Company work

Frank writes...

Most of the time I'm working on my own projects, mostly the 18 these days, but Sunday was a day to pitch in and help with a "company project." This turned out to be IT 415, our stalwart suburban cars, which has been out of service since late 2020 for repainting work.

For one reason or another this work was delayed for much of 2021, but towards the end of last year the car was sand-blasted and we are hoping that sometime soon it gets its coat of fresh paint. To that end, pretty much everybody in the shop on Sunday was working on something involving the 415. I went at the car with my trusty pad sander, sanding down the window sash.

With a few exceptions, the windows didn't need to be sanded all the way down to bare wood, but usually only down through a failed upper layer of paint. Thanks to Zach for grabbing the action shot below!

In the meantime, Tim was conducting a woodworking class for Zach, Greg, and Good Nick, with the goal being to create new blocking to support the dasher at the (current) east end of the car. Above, after the blocking was cut to shape, Nick drilled the necessary holes using the shop drill press. By the end of the day he had also sprayed a fresh coat of maroon paint onto the end sign boxes for the car so that they can be reinstalled.

Work on the 415 wasn't the only thing being done, of course. Joel was working more on rearranging stuff in our storage areas, and once woodworking on the dasher blocking was complete, Zach and Greg turned their attention to making more progress on the wood that will become new side doors for the 757. In addition, Zach, Greg, and I trimmed the seat frame for the 18 so that it will fit nicely as planned, and then with Greg's help I took some windows painted last weekend over and installed them in the car.

And here's some good news: Dan has finished rebuilding the D3-EG pump for the 36! The next step is to take it out into the barn to our air compressor test rig, make sure it runs okay, and then bring it back inside to be wire-wheeled and painted. Then in the spring it will go back onto the car and the 36 should be cleared for service again, following its annual inspection of course.