Light up

Frank writes...

Sunday was a sunny but chilly day; while the forecast for Monday had highs in the 70s, on Sunday the temperature only got up to 50 or so. As such, no Bankers Grey went onto the 18. But progress was made nonetheless.

One little project that's now marked off the to-do list is replacement of the glass in the aft side roll sign box. The metal was cleaned up and painted over the previous few weeks, new glass was cut, and on Sunday plenty of butyl caulk went into making the assembly as watertight as possible. I also did some cleanup of the inside of this sign box. The gear assembly in this box appears to be partly riveted in place, but the gearing looks like it's in good shape and moves relatively freely, so I think I'm going to try and clean up and lubricate the gearing in situ before our nice replacement roll sign gets installed.

Another exciting thing knocked off the to-do list was testing and electrification of the sign light circuit. There are five bulbs in this circuit (natch), three in the front box and one in each of the two side boxes. Thanks to Joel and Richard, who helped procure a couple of replacement bulbs that were needed. And of course a huge thank you to Bill Wulfert, who did all of the work of rebuilding and repainting the inside of the front sign box and also did quite a lot of restoration work on the front roll sign itself, including installing new leaders. Thanks, Bill!!

There are still some electrical issues to work out. I need to test out the marker light circuit, but that needs to wait until I install the marker lights and I don't want to do that until I can put a coat of paint on the back end of the car. And at some point we need to look at the master controller and see if we can chase down the issue with the car occasionally dropping out in the second point.

As always, there was plenty of activity. Jack and new volunteer Mike were working on inspecting the Matchbox and they got this job done by the end of the day. Joel was sorting parts and Nick and Greg were out on the railroad doing DC Line Department stuff. Thomas and Ashton, and I think Richard, were working on 'L' car stuff. Zach was in train service; it seemed like we had another good crowd so a second two-car electric train was brought out. The 251's journal bearing so far seems to be doing okay so that car is now back in revenue service.

Late in the afternoon I did some railfanning around the property. This is the new switch #711 at the south end of the wye, completely replaced by our volunteer Track Department over the course of just eight days. What a job!

It was pointed out that this is the newest rail on the property, dating to 2019. It's still grey from the mill.

And here's something you'll have to check out for yourself on your next visit. I stopped by Barn 3, where the IC side-door caboose and the FGEX reefer have now been opened to the public as part of the freight train exhibit. Both are very impressive, particularly the reefer, whose varnished interior is really pretty striking. The lighting and exhibit boards look extremely professional and the "props" are a great addition. I get the impression that more artifacts are likely to be added over time. What's shown here, at one end of the car, is a selection of ice-cutting tools as part of an explanation of how ice (for use in reefers like this one) was sourced. The other end of the car has a lot more information about reefers and the meat-packing industry in general. It's terrific stuff and really raises the bar for our educational efforts, I think. Kudos to the folks who have been working on this exhibit.