Friends Helping Friends

Another busy day at the Museum saw a lot of cooperation on various projects, subject to the usual limits on groups and distancing and so forth.  I'll start with the 451 again.

I installed the grab iron at the #1 end of the car, as seen above on the left.  That required drilling lengthwise through the running board, but once again all went well.  This is one of those things you are essentially betting your life on, so it has to be attached securely.

Then I marked out the holes for installing one of the trolley bases, using a home-made template.

And that is an exact 10" square.

I got some valuable help today from Lucas McKay, seen here working on one of the trolley bases.  The threaded shaft is badly corroded, and he spent some time wire-wheeling it, but it will require a 7/8" tap to get the threads clean again.  The shaft is the part that allows us to adjust the tension on the trolley pole, so it has to be right.

Next, we brought in Contestant #2 from the barn.  This one has the same problem.  The large nut on the end of the shaft was frozen.  But if you need heat, Gerry is the man to ask.   He quickly turned it red-hot for me.

And I think you can see what the threads on the shaft look like, after the nut was carefully removed.

Lucas also helped me with fishing the final roof cable through the roof of the car; it's the one at far right above.  It was certainly a two-man job, and I was starting to worry it might be impossible.  But with some patience, we got it done.

I then connected a fuse box temporarily to make sure we had enough cable to connect everything.  Next time I'll also want to check that the power connections all work properly, there are no shorts to ground, etc. 

Lucas also spent some time helping Gerry with his welding work on the 306.  

It will look good once they're finished.

Gregg stopped in to adjust some new parts for the doodlebug.  I seldom get a picture of him at work.

And then, for some reason, Bill Wulfert and Ray Pieschuk decided to use the car shop to scan in old documents and pictures for posting on the IRM-CTA website.  I guess it's OK as long as they're not too noisy or disruptive.

And on a historical note, I looked at this electrical box that Frank had mentioned last time.  I suspect it's part of an early manual signalling system, though I'm not sure it even has a name.  Boxes like this would be set each end of a siding, and when a motorman arrived at a siding he would throw the SPDT switch at each end.  The bulb is in series with another box at the other end of the single track, which then indicates whether a car is occupying the single track.  This system works as long as every motorman always remembers to throw every switch correctly.  The best you can say for it is that it might reduce the number of head-on collisions.  And it's certainly cheap.  Personally, I'm hoping we stick with our current ABS block signals.

Update:  I knew I'd read about this somewhere:  Hilton & Due's interurban book!