The Guys Who Came In From the Cold

In spite of the bitter cold, life goes on at IRM, with plenty of people showing up to work on various projects in our nice cozy shop.  Of course, nothing can get accomplished without tools.

This is only part of the Car Department's vast collection of screwdrivers, which are getting repainted.  And several parts of the shop are being reorganized.  That's always a good activity for the winter months.

I went over to the 321 to check on various things, and collected some parts that had been left in the car and needed cleaning.  These include some controller parts, a spare buzzer, and some gauge light bulbs.  I don't suppose they make these bulbs any more.

Bill Wulfert and Keith Letsche are cleaning up the trolley hooks for the 1754.

Jon Fenlaciki and Mike Stauber spent several hours carefully cleaning up one of the trolley boards from the 65.

Jack Biesterfeld and Roger Kramer were working on refinishing windows from the GB&W 110, our wooden coach.  This is a very unusual design; there are two nested window frames.  The outer one can be raised as usual, but there is a second frame hinged to it, which can swing out into the car.  Nobody has seen anything quite like this before.  It's undoubtedly a railroad modification, but the purpose is not quite clear.  

My next job was to start work on the #1 end train door from the 36, which had never been repainted.  First, we need a temporary door to keep the birds and any other unwanted visitors out.  When put in place, it looks like this:

Keith helped me lift the heavy door out of the car and bring it back to the shop.  The inside has been repainted and looks pretty good.

The exterior was last repainted in Cleveland and needs work.  The grab iron and door handle are not supposed to be black, and all of this paint is in bad shape.  So that will be a good project for work in the shop over the next few weeks.

Later in the day, the 65's trolley board has been completely stripped, and with the help of Buzz various places that were rotted or cracked are being epoxied.  Bob Sundelin checks out the progress.

Nick is carefully rebuilding the governor from the 4410.  A lot of work has gone into repairing the control system and several other parts of the car, and the L car group are hoping to have it back in service later this year.

I removed the door handle from the 36's train door and stripped it, and then the kick plate.  I was afraid the door might have started to rot underneath, but the wood actually looks quite good.   The plate itself is somewhat rusted out on the inside, but is still probably usable.

Buzz is working to get this "new" planer into operation.   He bought it for the Museum at the last woodworker's convention.  This will enhance our ability to machine large pieces of wood.

And as usual, there were several other things going on that I missed.

Finally, we have a challenge.  This object turned up during the shop cleanup.  There are two pieces of metal held together by a bolt and two roll pins, one of which is missing.   No one knows what it's for, so send in your best guess.  Whoever comes up with the most preposterous explanation will win a prize.