Cold Hard Facts

It was cold today, and the wind was blowing hard, but the fact remains that we won't let little things like those stop us.  To start with, let's look at the exciting progress on the Multi-Purpose Building.

Here we see a load of blocks being loaded into the cocoon on the north side of the building, where the facade is being constructed.  The plastic sheeting keeps the wind out and enough heat in to make continued work possible.

You can barely see the reflective vests of the workmen, but they're moving around inside, putting the building together.  It sure beats working out in the open.

Inside, we can see that the front wall, at least the structural part, has been completed.  

And the workmen are busy constructing the various parts of the facade, which will make it look like three different buildings side by side.  This is really going to be impressive.

Meanwhile, back in our cozy car shop, Tim Peters and Frank Kehoe were working on seats for the 1754.  Here Frank is painting the metal springs, as John Sheldon looks on.  John was mostly working inside the 306, which has its own cocoon.

Here Tim is getting ready to cut one long seat frame into two shorter ones.  For ease of installation.

And Buzz is nearly done with the velocipede.  Here it's sitting on sawhorses for final assembly.

A view of the mechanism:

And the new brake shoe, a block of wood.

Buzz can be proud of this accomplishment.  Basically all of the metal parts and about half of the wood parts are original, but all carefully restored.

I spent most of the day working on the trap door again.  After more grinding and cutting, all of the rusted-out parts have been removed, and we plan to take it to a local metalworking shop to have new parts made and installed.  Before:

After:

I also went over the the 453 to check on its condition.  I may want to borrow a couple of seat backs or cushions for the 451.  And I spent some time recharging the batteries.

Finally, I had a chance to visit our latest acquisition, the Pawnee.  And we'll see just what it looks like inside next time.  Don't go away!