Tuesday Report

Due to heightened concerns about the virus, the Museum is back to previous levels of mitigation, and Car Dept. workers have specific schedules about when we can be on the job.  I'm currently scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday, so here's my report for today.  Gerry and I were the only two workers there; Tim showed up briefly, but he was mostly concerned with buying a new car.  I'm not sure why; just because the gas tank was trying to fall off is no reason to panic.

Be that as it may, I removed the rest of the rotted-out framing at the #2 end of the 453, as seen here, and then proceeded to start making new pieces to replace it.  I didn't bother to take any pictures, as they're far from complete.  The shop's big bandsaw and sanding machine are just what are needed to shape the replacement wood, with its complicated compound curves.  The next step will be to shape various sides of the wood using my router, which I prefer to use at home.  That'll take place tomorrow. 

Gerry was working on cutting and welding on the 306.  He's doing a great job, and the car will probably be at least as good structurally as it was when it left the builders, if not better.

You shall observe that Gerry and I are careful to remain at least six feet apart, vertically.

This may look like an explosion, but it's just trick photography.

Among other things, I swept off the roof, so it's ready for painting.

I also spent some time finishing up putting epoxy on all of the remaining tack molding, sanding it down, etc.  You've seen this before.

The old roof boards from the 453 are still leaning against the scaffolding, as they may be useful for various projects around the shop.  But I knew that I needed to measure them before they disappear, so that we can reproduce the correct arrangement of all the roof hardware exactly.  And this was a good opportunity to do so. 

And for all you traction modelers out there, here's everything you need to make an exact model of a CA&E curved-sider's roof boards, down to the nearest half of a scale inch.  If my calculations are correct, in HO that's about 0.146mm.  Good luck!  Fortunately for me, there will be no scale conversion when I install the new roof.