Car Department Report

I was out at the Museum yesterday, but what I was doing wasn't very photogenic.  So there isn't much to look at, but keep reading.

In property news, work continues on preparing the foundation for the new building.  This has been delayed somewhat by the incessant rain, but in the distance here you can see one of the Bakely guys, I think, spreading gravel along the outside wall.

The next step will be to install all the underfloor piping for electrical and plumbing needs, then the floor itself can be poured.

It was pointed out to me that this should be referred to as the Multi-Purpose Building (not the model railroad building) since it will also include the Pullman Library, facilities for archive storage, and so on.  It's about 13,000 square feet of space, I believe.

I did inspection on the 309, everything that didn't require the pit.  Here, for instance, you can see the calibrated air gauge attached to the brake pipe glad hand, for checking the feed valve setting and the accuracy of the gauges.  Everything was OK.

Bob Sundelin has moved the new casting, now securely soldered into one piece, over to the big lathe in the machine shop area.

In other Car Dept. news, Chuck Meter continues to rebuild the PCC truck, Pete Galayda is doing a great job on the interior of the 160, Tim is installing new windows in the 1754, the Electroliner project should have some significant progress soon, and so on.

And I started cleaning up and sorting parts in CA&E 451, our next project.  Gerry helped me with this and gave us a shelf in the Lean-3 for temporary storage.  Work on this car stopped a couple of years ago due to other department projects, but I should have some time to spend on getting it ready for service eventually.