Wednesday Report

Today was another busy Wednesday, and I don't even have pictures of all the Car Dept. projects that were going on, let alone the other departments.

I started by installing the new car cards we've had printed in the 308.  They look great, I think.  The smoker has now been almost completely replaced, and it now has three cigarette ads.  I never thought about this before, but I wonder if they would actually tend to put cigarette ads in the smoking compartment?  That would make sense.

The main compartment could use a few more new ones, but it looks much better.  And I now have a pile of about twenty Johnson cards, free to a good home.   "Good home" is defined as an active IRM project needing some 1920's advertising.

The latest word on the new oven is that the wiring should start tomorrow or Friday.   Since I can now get at the door easily, I checked and adjusted the support pieces for the 309 bearing.

I think we're ready to start cooking!   Gerry says he thinks the electrician will test the oven himself once it's wired into the 3-phase, so we should be able to try soldering soon.  With luck.

Whatever sort of situation may develop at IRM, Dave Diamond has a handle on it.  The door handle on the oven was missing, but Dave supplied us with one that was easy to attach and will work OK.   Thanks!

And I painted the newly-installed chute on the 319.

And then, since changing out the car cards in the 308 released a lot of loose pieces of paint and so on, I decided it was a good time to start cleaning the car interiors, which hasn't happened yet for various reasons.  So I vacuumed up the interior.

It's important to remember that car cleaning doesn't happen in a vacuum.   And that's good, because in a vacuum no one can hear you scream.

Then I cleaned the insides of all the windows.  Clean windows make the ride much more pleasant for our visitors.  I'll have to do the outsides next time.

And I now have it arranged that the hinged windows cannot hit any of the light bulbs, so we won't break any more of them.

Now let's see what other projects are going on.   John Sheldon has made new folding doors for the 306, and they look great!

Chuck Meter spent all day on the punishing task of needle-chipping wheels and truck parts for the Cleveland car.  It's exhausting.

When done, this truck may be better than new.

Tim continues work on the 1754, of course, trying to keep ahead of Frank Kehoe.  Here he is working on the floor, where some rusted piping needs to be replaced.

Rich Witt is helping Jon Fenlaciki by making exact diagram of the 65's roof, so that a new lobster trap can be fabricated.  He certainly does great work.

Pete Galayda and John Faulhaber were working on the 160.  And who else am I missing?

Finally, Bob and the other track guys were working on rebuilding a large hydraulic cylinder for the tie insertion machine.  

 And there are several other exciting projects that should be happening soon, but you'll just have to wait.  However, chances are you'll read all about it here first!