Happy Bus Day

Today was our annual Bus Day, and a good number of buses of various sorts were in operation.  The weather was bad in the morning, which probably depressed the attendance, but a good time was had by all.  Luckily for me, our staff photographer Chuck Amstein was on hand to take plenty of pictures.  And we'll post them when they arrive.  Meanwhile, news from the Car Department.

A lot of things were going on, as usual.  But mainly there was switching to put various cars in more permanent locations.  Among other things, the 451 was moved from Barn 6 to Barn 4 to facilitate getting it ready for service.  You may need to use your imagination, but here we have all three of the CA&E St. Louis cars together (briefly) as the 460 pulls the 451 past the 453 on its way out of Barn 6.  Zach Ehlers, motorman. 

The 451 is now at the west end of track 41, next to the 1754.  If all goes well, work on the roof will commence soon.  And of course there are several other items that need to be addressed.

The 453 was then moved onto track 62, about where the 451 used to be.  As you might have noticed, the car arrived with an almost complete set of storm windows in place.  While restoration of the 453 will have to wait until the 451 is finished, it needs to be maintained.  And having the storm windows in place traps moisture that tends to rot out the window sills.  So I spent most of the afternoon removing all of the storm windows, and then transporting them, with the help of Joel and Dan, to our storage facility.  We have a huge stockpile of storm windows, mostly as a supply of glass.  And when the glass is used, the brass frames should bring in some money as scrap.

You will have noticed that the paint on the 453 is bad.  Really bad.  But underneath the paint, the car itself is in very good condition.  There is no structural rust or weakness, all of the electrical and mechanical parts are in place, and beneath the rotted or missing canvas the roof is sound.  So it's readily restorable even by people with limited skills such as myself.  I keep telling people it's no worse than the 308 was when it arrived, and it's certainly much better than the 309 was when I started.

In any case, stay tuned for further developments.  You'll hear all about them here first!