Hicks Car Works: Thursday Help Session

Today's self-help lesson is just this:

If people think you're all wet, you can easily get bent out of shape. But there's no need to be steamed up about it.

There, I hope these words of wisdom are as much help to you as they were to me. That'll be 5 cents -- the going rate around here. And as a matter of fact, when I got to the shop this morning, since the slats for the mats had been soaking for more than two weeks, we decided that they could probably be bent to shape without steaming, on the nifty forms we already had. That saves a lot of time and effort, and maybe some money too. Tim helped with setting some of the clamps. And with a combination of C clamps and bar clamps, of which the department has a generous supply, I was able to bend fifteen slats to shape. That's all the forms we have.

The slats have been left in the shop to dry. They're probably still under a lot of tension (who isn't, these days?) so they should be left alone for the time being. Thanks.

Meanwhile, Tim was working on the doors for CRT 1808. This car was built in the same order as 1268 and 1797, so by now its good points and bad points are very familiar, he says.

I finished painting the saddles at the #2 end. If the slats keep their shape after drying, they could start being attached.

And at the #1 end, I finished installing screws except for the last saddle piece, which was cut to shape and epoxied.

Later they were removed, the holes were countersunk, and the bottom surfaces were primed. The primed surfaces could use a coat of finish paint (any color) if anybody wants something to do.

In other news, Steve Iversen showed up; he's working on finding useable wheels for the Newark subway #4 PCC. I briefly helped him move one of the wheels to the correct pile. If the right wheels can be installed, the car could be put into service, he says.

Tim later turned to removing parts from the west end of the 1808 in preparation for rebuilding.