Tuesday Report

Today's report will be brief.  I started by fixing the electrical problem on the new milling machine, which merely required a new piece of armored cable wired in correctly.   The new cable has a lot less slack, so it cannot get caught under the machine.  Installing it was not easy, due to the position of the machine against the wall and next to other objects of all sorts, but at least it's inside work with no heavy lifting.

The pump motor now runs, but so far I have been unable to get it to actually pump oil.  Frank Kehoe helped me for a while; we tried priming the pump with some cutting oil I found nearby, and we put plenty of oil in the sump.  I tried reversing the direction of rotation, but it still didn't pump.  So someone with more experience on machine tools like this will have to look into it.  I didn't put the cover on the power board, so the phases can be reversed again if necessary.  Here I was hoping for a gusher, but maybe the oil business is not for me.  So I turned in despair to sorting parts in the 306 and things like that.  There's always something useful to do!

Out in the barn, Gregg W. was cleaning up the steps for the 172, so they can be installed on the car.  He was careful to point out that this is not actually the start of restoration; it's just that it's a lot easier to clean up the metal steps when they're off the car, and we need to get them out of the way, and the best place to store them is on the car, and so on.  Or maybe it's just that Gregg wants to be in the running for the first annual Horachek Award.  

At the other end of the barn, Tim replaced the last of the side doors on the 1754.  Here's the old one, as he works to free up the bolts holding it to the door engine.

Another one of the old doors, leaning against the car.

Here Frank K. and John Sheldon help by lifting the old door down to the ground.

And then the new one goes into position.

And so the work goes on.

But wait, we've let a couple days go by without mentioning Happy Holiday Railway!  Tickets are still going fast, and more trips have been added to meet the demand.  The main thing I want to point out is that we still need a lot of help from members, both for trainmen to staff the cars, and for general help in keeping everything going.  This is turning out to be an extremely valuable resource for the Museum, and we need your help!