Sunday update

Frank writes...

Sunday was a productive day out at the museum. I didn't get very many photos (sorry) but a lot got done. When I arrived, I was gratified to find out that a few different people had been working on getting the second set of marker light castings from the 18 cleaned up. These were the ones removed last Sunday and put in Evapo-Rust for the week. Richard and new volunteer Amanda, among others, were able to separate the castings and sand-blast all of the old paint and rust off of them on Saturday. Richard was also able to braze up a crack in the inner ring and braze a big missing chunk back onto the outer ring. The outer ring is still lacking a piece, which judging from paint evidence we believe has been gone since before the car even went to Trolleyville in 1961, but that will just remain as part of its character. A huge thank you to everyone who worked on this!

As you can see, the inner ring even got a coat of primer. On Sunday, Nick D volunteered to help move this along even further. He used some putty to fill in the remaining visible cracks and then gave both pieces a fresh coat of primer. Next week I can put some Bankers Grey on these and then they will be all ready to go. Meanwhile, Richard cleaned up the piece of red glass that will go into this second marker while I tackled the "tin can." Emulating the job Richard did to fabricate the housing for the first marker light, I used our nifty spot welder to assemble the basic structure of the housing, so it's now ready for fitting to the outer casting ring.

And as you can see here, I also went over to the 18 and wire-wheeled around where these will go. I need to put some primer and finish paint on these spots but then we will reinstall the marker lights and this little project will be complete.

There was a good crowd out and working on Sunday, though people were spread around and much of the time I was the only person actually inside the shop lean-to. Jack and Richard, helped by visiting Steam Department volunteer Dan, spent the afternoon reassembling the brake rigging on Sand Springs 68 including installation of the new brake beam and repair work on one of the slack adjusters. By the end of the day, everything was put back together, so that truck should be ready to go. Meanwhile Greg and Nick E were out on the railroad in the bucket truck, removing line parts from poles that will be replaced this week by a contractor, and Joel was sorting through one of our storage rooms as part of his general cleanup and "parts consolidation" program. I was told that work on the Electroliner is continuing and that light fixtures are now being reinstalled in the A1 car, the one whose interior is in the later stages of being completely restored.