner rather than later.  One of the retrievers on the 319 is not taking up the slack rope, so it was removed and taken to the shop.  There's a special table just for retrievers to be repaired.

A more serious issue was an audible air leak under the 309 at the #1 end.  It didn't take long to find: as I had expected, a hose had burst under the platform.  Here it is on the bench; the leak should be obvious.  This is not the hose at the end of the car with a glad hand; extra hoses are needed with radial couplers to flex whenever the coupler swings from side to side.

Tim helped by unlocking the brake car for me and helping find a nice new rubber hose of the right size.  The label is the wrong color but I guess you can't have everything.

After some work, the fittings were removed and put onto the new hose, with the same radial clamps.

The clamps are then tightened down onto the hose as much as possible.  However, it still doesn't seem to be quite air-tight.  In the picture below, the hose has been equipped with various piping parts for leak checking.  

At one time we had a new machine for clamping hoses in a more reliable way; I'm hoping that perhaps this will work better if we can fire it up again.  In the meantime, the car could be operated as long as it's not coupled to another car at the #1 end.   Under the platform there are cocks for cutting out the hoses in just this situation.

In this case, however, you will notice that the cutout cock for the brake pipe hose has some stiff wire attached to it, to make cutting out difficult.  I believe this wire dates back to when the cars were being moved from Wheaton to North Chicago, and then to Union.  On the North Western, the brakes would have been operated in single-hose mode, and this wire keeps somebody from cutting out the wrong pipe.  So for now I'll just leave it as is.

And then, I managed to retrieve two space heaters, a Kevin sign, a can of paint, and several tools that had been left in the depot during filming.  All this was carried back to the 319, where some straightening and sorting was done.

And in the lost and found department, we have this bag of lead shot or something left behind by the film crew, I think.  Whatever it is, it's extremely heavy for its size.  Nick is in charge of the arrangements for this film, so I put it in his office.

And then, we have various other projects to ponder.   Tim is hard at work, as always, on the 1754.   The current west end is being completely rebuilt.

The next MD car door looks good.

I see that Gerry has rigged up a frame for holding the controller shaft from the 36 so he can braze up the worn-out segment.   That's a hopeful sign!

 If I weren't reading this blog, I'd never guess what this is:

 And then, outside, the B&G guys are hard at work, as always.   Andy was stripping paint from the 50th Avenue station, again, and then started painting the eaves.

 Dave, Max, and Jerry were installing nice railings on the handicap entrance ramp for the Schroeder Store.  Very professional looking.

And that reminds me: rumor has it that the Happy Holidays trains are selling out fast.  If you want to ride at a particular time, you'll want to order tickets online because they may not be available for walkups.  That's good news for IRM!   It also means we can always use more members to sign up for train duty.  Your Museum needs you!