Wednesday Variety Show

Variety is almost always good, and we have plenty of variety for you today.   We start with the North Shore contingent.  Here we see Pete and Fritz examining an electrical cabinet door, or what's left of it, with Buzz looking on.  

The inside of the door looks like this:

That's not quite up to IRM standards, so it needs to be replaced.  Here Fritz is seen later in the day mortising the door by hand.

Norm is working on the line breaker for the 306.  He was able to go to South Elgin and check out the wiring of the breaker on the 304, and we appreciate their cooperation.

I started by putting a coat of red paint on the other side of the 460's vestibule door.  It will probably need another coat, and that will give us a chance to modify the color if we decide it's necessary.  This is what I used on the 319's vestibule, but may not be exact for the 460.  You never know.

Then I went over to Barn 8 to do some more inspection.  I started on the 36, but quickly determined that the feed valve was stuck open.  I took it to the shop -- several of our newer members are now being trained as feed valve experts, among other things, and I'll let them handle it.

So I moved over to the next car, the 309.  The air system here was working up to spec, and I also checked out the interior and electrical systems.  The interior looks just as nice as ever.

On the 460, I had some time to finish the blower compartment door by attaching the latch and the metal plate.

It's nice to know that at least some of the electrical equipment is UL approved.  You don't see this on the older cars!

But wait, there's more...

Gregg has been removing the roof of the 1702:

And John has started assembling the folding doors for the 306:

Finally, let's have a contest, courtesy of Buzz.  What are these things, and what do they come from?

As always, there was a lot more variety around the property than I'm able to present here.  Paul Hough was working on 1808 parts, and Tim was elsewhere; I never did learn what he was up to.  Victor and Bill stopped by from the freight department.  And then there's B&G, the coach department, the model railroad department, and probably several others, all of whom were busy.  I hope that's enough variety for one day.  Just wait till operation starts -- soon!