Test Fit

Frank writes...

I was able to make it out to IRM for a rare weekday appearance today, and as luck would have it, my father was able to be out there too. So, that was nice! When we arrived, we were greeted by Frank Kehoe's handiwork. Frank was out on Tuesday and made tremendous progress on the 18's fender: he cut, bent, drilled, painted, and installed all of the remaining metal straps that hold the basket to the fender. He also took the whole assembly apart just enough to thread new rubber air hose sections onto the front pipe, per Shaker Heights practice, effectively completing reassembly of the "basket." I can't thank Frank enough for all of this work!

My father and I spent a little while gathering hardware for the fender, which included new cotter pins to hold the body attachment brackets to the fender frame; bolts to go through those brackets; and a couple of S-hooks and some chain to hang it. Fortunately, the chain and spring for one side was intact, so we had a pattern to work from. We then carried the fender over to the car; used a grinder to cut off an intransigent bolt that needed replacing; and voila!

You'll notice that the "fence" is missing; this is held up by a short chain to a hook on the front dash of the car, but that hook is missing, so we'll need to figure out how to replace it. But we tested the fender in both its "deployed" and "stowed" positions, the latter shown below.

We are going to order some new chain and hardware, since the original chain and split links are pretty deteriorated and these are not components that we want to risk failing in service. So, after this test fitting, we removed the fender and took the hardware to be replaced back to the shop. After that, we headed over to the Jewell Road shelter. My father caulked up some spots around the door frame while I helped with a bit of straightening and cleaning inside the shelter.

And then it was time to consult our treasure maps - as Victor Humphreys had told me when I ran into him in the wood shop earlier in the day, X23 marks the spot! We made the short walk from Jewell Road's current location over to Barn 10, where Victor showed us progress on the Pennsylvania Railroad X23 boxcar-turned-tool car.

So far, the Freight Car Department has completely re-sided half of one side of the car, which you can see below. The car is being restored to its later (WWII-era) configuration as an MOW tool car and painted in battleship grey.

We even got a tour through the car, including a look at some of the original tool car equipment (like those wooden bins) and the piles of lumber that were cut years ago and have been stored safely inside the car awaiting volunteer time.

The siding needs to be replaced from inside the car, so that necessitates some disassembly and then reassembly of interior appointments. The next area to be restored will be the remainder of the south side of the car, as shown below; this is the wall visible on the right side of the above photo. Victor and the rest of the Freight Car Department crew were just recipients of a Heritage Rail Alliance achievement award for their restoration of the PRR "bobber" caboose, so it was nice to get an update of their next venture.