Sunday update

Frank writes...

It was very cold on Sunday and there was a lot of ice on the sidewalks (fortunately the roads were clear - the salt trucks had been out working overtime) but it was nice and warm in the car shop, so I spent most of my time at IRM there.

Since my father's been working on a seat for the 18, I figured I'd help a bit on the 714. Zach bent up some hat-section braces that will help reinforce the second slat from the bottom of each "lobster trap" because that's the slat that you're most likely to grab, or use as a step, when climbing up the end of the car. I found some screws of the right size and drilled the necessary holes; Zach later primed these and then in the evening I gave them a quick coat of black paint. In the meantime, Zach also bent up some bar-stock guards that go over the ventilator at the end of the car so that the pole doesn't strike it. By the end of the night those were primed and painted black as well.

I also spent a while working on windows for the 18. I didn't pull any more out of the car, but the two that received Epoxy last weekend got a coat of primer.

And then the windows that had primer on them got a first coat of finish cream. In the meantime, I also spent a few minutes helping Zach run some wood through the jointer and planer that will go towards new side doors for the 757. He split his day between the 714 and 757. Nick and Greg were out on the railroad repairing some storm damage to our overhead on the main line, and Joel was rearranging things in one of our document storage areas to make room for some new acquisitions.

The new acquisitions are several boxes of North Shore Line drawings and records, and there's a lot of very useful stuff here, including a wide variety of blueprints and drawings. In addition, there are records from the Research Department - including some pretty neat stuff that was proposed but never built - and some artwork for paint scheme proposals. Here's the really cool one: a battery locomotive done up in Electroliner green and salmon, complete with "The Road of Electroliners" on the hood.

And here's a drawing for a simplified Electroliner paint scheme. It's a bit reminiscent of something you'd see on an ACF MotoRailer, and I'd guess it would have looked pretty decent in real life, but I think keeping the original striped color scheme was the right move. Keep in mind, these aren't railfan drawings, these were done at Highwood, probably in the 1950s!

And a couple more proposed steeplecab paint schemes. The upper one is pretty horrible, with a coat-hanger kind of outline, but the lower one looks like it probably would have been pretty sharp. It's also reminiscent of the livery used by the CA&E on its steeplecabs in later years, though, so maybe I'm biased.