Restoration of the 308

Frank just handed me a box of pictures that he took back around the turn of the century.  They cover a lot of different subjects, but the first one that jumped out at me was the restoration of the 308.  It was much better documented in pictures than I had thought, so I have scanned most of them.

When the car was acquired in 1996, most of the #2 end vestibule had been removed, and the original wooden floor had been replaced with a thick steel plate welded in place.   That took a lot of work to get rid of.  We closed up the end with Masonite panels while working on the rest of the car.  Restoration started in 1998.  Meanwhile, we amused ourselves with painting one of the panels.

I guess the ersatz folding sign never got lettered.

The entire body needed to be stripped of paint.   Above, a window frame has collapsed.   Many of them needed replacement.

All of this work was done in Barn 8, which had no lighting at the time, of course.  c. 1999

 Several views of the interior.  There was a lot of water damage to the wall panels.

And this is the #1 vestibule.  By 2001 the exterior had been repainted, and work concentrated on rebuilding the #2 end.

This is the #2 vestibule platform, after the metal plate had been removed and all the corners ground smooth.  We're looking down towards one corner of the bumper.  Summer of 2001.

The car was then towed over to the east end of track 41 for replacement of the vestibule.  Notice that this is the open end, behind the Army engine.

A good view of what the end looked like before work started.

The first step was to make and install the various wood parts of the floor.  There are several layers.

Here I'm using a brace and bit to insert the wood screws holding the wood in place.  Fall of 2001.

Then new posts were patched in, followed by the braces for the walls and siding.  Early 2002.

Photo by Joel Salomon

By the summer of 2002 the end was more or less complete, and the car was made operable.  Above, we have Frank, me, and Bruce Moffat. 

The vestibule was still pretty ugly, though.  Don't touch that headlight switch!

To make a long story short, it was about this time that a new member, Jack Biesterfeld, joined the team and did most of the interior restoration over the next few years, even while the car was being used in revenue service with the 309.  Restoration was completed for the its 100th birthday in 2006, and it has been in regular use ever since. 

Summer of 2003.