Getting Ready

Today was a productive day, with nice weather.  We need to get ready for this Saturday, which has the theme "How people traveled between cities before cars were really popular".  Or to put it more simply, take the train.  A large part of this will be interurbans, and we plan to run a three-car train of CA&E wood cars.  This required a good amount of switching, and Frank was able to take some time off work to help.  We seldom get an opportunity to work together any more!  The 308 had to move from the east end of the set of cars to the west, and so on.

And since they have hardly run at all yet this year, we had to take lots of pictures.  As you may know, the 308 can be run as a control trailer if required, as seen here with the 319:

Later we had a three-car blue train, pushing the 308 back into the barn:

Finally, the 319 wound up at one end of the train:

And at one point we had all four cars together, on a curve, so....

The operating train will look like this:

And here comes the 749, running revenue service today:

There were lots of other activities in progress.  Five rebuilt trucks, count 'em, five:

Hmm, let me think.  What could anyone want with five trucks?  Stay tuned for the answer.

And the walls are going up on the Multi-Purpose Building!

After all the cars had been put back in the barn, I had time to run the 309 over to the pit to finish inspection.  Most of this was the usual stuff: checking the pole clearances and so on.  I got some help from another new member, Kevin from the Steam Dept., who was looking for something to do.  His help is much appreciated.

But one new thing I wanted to try was raising a traction motor with just a long pry bar and some wedges, so we will be able to change out axle bearings with little trouble.  The motor is placed over the end wall of the pit, and with a couple of metal plates and some wooden blocks, the pry bar allows us to easily raise the motor off the axle.  If we went ahead and removed the axle cap casting, the bearing would presumably be easy to rotate out.

Here Kevin is holding the bar.  I just need to make some more blocks of graduated sizes, and we'll be all set.  Eventually.

This weekend should be a great time to bring your family and friends out to IRM.  Don't miss it!