Grey day

Frank writes...

Sunday was actually pretty sunny (and windy, albeit not as windy as Saturday) and the high was about 80, so it was plenty warm enough to put the first finish paint of the year onto the 18. First up: roof paint.

Tim Peters was kind enough to set about half a gallon of leftover roof paint from the 1754 so that I could paint a test patch of the 18's roof to see how well the stuff covers. For simplicity, I picked a spot right near the top of the car ladder and in front of the car's roof boards, shown above in its "before" state. I'm not sure how old this canvas is, but you can see that the canvas running down the middle of the car is a separate piece. This corresponds precisely to the outline of the Scullin rooftop ventilator housing that was removed from the car sometime in the early/mid-1940s. So the canvas likely predates that. You can also see a little loop (and, in the distance, a hook) for a spare pole. One of these days I need to grab a spare trolley pole to put up here just for show. It's on the to-do list.

After painting a test patch, and giving it a couple of hours to dry, it looks like this. Pretty nice! I am satisfied that our "special mix" roof paint will be the way to go. It may need a couple of coats but that's fine. The next challenge will be to figure out the correct color. The car's roof was painted a very bright red by Trolleyville in the 1960s but the scant in-service photographic evidence suggests this isn't right. Tile Red (like what's used on the IT cars) might be right but I'm not certain. And the ubiquity of the 1960s Trolleyville red on the 18's roof makes it tough to identify good samples. We have a couple of spare ventilators in stock that never got Trolleyville red paint so I may look at those. Once I figure out what color I need, I'll put in an order with Galayda Paint Services.

After this, and some more spot-sanding on the side sheets aft of the doors (note to self: pick up more sandpaper), it was about closing time for the museum. And that meant it was time for paint! I washed down and then painted the right side of the car from the doors forward with Bankers Grey.

So this is definitely an improvement. Next will be painting the rear half of the car's right side, then over to the left side, though the lighting isn't as good along the center aisle. I can also letter the car on this side with its proper number 18.

That was pretty much it for the day, though I did end up helping Joel with sorting some spare parts. And of course there were plenty of other things happening. CTA 22 was over the inspection pit. It had gotten its annual inspection on Saturday but a wheelset locked up afterwards, which Richard and Jeron traced to a wayward pin. I didn't get a photo of the 22 but you know what it looks like.

I snapped a photo of the second Cleveland PCC truck in the lean-three, still in its disassembled state but (I think) steadily acquiring more fresh grey paint. There wasn't any dust on these springs, so they must have been painted somewhat recently. Coming soon, watch for 50th Avenue progress photos courtesy of our intrepid freelance photographers. Don't touch that dial!