Switching Barn 4

Frank writes...

Sunday afternoon was a day of switching, as part of the project to empty out the east half of Barn 4 for track rebuilding work and - eventually - extension of the building east.

When I arrived, the fun was just getting started. Here we see the 25-tonner, run by Jeron, pulling the L4 out of track 41 headed east. The L4 is in Barn 4 on a short-term basis for center bearing replacement and installation of a rebuilt motor, which between them will allow it to go back into revenue service.

And here's a view looking into the barn from the pit, showing all of track 41 and the eastern half of track 42 empty.

The next car out was the 757, heretofore located at the southwest corner of the barn on track 43, which ran out under its own power. The end windows on this car have been replaced, and current work is focusing on building new side doors.

Zach Ehlers, the car's project manager, sends along this photo of the 757 at Electric Park.

Next out the door was the 306. It was exciting to see this car out in the daylight for the first time since its roof was rebuilt, and since the arched windows started to get hung. I spoke with John briefly about how he is attaching those big arched window frames. This car will be a real beauty! It was switched around the car line and then brought in on track 41, where it was placed at the west end of track 41 inside the barn.

Behind the 306 on track 43 was the 65. It's nearly ready to run again, following its own roof canvas replacement job, but a few wires have yet to be hooked up so the diesel towed it as well. Jon and Norm were on hand to keep an eye on things and help with the move.

And the final car on track 43 was Cleveland PCC 4223, which is having its trucks and motors rebuilt as well as having wiring run under the floor. Like the 306, it was turned around on the car line and put back into Barn 4 on track 41. The other two cars that had been on track 43, the 757 and 65, were moved into barns 6 and 8, respectively.

Here we are looking down track 43 from the west end of the barn, with the 1808 and 460 on the left. When I snapped this photo, there were only three cars inside Barn 4: the aforementioned pair and the 306 out of sight to the left. I wonder when the last time was that the barn held this few cars?

While these switch moves were happening, some donors dropped off the above toolbox that had belonged to their great uncle, Thomas Brady, who had worked as a machinist for the railroad (we believe the Rio Grande) in Denver back in the middle of the century. Our own volunteer machinist, Doodlbug Bob, has started going through the toolbox and has found a number of unusual and useful items we can use. Many thanks to donors Debbie and Laurie!

The reason that track 43 needed to be cleared out is that all of the storage reefers located east of the barn on this track need to be extracted by pulling them through the barn and out the west end. The easternmost two cars in the string are being permanently relocated, while the other three will be returned to spots in Yard 4 East once the track is rebuilt. As far as we know, none of those five cars has moved since about 1985. So following the switch moves, I spent a while removing "stuff" from underneath the reefer closest to Barn 4 so that the car can be moved in the coming weeks. Most of what I pulled out was scrap metal - C-channel sections, random pieces of steel plate, other junk. Boy, I'm glad we've been holding onto this stuff.

I briefly helped Jeron and Nathan, who were moving some of the storage reefers around. Two of the 40' Swift ice bunker reefers are shown above on the ladder track.

Then, with all of the switching done, it was on to the next project: dropping the rebuilt motors into the rebuilt truck for the 1754. Here, you can see one of the motors mostly lowered down to the truck, right outside the door on track 41.

Part of the motor installation crew: Bob, Nick, Zach, and Mikey.

Zach took this photo and sent it along of a few of us working on getting axle cap bolts put in. That's Nick and me at the bottom, with Doodlebug Bob, Mikey, and Brian up top.

With the first motor in the truck, Greg brings over the second motor using the forklift. Joel is on the truck, with Bob helping guide the forklift and Brian supervising.

By the time both motors were securely in the truck, night was falling. Here's Bob, Nick, Brian, Joel, and Greg at work wrapping things up. Then after dinner, Nick and I got the 18's roll sign gearbox installed on the car. We tried to install the sign, but it turns out that when I put the rollers back together, the assembly was about 1/16" too long to fit into the car - oops. So I'll fix that and then we'll have another go at putting the sign in the box.