Saturday Part Deux

 Frank writes...
As mentioned previously, I was out Saturday in place of my usual Sunday appearance. Joel had brought the 18 over to the pit before I arrived so work commenced immediately.

There were a couple of things I had in mind to work on. One of those, looking at journal bearings, didn't get done (though we do have a singing journal we'll need to look at). But the other was needle-chipping the right side panel on the front end of the car, shown above, which just looks really ugly. For whatever reason, most of the paint on the car is fine but on this panel it's all falling off.

After needle-chipping it looked like this. Progress!

And by the end of the day it was wire-wheeled and primed. As you can tell, there is some deterioration around the edges; for the time being this will be addressed with body filler but in the long-term plan this will be one of the areas of the car to see steel replacement. You can help - click here to donate online to the 18 project! It's easy, and all the cool kids are doing it!

On the mechanical side, Jeron replaced a couple of air pipe unions that had been leaking, including one that had been making a tremendously annoying whine whenever the brakes were applied. This was extremely helpful. He also tightened up the connection going into the pump and we installed a vent pipe from the triple valve that had been missing for some reason. This caused the brakes to vent into the car which was pretty loud.

And thanks too to Bill Wulfert, who spent some time working on the destination sign box. He figured out that the previous Cleveland Railways-esque destination sign (visible in the second photo of this post) was just a printed piece of card stuck into the box. Behind it was the car's actual roll sign. So the 18 is now properly signed for a Shaker Heights destination. I also scraped all of the duct tape residue off of the sign glass, which markedly improves the car's appearance.

There was plenty of other progress, too, much of it already recounted. Dan was working on some truck components earlier in the day and then in the afternoon he was working on an H-type brake valve for the Pennsy bobber. Tim and Bill were working on 1754-related projects, as usual; above Tim is peeling vinyl stencils off of a new destination sign for the car.

Richard, as previously shown, spray-painted the (usable) old air tank for the 451. Here it is in all of its completed glory.

I didn't get a chance to talk with Greg Ceurvorst, but it's pretty easy to tell he's on the property from the beautiful Hudson Hornet parked outside of Barn 6.

And while I was wandering around I also encountered the tail end of the switch move pictured previously. Here the Shay was crossing Central Avenue shoving the 975 south with the sun low in the sky. This, of course, is the less interesting side of the Shay but it was still impressive to see the engine in normal use doing normal switching.

And back at the pit lead, the 300 (visible in the reflection from the 18's end window a few photos up) had brought over that horrible-looking 4000 truck to have the motors pulled. It took a lot of fighting and they hadn't gotten all of the axle cap bolts out by the end of the day, but they were making a lot of progress with the use of a torch and 6' extender on the breaker bar. Above, Richard roasting nuts.

And finally, a photo submitted by our intrepid freelance photographer Jeron Glander. This is the museum's new HyRail bucket truck. We've wanted one of these for years - it was a particularly fond wish of the late Max Tyms - but the cost was always prohibitive. I'm told that someone (I'm not sure who) located this one for a very good price, and it will be quite useful in DC Line and Signal Department maintenance projects.

Busy Saturday

Another busy Saturday.  I have lots of pictures, but even this only captures part of what was going on at IRM.

In the morning I had some training to do; our old friend Greg Ceurvorst was instructed and got qualified on the CA&E steel cars.

The cars are limited to 14 passengers apiece.

The coach train was also running.  Here's the crew. 

The Rock Island Diesel was used for the first trip; the Shay was later brought out.

I spent some time working on removing fixtures and canvas from the roof of the 453.

Here's Jon Fenlaciki working on the roof of the 65.

We'll be right back after a commercial break.  It's election season, you know.

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Another problem with the 453 are these handles on the #1 end that got bent in by a collision at Cleveland.  I tried removing them, but all of the bolts are frozen and will have to be torched off.

Meanwhile, here's the new motor truck for the 1754.  It's about the ugliest truck I've seen yet, but the shop crews will clean it up and put it into operation as fast as possible.

The 18 was also in the shop, over the pit for some brake work and general cleanup.   More on that later.

Here Rich Schauer puts another coat of black on the air tank for the 451.

And work is progressing well on the 1754.  Here Keith Letsche explains to some visitors what's happening with the car.

Tim finishes up some lettering inside the car.

And lettering on the outside is already complete!

Finally, the Steam Department used the Shay to do some switching in Barn 9 in the afternoon.

And so the Santa Fe Northern was brought outside for public viewing...

... as well as the 3007...

and even our very first locomotive, Public Service 7.

Frank was out also, and he'll have a post on his work later.   So don't touch that dial!

Slides from Bill Fronczek

Our friend Bill Fronczek has sent us some slides, mostly of the Lake Shore Electric 150 when it had just arrived at Station Square in Pittsburgh, prior to its conversion into a flower shop.   These slides were developed in June 1977. 

The old P&LE station building is in the background.  It looks like the station tracks had just recently been removed.  The building itself is still in existence, used as a hotel, and this area to the west is now built up also.  In fact, the development of this area led to having the 150 sold to IRM.

Well, honey, I guess it has possibilities....

Finally, we also have a slide taken at the Trolleyville barn in North Olmsted, and some of these cars are now part of the IRM collection also.  From left to right, the Shaker Heights trailer 2365 now at Seashore, followed by our car 18 (or 1218), and an unidentified interurban car.  On the middle track is Vera Cruz 19, our open car.  On the right track, we see Pittsburgh Jones car 4145, which was converted to a work car and is now preserved at Arden, and behind that either Fox River 302 or 306.

Our thanks to Bill for these images!

It's Too Darn Hot

...as Cole Porter would say, but nonetheless some of us are willing to keep working.  Don't ask why.

Of course, it helps to have fans.  Some of them are electrically powered, and others just give us occasional feedback that makes it all worthwhile.  But enough of that.

I started on the roof of the 453 by removing the next three saddles and the layers of canvas.  2/3 of the roof is now more or less bare.  My box fan made it tolerable.

Nobody was using 600V in the barn today, so I took this opportunity to remove the wire guards which I put over the 451 last year, but they were now over the Baldy, and I had permission to move them to the roof booth.

The power lift made it easy to remove them without leaving footprints on the roof.

This will make it safer to keep working on the roof when the 600V is on.

The next step was to remove the ceiling panel in the #2 vestibule.  Some of the screws had to be drilled out, and it took a while, but eventually I was able to get the heavy steel panel out of the way.  This gives us the needed access to the bottom of the roof at this end.    Here we see the power cable going up through the roof, and some of the piping for the horn.

From this angle, we see the equalizing reservoir and more of the cable to the bus jumper.

I tried removing screws in the panel at the #1 end, but they're much more difficult.  I may need some help.

A view of the 453 from the scaffold of the 65:

There are still a lot of tacks in the roof from various patches that were made over the years.  I spent some time removing them, but there's plenty more to do.

Anyway, I was not alone.  John Sheldon continues to make good progress on the 306.

Jon Fenlaciki is nearing completion on the roof of the 65.

And Rich Castagna and Norm Krentel continued working on the 28.  Here Rich is working on removing the first window on this side of the front compartment.

Norm helps out:

And finally, it's out of the way.  One down, 29 to go.