Metal work

Frank writes...

This was the second weekend of the drive-through Happy Holiday Railway event. It seems to be generally successful; attendees have been very happy with the experience and the numbers seem decent, with about as many cars coming through in two days this weekend as came through in three days last weekend. Make sure to tell your friends!

I was out Sunday afternoon and evening and spent part of my time working on the brakes for Shaker Heights 18. I did some final grinding on the piece shown last week, once Greg pointed out that it needed a bit of a radius because it pushes against the (duh) radius bar and needs to be able to slide easily as the truck turns. And I removed two pull rods from the car to take measurements and get new steel ordered. One is shown above; these are very short because the brake cylinders, of which there are two, are located very close to the trucks. It's also pretty flat and bar-like for a brake rod. We are running very low on funds to continue work on the 18, though - your help is needed!

Speaking of Greg, we owe him a big thank you for working on the trolley poles for the 453. He wire-wheeled the paint and rust off of the first on on Saturday night and had the second one nearly done Sunday night. The first pole, all ready for wiping down and primer, is shown above in the "lean-three." Behind it are a quartet of PCC motors that have been staged to go out. These are for Cleveland PCC 4223 and they are going to be sent to the motor shop for overhaul. So that's exciting progress on that project in addition to the truck work that has been moving ahead at a rapid pace.

While we're on the subject of truck work, here's what's on the inspection pit at the moment. It's the second replacement motor truck for the 1754 and it will take the place of the previous replacement, the one procured from the field. This one was on track and it turned out was in better shape, so quite a bit of time and effort will be saved by repairing this one for installation under the car instead.

I helped move Veracruz 19 into position before the drive-through event opened at 5pm, and then after that I helped run out to pick up dinner and then put a coat of black paint on our signal box that was primed last month. Once we flip it over and it gets a coat (or two) of black on the front, it will be ready to display wherever we decide to install it.

A crew of guys including Greg, Good Nick, Joel, and Richard spent a good portion of the day learning the ropes on the new hy-rail bucket truck from Bob Olson. Meanwhile Zach was working along in the 757. One noticeable sign of progress is that all of the interior lettering has been applied, including the various bits and pieces shown here. These are vinyl decals to replicate the appearance of the decals that the North Shore used. The CA&E I think always did interior lettering by hand, for better or worse.

Zach also got the rebuilt end windows installed in the 757 and fitted accoutrements like windshield wipers and horn cords. Eric from East Troy even stopped by for a visit to compare notes; they have recently repainted identical car 761 in its "Silverliner" color scheme and that's of keen interest to us because the plan is to repaint the 757 within the next few years once needed body work is done.

Finally, after the drive-through event closed at 8pm, I helped put cars back into the barn until next weekend. While I was getting the open car ready to move, I happened to spy a sight that I'd never seen before at IRM: a trolley bus moving merrily along under its own power, but without an external power source of any kind.

Sure enough, our new Dayton trolley bus was built with batteries hefty enough to move it off-wire for a ways with the poles down. The driver can even lower the poles without stopping using a switch. Pretty nifty.

And before heading home, Zach brought out the above O scale model of an Isle of Wight 0-4-4T locomotive. He built this from a brass sheet kit and the detail is truly remarkable.