Labor Day Liftoff

The first day of our gigantic Labor Day Weekend celebration at IRM started off well, and we have pictures to prove it.

But first, I'll say something about fixing the headlight circuit on the 319.   I just can't resist....

With help from Buzz, I was able to order replacement resistors of an improved design that would fit into the box on the car.  Since the dimensions are slightly different, they are first attached to a sheet metal plate, which is then screwed into the supports inside the box.  Here is the assembly on my workbench, with the connections soldered in place.

And when mounted on the car this morning, with the leads attached, it looks like this.

And after some careful electrical tests, the headlight works properly on both bright and dim settings.  I let it run for several minutes to check that the resistors were not overheating.

Then the front plate was attached with long machine screws, to provide the necessary clearance and to improve circulation.  And we're ready!

Later, I also checked both compressors and topped them off.

With that taken care of, let's see what's happening out in visitor land.  We have the ever-popular caboose train, with five cars.

And we have a big engine to pull all those cars.  Tammy was running the locomotive.

The 24 and 1268 were running in mainline service.

In case you've forgotten what the interiors look like, they still look like right out of the factory

The 1630 was pulling the heavyweight train, but I didn't get any pictures of it.

North Shore cars 251 and 749 were in service.

Bob Opal was the motorman.

Later in the day, I helped Nick Espevik a little to fix a broken rope on the 3142.

Visitor surveys were being taken for our planning process, as explained earlier.

I even went for a short ride in the Seattle trolleybus.

And finally, the 714 was running in shuttle service.

The 50th Avenue station is open again, so people could board the shuttle car on the high-level platform.

And I missed the streetcars as well as the Decapod, so there were lots of other things going on.  There will be a mostly different variety of equipment operating tomorrow, so you won't want to miss it!