Tuesday Report

Nary a day goes by that something important doesn't get done in the car shop.  I didn't get many pictures of what other people were doing, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  So we'll look at the 451.  I started by attaching a trolley rope at the #1 end of the car, with the aid of the lift.

Then I installed the nice newly-painted red retriever at this end.  By the way, I noticed that this mounting bracket has two set screws (white arrows) which I've never seen before, I think.  I really don't know why these would ever be necessary; they'd just make it harder to change out a retriever.  The bracket at the other end doesn't have them.  Another mystery.

And I spent some time putting more oil in the compressor, which should be ready for installation on the car soon.  I also checked the electrical connections with a light box, and everything should be OK.

Frank left two repainted windows for the 18 in the shop, and I took them over and installed them in the car.

Now, at least all of the slots on the sidewalk side have windows in them.  The car has been turned around so the door faces the sidewalk.  One of the windows is still an extra from the 318, so it should probably be let down into the pocket before moving the car.

Then I wire-wheeled and cleaned up the threshold plates.  These had been painted black for the green and yellow paint scheme, but they certainly need to be red.  So today they got white primer.

Tim Peters and John Sheldon were working on their projects, but I didn't get any pictures.  Meanwhile, we recently acquired a bigger and better cutoff saw from Norfolk Southern, and Buzz is working on putting it together.  He says that it was originally bought by the New York Central, and then became Conrail property, so the brackets below were painted Conrail blue.  He's refurbishing the frame the saw will mount on.  It's quite heavy.

And by the end of the day the frame looks like this:

Anyway, I also showed him what we were doing on the compressor, and he had some black primer on hand, so he helped by painting the little plate that we recently installed.

Much better.  Thanks!

Then I got a spare fuse box for the 451 roof.  It needs some work, which I hope the second shift will be able to take care of for me.

And that's just a sampling of what was going on.   Bob Olson was working on the new switch for Barn 12, and Dave Conrad continued his work on the I-R engine.  I can only imagine on a day like today it was emitting plenty of IR.  And there were other people at work too.  I just can't go around and find them all.  Anyway, stay tuned for news and updates on the Museum's plans for reopening!