Another pleasant Sunday

Frank writes...

I was out at IRM for the afternoon on Sunday and when I arrived, I noticed that despite the uneven weather forecast, the wood cars were in service. So of course this called for a stop up at the depot to admire the train. Larry was motorman and was diligently checking the weather radar between trips to watch for rain, but the rain never showed up and the 309-319 ran all day without any issues.

As for me, I wanted to get the 36 inspection done so that we can run a three-car train next Saturday for "CA&E Day" on the 3rd. I found the feed valve on the 36 cut out, and for a good reason: it leaked like an open drain cock. Fortunately my father, who just happened to stop by, came to the rescue with a feed valve that he happened to be carrying around in the trunk of his car. As you do.

So with the new feed valve in place, I was able to run the 36 over to the pit and finish up stuff like brake adjustment, motor check-ups, and controller inspection. A bunch of the inspection work on the contactors, and all of the lubrication, had been done previously. So the car is now ready for service.

Note to self: the anticlimber at the east end of the 36 never got a second coat of blue paint, and needs it. Oops. Anyway, at the end of the day we broke the service train on the tail track, added the 36 into the consist in the middle, and we now have a three-car wood train for the 3rd. Many thanks to Joel and Jeron for helping with switch moves and pit work.

My other good deed for the day was finally locating the two spare Shaker Heights ventilators we acquired with the trove of Trolleyville parts. These are off of a center-door car like our 18, but never got painted by Trolleyville, so we can use them for matching the correct color of roof red. From an initial glance, it appears that the correct color is much closer to "tile red" than to the "circus red" that Trolleyville put on the 18's roof in the 1960s, which is not a shock.

In other news, most of the Sunday regulars were working on getting two of the Highliners taken down to Schmidt Siding by a diesel to test them out under the overhead at the west end of the railroad. Next weekend, on the 3rd and 4th, you'll be able to run a two-car train of these behemoths for the low cost of just $10. No advance reservations, first-come first-served, so make sure to arrive early! There's no telling when, or if, we may offer this opportunity again.

And here's the interior of the Electroliner end car following spray-painting all the walls with primer. Joel reported that the 'Liner crew wasn't sure whether they'd be able to get this job done today, but he offered them a bag of "Casa Ahrendt" brand cookies if they did. Lo and behold, the spraying was done and the cookies were obtained. What can we say? A good manager knows how to motivate his workers.