Hicks Car Works: Thursday Report

We're still waiting to receive the first set of castings for the 309 from the foundry in Chicago. And until I get my bearings, I won't really know where to turn or what to do. Which way is up?

Meanwhile, however, there are lots of things happening at the Museum that we can look at.

There's a new light pole installed near the water treatment car. This isn't all that impressive by itself, but wait until they install the decorative light fixture. Property improvement is a continuous process thanks to the hard-working crew at B&G.

I found time for some more lettering in the 308. This is the #2 pocket door, with the "PLEASE KEEP CLOSED" message. I might point out that the inside of this door was still in good shape when we got the car, so it's the only part of the interior that was never repainted, on purpose.

At the other end, the door was repainted but never lettered. Until now.

But with some care and patience, that's been taken care of. I believe this finishes up the 308. And then there was more cleaning and straightening to be done, as usual.

I'm sure you'll want to hear about the Electroliner. The Avalon people have found a way to make the bronze bowls for the connection bearings, and I believe this process has already started.

John Arroyo continues his painstaking work on the windows, as well as the interior.

And a couple of guys from Avalon were out today to look at the C unit, which is now in Barn 4. This end of the car is where the P&W cut new doors back in 1964 when they were preparing it for service on their line. Several of their platforms were too short to have both of the original doors in use, so a new door was cut on each side. Ouch! When the car was being restored at IRM back in the eighties, these doors were closed up, but there are some parts of the interior that never got replaced, because of course SEPTA threw out the unneeded parts. But Avalon should be able to produce everything we need to complete the interior at that end.