Monday Matinee

For various reasons, I didn't have a lot of time to spend out at the Museum today, but still it was enough to get some interesting pictures.  I had some documents to pick up, and one high-priority task to accomplish, which we'll see later.   But first, what are the other guys doing?

John was ready to get all steamed up about bending the molding strips for the 306.  We saw the forms last time, and here he is looking at the various parts of the propane-fired steam generator.  For obvious safety reasons, we need to run this outside the barn, but it was raining heavily today, so this was put off until tomorrow.  

Fritz continues working on windows for the 160.  Sometimes you think this job will never get done.

Here's what the interior of the 306 looks like, with the arched upper sash in place.

And then, over at 50th Avenue, Tim is trimming various molding pieces on the ticket booth.

And he pointed out that the 600V lighting is now functional.  If a train pulled into the station, you'd see the lights flicker.  The station is wired with six-bulb circuits, so the bulbs will last much longer.

Then I went over to Barn 11.   Buzz is working on the Milwaukee caboose, which he wants to have ready for service on Friday for the MRHS visit.

"Yes, guys, I'm working as fast as I can...."

And here is the exterior, nearly complete.

The Milwaukee Road dynamometer has also been painted.

And then I checked on the headlight resistors under the 321.  As we mentioned before, three of them on the 319 have gone bad and need to be replaced before we can operate the car after dark.

So I opened up the 321's box. At first, it appears that three of the five are still OK.  On closer examination, the second from the top has a couple of small breaks.  I believe these can be fixed.

After removing the good tubes, we're left with this sorry sight.  The 321 has been a supply of valuable spare parts for many years.

And these were taken home for repair and testing.  With luck, we should be able to use the319's headlight with the parts on hand.  Finding suitable replacements has been difficult.