Sunday, May 22, 2022

Quick visit

Frank writes...

Instead of my usual work trip out to the museum on Sunday, I dragged my wife and daughter out for a quick visit. While we were there, we stopped by Barn 4, where Joel and the other guys are making rapid progress on readying the 309 and 36 for operation next weekend.
On Saturday, they finished inspection work on the 309, so it's now ready to go. And today they were working on the 36. Joel was in the pit when I arrived, and by the end of the day he'd gotten the truck and motor work done.
But more excitingly, after I left, he and the crew got the pump reinstalled on the car! So that's real progress on this seven-month project.
It still needs the air and electrical connections made up, but the 36 was left on the pit so that this work can be done during the week, along with the remaining inspection tasks. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who worked on the "blue cars" this weekend!
Joel also pointed out that the axle caps for the newly rebuilt motors for the 1754 are in primer. I'm not sure what exactly remains to be done on this project, but the prospect of getting the 1754 put onto the correct motor truck with rebuilt motors draws ever closer.
LATE ADDITION: Bill Wulfert has sent along this photo of new waste bundles he made up for the 1754's axle caps. He also reports that Zach and Mikey were the ones who cleaned up the axle caps themselves to ready them for painting.
As for the family, we took a look at the nice new gallery space, then swung through Barn 7 to take a look at my current project.
Then it was on to Depot Street for a ride on the "Matchbox" (thanks to Zach, who was working as conductor, for the above photo) and of course some time on the playground. On our way out of town, we stopped by the bus barn (keep an eye out for yet another Scalzo history article later this week) where Richard and Jerry, helped by Good Nick and Greg, were working on moving a few of the non-operable buses to a nice new indoor storage location.
Perhaps Richard can chime in with some details on what's going on with CTA 9799. All I can tell you is that some of our buses are truly forked.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 23, 2022 at 6:19 AM

    Frank- The 9799, our "Green Limousine," is moving inside. Thanks to some additional inside space we've secured in another building on property, we are able to move a few buses out of the elements. The additional space won't be on display, but we plan to have the Hoffman Garage open for visitors to walk through when we're done, and it will look better than it has in the past.

    R. W. Schauer

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete Lerro Jr - Big DaddyMay 23, 2022 at 7:53 PM

    Frank,
    Thanks for the post.
    It's great to see your family thriving and well. Miss you at the shows.
    Best wishes to you and your family.
    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frank HicksMay 23, 2022 at 9:46 PM

    Hi Pete, good to hear from you. I hope you and everyone at the shows are doing well, and that you're having a good spring!

    ReplyDelete

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