Sunday update

Frank writes...

I got out to IRM later than usual Sunday. When I arrived, Joel, Richard, and Jeron were working on inspecting Veracruz 19 on the pit. They ended up completing this car's annual inspection late in the afternoon, at which point the Matchbox was brought over for its turn.

I spent my afternoon working on Shaker 18. The first priority, having obtained some Bondo, was to fill some small rusted-out spots in the side sheets of the car. This is pretty familiar given all of the Bondon that went into the 205.

After this, while the Bondo was curing I went back to the shop and assembled both of the rear end marker lights. This project took a few months but we're finally done and they're ready to go back on the car. The center panel of the car's rear end is spot-primed and ready for paint.

The the next item on the to-do list was to put a coat of hardware-store cream paint on the area around the side sign box. I also put a coat of paint on the metal frame that will go over this spot and will hold in place the new glass we cut last week. During the week I'll pick up some glazier's putty and hopefully, before long, this sign box will have the new piece of glass installed.

Late in the day, with the Bondo set up, I went at the side sheets forward of the doors with the pad sander. All of the Bondo applications were sanded down and the old paint was given a quick roughing-up. White primer was then applied to any bare metal or Bondo. If it's warm enough next week, the right side of the car forward of the doors will get painted in a fresh coat of Bankers Grey.

One subject that has come up recently is seat upholstery. Zach is working on potentially ordering reproduction seat material for some of our North Shore cars and suggested that I give him a sample of the material needed for the 450s. Greg and I did a quick tour of the 451, 453, and 460, and found that all three cars have the same seat material. It started out as a fairly bright red color, not tremendously different than what the North Shore Silverliners used. A lot of it discolored badly, though, and apparently not from light because the sections hidden by the head rests seem discolored too. You can see the original color down in the cracks between adjoining sections and also in spots where the fabric has ripped. Maybe Wheaton used some kind of cleaning solution that discolored this stuff. Anyway, the material looks striped but that's just how it's woven. At some point we'll send a sample off and get a quote. All three of our 450s could eventually use their seats re-covered; even the 460, which is in revenue service, has several seats with rips in the fabric. Stay tuned for the inevitable fundraiser!

Nick E was in train service during the day while Greg was working with our indefatigable Track Department on a complete replacement of the south wye switch, the one right in front of the Central Avenue platform. I failed to get a photo of this work, but never fear, our intrepid unpaid staff photographer Bill Wulfert has sent in a picture of the progress.

Greg reported that the old switch was pretty badly worn so this will be a greatly appreciated improvement. As always, a huge THANK YOU to our Track & Signal volunteers for making sure the trains have somewhere to keep running!