Thursday Report

The weather was beautiful today and we seemed to have a pretty good crowd of visitors.  A lot of work goes into cleaning up the property and getting things back to normal after Thomas.  By the end of the day, I believe all the tents had been removed.  And so on.

My main project was repainting the canvas on the 309.  Photography near the roof of the barn is tricky because of the lighting, so you'll have to take my word for some of these things.  I started by comparing a sample card of the paint we used for the clerestory wood with CTA 4000 grey paint.  It looked to me like a pretty good match, at least for a first coat, so I decided to go ahead and start painting. 

Following are some progress pictures, and I hope the before and after will be obvious.  The canvas had gotten stained over the years with various substances.

By the end of the day I had finished one end and one side.  I'll have to wye the car to complete the job.  In any case, this is a big improvement.

Meanwhile, Thomas and Percy were lined up in Yard 5 in preparation for loading...

using the ramp rails in the foreground.

While we're here, let's see what's in the cab.  The two engines are pretty much alike, so this is Percy's cab.  The most obvious item is the big hand brake, of course, but there are also dump valves, a gauge, and a blower valve for controlling the smoke.  I guess you have to bring your own stool, just as on many electric cars.

The "boiler" contains some auxiliaries and provides extra storage.

And the "tender" compartment has a small generator.

The builder's plate is inside the cab.

And I bet your locomotive doesn't have one of these: a Face Control Box!

In other news, Tim spent the day installing running boards on the 1754.

And we now have a nice display of baggage carts in the area east of the station.

Help Wanted

We plan to run a three-car train of CA&E cars for Vintage Transport Day on Sunday, August 5th.   We still need at least one trainman, and two would be better.   Anyone can do this job, so please help if you can!