Saturday Report

After a break of three weeks while on vacation, it's time for me to get back to work.

The first project was to clean the old paint from two spare buzzers we had on hand.

When disassembled, a buzzer looks like this.  The buzzers are mounted to the ceiling so gravity pulls the flapper down towards the perforated cap.  When the magnet is energized, it pulls the flap up.  The flaps must be made of iron, of course, so they sometimes rust away, but this one looks good.

I couldn't get the other one apart, so it was taken home to be worked on.  "C.C-H.CO." stands for Consolidated Car Heating Company, and they made various accessories for electric cars besides heaters.

While sorting out parts in the barn, the guys found this replacement door for the North Shore line car 604.  It had been started at least thirty years ago, but they may try to complete it as time permits.

Victor continues work on the Pennsy cabin car.  The bunk is made of these large tongue-and-groove boards, with a chamfer down the middle, and here he is making a test fit.   They were later painted on both sides with primer.

Tim is stripping interior woodwork for the 1754.

A train door for the 1565 is getting major repairs.

One project I needed to do was to get the recently-rebuilt retriever working on the 319.  Rebuilt retrievers are stored in retrieve for safety's sake, and I was unable to rotate the spool and insert the knot at the end of the rope at the same time.  Jeron helpfully came over and the two extra hands made it a matter of seconds to get the rope installed.  Joel also stopped by to check that it was working properly.   Thanks!!!

The 308 hasn't been repainted since it was outshopped in 2006, and the exterior paint is starting to show signs of wear and tear.   The blue is basically OK, but the grey in particular has some discoloration, and the red stripes along the sides could also use another coat.  Actually, it's not quite as bad as it might appear in this photo.   Trick photography.

After a few hours' work, one side was sanded down.  Next time I'll turn the car around and do the other side, and when it warms up later, new grey and red can be applied, even if we've already started revenue service.

Speaking of revenue service, the 3142 is now over the pit.  Our fancy gauge calibrator is used to check the readings on the car's gauges.  Richard is out of sight to the right running the mechanism while his apprentice watches.

 And here the car is getting attention from Nick plus a couple of other guys inside the car.

And outside, a control mechanism from a Boston air car is being disassembled for parts, since none of our cars have this type of control.  But many of the parts are the same.  Jeron, Greg, and Richard.