Sunday update

Frank writes...

I arrived at the museum later than usual on Sunday. When I arrived, there was some interesting stuff to see in Barn 4.

To the east of the inspection pit on track 41 was the 415, looking quite different than it has in recent memory. On Saturday the car was sand-blasted as part of a somewhat-delayed project conceived just prior to the pandemic to give this car a long-overdue paint job.

And over the pit I found Met car 2888, the "other" Met car. It had been brought over in a switch move the previous day for evaluation for potential restoration. "But wait," you say, "isn't there already a Met car in Barn 4 being restored?" Well, yes. But the problem is that once disassembly of car 2872 began, it became clear that its structural condition was much worse than previously realized. These cars were built with pretty unusual construction: a giant metal plate (well, various metal plates joined together) sits atop the side sills and forms a steel-deck flat car, and the car body is built atop that. The steel plate on 2872 was found to be very badly deteriorated in spots. So to fix it - to make the car structurally sound enough to, say, operate - would basically involve lifting the entire body off the floor and replacing the floor. And none of us is young enough right now to embark on that. So the 2888, which was known to be in better condition from inspection underneath, was brought over for a closer look.

While it's on the pit, we have a pretty unique opportunity look at the underside of a Met car. Here we are roughly in the middle of the car looking towards the motor truck end, which is to the east. The air compressor is over my left shoulder and feeds into some radiating pipes, then to the air tank on the left, then to the radiating pipes in the middle, then to the tank on the right, then to the tank at center-right. Behind the pipes at center-left is the battery box. These cars used a 14-volt control circuit. The steel plate that forms the "flatcar" surface is clearly visible and, surprisingly, these cars don't have a center sill at all. The couplers bolt directly to the side of the body bolster and the only sills running the length of the car are the side sills. Weird.

Here's the governor, bolted to a wooden plate hung vertically under the car. The advantage to this is that the air cylinders on the governor are vertical, so you don't get that egg-shaped wear that J governors tend to have, but of course it's also exposed to all the road dirt.

I'm not sure what this is, but Greg pointed out that it may be part of the battery charging system. It's near the D3-EG air compressor, visible in the background, centered just behind the trailer truck.

And then Tim showed up and spent a while doing some investigating. I swung by as he was finishing up and got a peek inside the 2888.

The verdict, sadly, is "no." Remember that steel plate? It's in better condition on the 2888 than on the 2872, but it's still Swiss cheese at the motor truck end of the car from the bolster out. Just as bad, Tim pointed out that Pullman built these cars by laying that steel plate atop the side sills and then putting the wood floor over it, with a small space (maybe about 2") in between. Through this gap they ran all of the wiring and air piping, filling in the rest of the gaps with wool insulation. During the years the cars spent outside as storage lockers, anywhere water got in, it got into the floor, got the wool wet, and rotted out the conduits and pipes. The red circle shows a spot where this pipe simply disappears for a few inches. In order to fix this, you'd need to rip out the entire floor of the car, and you'd still have to lift the body off at the one end to replace that steel plate.

So neither Met car is going to be restored to operation at this time. The 2872 has had one end rebuilt, so it's a nicer-looking and more solid display piece than it had been, but Tim is buttoning up the car so that it can be moved back out to one of the display or storage barns. His comment was that if he was 10 or 20 years younger, and had a crew of several helpers with a LOT of time on their hands, he might consider this. But it just isn't practical.

As for me, I spent a while sanding down Bondo on the outside of the 18, but failed to get any photos. Towards the end of the day, I decided to tackle the reproduction roll sign that goes over the rear (exit) door of the car. A more common method of attaching roll signs to rollers is, evidently, to fold over the end of the roll sign and run a rod through, with the rod being slid into the roller through the end. These used a different method of crimping small, flat clips onto the folded-over end of the roll material and sliding those into the roller. The other method is better. But I did manage to get the whole thing put together after quite a bit of work. Here's the bottom end.

And the clips on the top end are those four little metal things spaced out. I tried getting the roll sign installed in the car but couldn't get the upper roller to seat properly, so I'll have to make another go at that next time.

Finally, Joel is appealing to our readership to try and identify this electrical panel. UPDATE: mystery solved! Due to a miscommunication, it turns out these are from a GM&O or Alton depot in Illinois and would have handled the depot's light circuits. Thanks to donor Randy Bosma for contributing these panels and for chiming in with this information! Presumably these will be forwarded to the Buildings & Grounds Department and someday will hopefully make an interesting display in one of our older preserved buildings.