Ready to Open

Today was another nice day with lots of productive activity.  Much of it I missed, but that's the way it goes.  You just gotta be there in person.

Anyway, I finished up most of the inspection on the 319, and all of the lubrication, including the armature bearings.   Here it is outside the barn:

Sometimes it's nice to just stand back and admire the roof job.

Lubrication is an unpleasant task, but on this car the armature bearings are much easier to access, mostly because the GE 254 is a far better design, and also because there's a lot more room between the motors and the carbody, as you can see in this view:

After finishing up the 319, I spent some time working on car cards in the 308.  Much more pleasant. The Johnson cards we have are nice, but they're almost all obviously from the 1920's, and the car itself is restored to about 1950.  There are signs at each end telling you, for instance, that the Korean War has just started.  So this ad for Arrow collars, artistic as it may be, was first on the hit list.  2 for 25¢, indeed.  Luckily the new car cards we had made are the same size, so I was able to replace the most out-of-date cards one by one.

For the year 1950, Bromo-Seltzer is much more appropriate:

As are Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.  The new cards fit in nicely and look great.   Now I just want to get some more!

Among other things, I needed to find our supply of extra springs that hold the car cards in place, so I went over to Barn 11 to look in the 321.  There were several Diesel Dept. guys at work there, so they had opened the doors at each end of the barn.   If you don't look very close, it's still not too bad:

One of the activities today was a switching class for new members held by the Operating Department.  This is important because switch moves are inherently dangerous, especially in an operation like ours, and it was good to see so many people attending.  They brought the 415 out to ferry people around the property.

While lubrication is unpleasant, I like needle-chipping even less.   But Chuck Meter was at work all day needle-chipping parts for the PCC truck.  He's really doing a great job on this difficult project.

The Electroliner crew are making good progress; they've installed all of the ceiling panels and are now installing the various trim strips.

And Tim has been doing a lot of stripping on the interior of the 1754:

Finally, here's the updated wiring jig that Lorne has made for the Cleveland PCC.  It's basically a 1:1 model of the interior framing.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is Opening Day, so bring your family and friends!