Surface Prep

Frank writes...

Sunday was a day for more progress on prepping the smoker in the 460 for paint.

Having previously finished with the necessary wire-wheeling and started with sanding, on Sunday I finished with the sanding and then vacuumed and wiped down all of the wall surfaces to be painted. The results are shown here, looking toward the end of the car. You'll notice that the door, which is on the bench for stripping and repainting, has been replaced by Joel with a tarp - thanks, Joel! The two areas high on the wall that weren't stripped are where the elevated license (L) and first aid box (R) go; the paint in these spots is in quite good condition, so was left alone as a sample of the original color.

And here we're looking toward the main compartment. All of the metal panels were wire-wheeled except for the lower halves of the two bulkhead walls shown here and the blower compartment wall, all of which are completely hidden behind a seat. These were just sanded down and will be repainted. Wood trim and the Masonite (or similar) panels under the windows were sanded smooth. The next step will be masking, then primer.

Let it not be said that Nick Kallas doesn't participate in car restoration work. Here, he studiously removes an errant drip of canvas paint from the side of the 460 with his thumbnail.

In between sanding sessions, Jimmy and I went over to Barn 8 and removed the third rail beams from the #2 truck on the 308, as shown.

And, of course, there was plenty of other work going on. Nick and Greg spent most of the day working on air brake issues with the 'L' cars, notably CTA 4290, which needs its U-valve rebuilt. That was brought into the shop to be torn down and examined. They also repaired one controller on the 3142, which had been causing trouble, and successfully tested it. Joel was working at clearing more space in the east half of Barn 4 for the impending track work inside the barn and I believe Bob was working on Class B control system stuff.

And now, it's time for the return of everyone's favorite game show, "what in the world is it?" This thing was found in the 306 and a cursory inspection was not very enlightening as to its purpose. Get your submissions in now!