Chez la Porte Rouge

 Thursday in the Car Shop sees Gregg painting deck boards for the line car platform.  

And John is making new walls for a toilet compartment in the 306, using paneling that was removed from one of the other cars that was scrapped.  The old wood will have just the right patina.

Tim, of course, continued working on the interior of the 1808.

And I spent all day working on Jewell Road again.  In the morning, the old trim pieces for the door frame were removed, and new wood that was cut to size and primed at home was installed.  There are still a few pieces to make and install, but it looks much better:

Especially after painting.

The floor still needs work, but the threshold is missing and I'm not sure what is supposed to go there.  

You will notice above that the highest red board is badly split.  Now you see it, now you don't.

And the second blue board from the bottom is almost as bad.  These two also had lots of graffiti chiseled in.  I don't like chiselers.

So that plank goes into the scrap pile also.

And after two new boards from home were installed, the front side looks much better.

I started putting some primer on the west side, but the wood on that side is certainly the worst of the whole structure, so I decided to stop wasting paint.  At this point in the calendar, I may not have any more painting days until spring.  My plan now is to make sufficient siding pieces over the winter to completely replace the west side.  Stripping off the old siding and installing all new pieces will be much more efficient, and I should be able to do that in one day.

Geography lesson: In its original location, the front of the shelter was facing northeast, so what is now the west side was facing southeast, which is perhaps why it's more badly weathered.

Dave Diamond stopped by to see how things were going, and we talked about getting me a ladder or two so I can work on the top of the walls.  He also tried to talk me into joining B&G and working on other buildings, but I'm not so sure.  Maybe what I need is a good career rep to help me maximize my potential here at IRM....