Yesterday was occupied with a few odd jobs, some odder than others.
First, somebody brought in the lights from a crossing signal and dropped it off at Frank's place of work. So that wound up getting loaded into my back seat for transport to IRM. We always appreciate the donation of items like this. If the signal department can't use it, they can sell it.
In the shop, I noticed these nicely repainted retrievers. It's always good to have spares of the correct color available, in case something goes wrong.
Pete Galayda is working on interior parts for the 160. Here he is experimenting with refinishing the wood trim parts.
And one of the baggage racks after sandblasting. Pete says only the two shorter racks had this combination of brass brackets and steel rods; all the others were entirely steel. They will be painted.
And here's a view of the vestibule ceiling in the 1754. It looks great.
I spent most of the time sorting and straightening parts in my storage cars. While doing this, I remembered that the 319 was missing one its ticket clips, for some reason. So that got fixed. Every little detail helps.
Finally, I might point out that the west end of Barn 3 now looks much better. Eventually the lighted sign will be reinstalled.
4 comments:
I really wish there were crossing lights / gates on Olson Road. I know that would be expensive and require coordination with the UP, but I worry when I see cars crossing those tracks when the driver is obviously distracted by other cars and train movements. I know the UP doesn't have a lot of train movements on those tracks, but it just seems like warning lights would be a good idea, particularly since that is considered the "preferred" route into the Museum.
I believe everyone would agree that active crossing protection would be great, but there's really nothing we can do about it unilaterally. Experts can chime in on all the hurdles that have to be overcome first....
I expect that the UP would have to engineer, install, and maintain the installation which would have to be current state of the art (i.e. $$$$$) since the protection would need to take care of both crossings. Unfortunately I don't think our stock of museum grade 1940-50's era signal equipment would suffice any more.
C Kronenwetter
New Berlin, WI
Not an expert, but if Amtrak ever decides to operate Chicago-Rockford (or beyond to Iowa, as had been proposed a few years ago) on UP's Belvedere Sub, then both Olson Road and Seeman Road crossings would need gates and signals. Then the questions of installation costs and maintenance responsibilities would have to be addressed.
Mike G.
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