Unseasonable Warmth

Frank writes...

Sunday was a gorgeous day at the museum, sunny and with a high of around 70 degrees, though with strong winds all day.

When I arrived, the two cars east of the 18 were out of the barn because the 4391 was in the finishing stages of its annual inspection over in Barn 4. Joel thoughtfully delayed moving anything back into the barn until I had a chance to get a good look at the Eclipse fender on the 18 from more than two feet away. Thanks to Zach, Joel, and Will, all of whom helped with giving it a good look, taking some measurements, and comparing railhead clearance with other streetcars to come to a conclusion on the fender arrangement.

What we decided was that the fender basket is nice and level; it's the fence that's a little cockeyed, but that's almost impossible to fix because it's a factor of castings that can't be adjusted. Looking at in-service photos, it does seem that some of the fenders on these cars were a little wonky, so we'll chalk this up to being authentically imperfect. We also tested things like clearance when folded up and clearance to the headlight, as shown above. Thanks to Will, with whose help - and that of a track bar - I was finally able to get the front coupler centered instead of all the way out at the end of the circle iron.

After that, given the warm weather, it was time to paint! I spent a while atop a ladder scraping more loose paint off the 63, this time above the windows, and then spent considerably more time atop said ladder applying primer where needed. The car looks a bit unhealthy at the moment, but as the weather warms up (or stays warm!), orange paint will cover this all up.

After that, I brought the four repainted windows from the shop back to the 18 and reinstalled them. They're the last four on the left side, and you can contrast them with the rather shoddy-looking un-redone window on the left. There are only about six more to do, and I'll take the next batch out when I have some time. It was pointed out, though, that when I leave the wood shop benches strewn with freshly painted windows on Sunday nights, it prevents the weekday guys from getting anything done. I need to find an out-of-the-way space somewhere in the heated shop I can put windows to dry.

After dinner, Nick and Greg helped with rigging up the chains that will support the Eclipse fender permanently. These will use all-new hardware, including new split links, springs and new-old-stock heavy-duty sash chain, since it would really be a bother if the fender fell onto the tracks when the car was moving. I got everything cut to length and ready to prime and paint at a later date.

There was a lot of other work going on - the place was a beehive of activity again. For most of the day, the 4391 was on the pit, but late in the afternoon it was switched back over to Barn 7 and the 306 was put on the pit in its place. I don't think those door leaves were there the last time I looked...

"The great blood-and-custard fleet," or something: three Chicago streetcars and a roughly matching Veracruz car (albeit in Columbia Park & Southwestern colors!) sit outside Barn 7 while the indefatigable Joel oils main journals and axle caps. Opening day is in just two weeks!

I also managed to snap this photo of the "mother car," Indiana Railroad 65, which thanks to Jon F has recently had the bars restored to its rear-end windows. This was the car's baggage compartment, but when it left IRR it lost the bars on these windows so it's been nearly 85 years since anyone has seen this. Very cool! In other news, besides the inspection work getting done, Tim was working on the 1808, Bob and others were working on contactors, a few people were over in Barn 2 working on the 415, Richard and the bus guys were working on the Milwaukee Marmon-Herrington trolley bus, and the Electroliner people were working on that car.