It's a Stretch

Wednesday is not my usual day, but the snow yesterday made driving hazardous, and late is better than never, so....

First, we see Pete Galayda working on doors for the 160.

Later in the day, the nice fresh paint is drying:

Tim continues to work on his brand-new door for 50th Avenue:

And while we're at it, here's the original ticket booth from Thorndale that he used as a guide:

And Gerry was doing grinding and welding on the 306, as usual, but I didn't get any pictures.  But the structural work is going along very well.

Rich Witt continues to turn out his professional draftings of various parts that are used in many of our restoration projects.  Here's his diagram of the smoke jack for the Pennsy bobber:

And it may not be finished, I'm not sure.  But this is what it's based on:

Meanwhile, I spent the day restringing the various clamps for stretching the canvas on the 453, and adding new ones.  I modified the setup so that all of them can be tensioned from the ground.

In places where I've already installed clamps for stretching side-to-side, it looks pretty good.

We've run out of the wood clamps, although we still have plenty of ratchets and straps.  I can make some more clamps of this sort at home.

At the east end, Tim helped me revise the system so the canvas is being tensioned more horizontally.  That helps pull out any remaining slack in the system.

Now that all of the straps can be tightened from the ground (except for the ones at the east end, which can be reached from the platform of the S-105), anybody can play along at this game.  If you're hanging around Barn 4 with nothing to do, wander around the 453 and check the tightness of the straps.  If one is very loose, that's obviously a problem.  Probably the canvas clamp has come loose.  Otherwise, you can just take up a notch or two to maintain the tension.  Be careful!  It's possible that the canvas clamp could come loose and hit you on the head, so watch out.  You should be able to apply sufficient force to keep up the tension on the canvas without too much effort.

It should not require nearly superhuman strength, such as mine: