Milwaukee Day

Today was Milwaukee Transit Day, and we had many cars in operation that are seldom seen outside.  But we'll get to that later.   Before we do, though, Gerry Dettloff has a quiz question for you: where is the C-54 stored?

While you ponder that, there's some news on the 309 bearing project.  On Thursday I took the patterns into the foundry.   Don Meskan looked at them and suggested some changes, which I finished off this morning using the big sanding disk in the shop.  I'll take them back on Monday and get one set of castings made so we can see if they can be machined to the proper size.

Most of the rest of the day I did lettering in the 308.  Each car should have the message "PLEASE KEEP YOUR FEET OFF SEATS" in four places, but this never got done after the 308 was repainted.

Until now.

I used a tracing that I believe Frank made before the interior was stripped, so that dates back to about 2002 or so.  It is evident that this message was lettered by hand, not stencilled, so that's what we'll do.  Painter's tape is used to set the upper and lower limits, and the tracing gives all the information needed to get the size, shape, and spacing of the letters correct.

When done, it looks like this.  Pretty good, if I may say so myself.  Actually, I now think the letter G should be centered over the window, not centered on the panel, which would center it under the seat message, but that will wait for another day.

Then here's the one at the other end of the main compartment.

The tape makes it possible to do the serifs without changing brushes.  With the tape still in place, it looks pretty sloppy, but....

Voila!  It's really OK.  And I managed to do all four messages without any misspellings.

But I think you get the message.  I just hope the riders do.

In other news, the B&G guys were removing the big UP lighted sign, because Barn 3 will be getting new siding.  The barn was constructed in 1975, and the siding has a finite lifetime. 

 

The only other miscellaneous project I managed to get a picture of is new flooring for the vestibules of the 1754.

So let's take a trip to Milwaukee.  Many of the Milwaukee Electric work motors and so forth were in operation, and others were pulled out for portraits, so there was lots to see.

Of course, the North Shore cars all ran in Milwaukee:

And in answer to the quiz, what do you find inside a container car?   A container!

Which was later pulled around by the M-15, a combination locomotive, express car, and line car.

And the train was making several trips around the car line during the day, with limited accommodations for passengers.  This is interurban freight at its finest.

And Gerry and Gregg were running the dump motor.

 As we mentioned before, the North Shore certainly ran into Milwaukee.  And today two-fourths of the Electroliner were open for public viewing.   Here Ed talks to some visitors about the project. 

And finally, a Milwaukee trolley bus.

As usual, we'll be expecting more photos about today from Chuck Amstein.  Don't touch that mouse!