Now that my vacation is over, it's back to work on the 453. And since the Car Dept. guys helped by removing the ceiling panel in the #1 vestibule, I wanted to pull down the remaining roof cable that stood in the way of new canvas.
Up in the attic, though, we see that there's another steel plate in the way. Fortunately, all of these machine screws could be removed with a screwdriver. Getting at the cable turned out to be rather difficult, however.
So I turned to sanding down all of the epoxy on the tack molding that I applied last time. By the way, you don't often get a good view of the roof equipment on the 4391.
After sanding it down, the tack molding was painted with primer. This may be the first new paint on this car for about sixty years, I'm not sure. Since it will mostly be covered with canvas, it doesn't have to look like much, just make sure all the surfaces are smoothed off.
Then I mixed up some more epoxy and did the rest of the tack molding on the north side.
John Sheldon was working on the 306 again, of course. The north side of the car has been stripped and filled with Bondo where necessary, so it's getting close to being repainted.
Later, John helped me get at the cable on the 453. I pushed down from above while he pulled. I left the end of the cable in the hole, and if nobody pulls on it, it will be much easier to push the cable back up after the new canvas is installed than it was on the 451.
There isn't much else to be done in the #1 attic right now, so I went back to the #2 attic. Here I need to install some structural wood to hold the roof boards in place at this end.
It needs some more trimming, but this piece will be held in place with a combination of epoxy and a wedge against the steel framing. Then I can nail into it.
Norm Krentel continues working on the 28; these are the front windows.
And then Frank's switch box got a coat of primer, as requested. (Except for the back.)
Finally, it looks like the steam shop area has really turned into a rough neighborhood. Just leave something sitting around long enough, and people will steal the trucks right out from under it.
Remind me not to leave any CA&E cars sitting around outside.
3 comments:
So is the power cable in question the uninsulated heavy wire coming through that bulkhead bushing?
C Kronenwetter
Funny you should ask that. The cable I needed to get at was back behind the little steel plate in the picture. But there had obviously been a rodent infestation of some sort up in the attic; they chewed all the insulation off the power cable, just this one section, and also chewed away at some of the wood, though nothing that really needs to be fixed. The cable will be wrapped up with tape and meggered, and it should be OK. You have to wonder why they couldn't stick to a healthy diet of berries and nuts instead of cloth insulation and wood.
Could have been interesting had it flashed over to one of the nearby conduits :) Does this happen often?
C Kronenwetter
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