Let's Shelve That for Later

Frank writes...

Sunday was very hot, but I still managed to get a few things accomplished. First, I removed the last couple of the seats in the 451 and also took the leatherette antimacassars off the seats my father had previously removed. This final batch of about half a dozen seats are now ready to go to the upholstery shop. And the exciting news from Jon is that the shop has finished the previous batch and they're ready to come back! So, there's a lot of progress on this front. I didn't take any photos, I'm afraid.

For your regular dose of vermilion, here's the latest on Shaker Heights 63. After I was done with 451 seats and we had closed for the day, I rolled orange paint on the last patches of the car that still needed a first coat. The only area that hasn't had its initial coat of orange is the rear bumper, which first needs some white primer. Anyway, this side got some orange on the doors. Joel is also ordering new Lexan to replace the full-height windows in these doors, which are hopelessly fogged up.

And this side got some orange on the skirts. I also finished painting the back end of the car with a first coat of orange. And after dinner, I checked the oil in the air compressors on the 309 and 319 and separated the hoses and jumper between the 319 and 308. We're planning to run the 309-319 for the "evening shift" this coming Saturday and the 308 won't be coming along this time. Mark your calendar and join us, especially if you've never gotten to see our authentic kerosene marker lights in action!

The exciting news, though, was that Nick and Joel were assembling pallet racking in the Barn 4 extension. These are new-to-us steel sections that have been restored by the weekday guys. Above, Nick runs down a rolling scaffold while Joel stands back.

The racks were built slightly out from the wall for ease of assembly - but how to shove them up tight to the wall? Aha! Let the machines do the work: Joel figured out he could use the motorized pallet lifter and a block of wood to shove the racking back.

And here's the result: a whole lot of storage space. We still need to add the actual shelves, which will be made up of whatever 2x4s/2x6s/2x8s we can scavenge or buy cheap, and these will also get bolted to the floor for security. The next step will be to build a mirror image of this line of shelves (well, slightly shorter) on the other side of this same wall, in the eastward extension of the shop lean-to. In the middle-left foreground you can see some of the grey-painted parts that will be used for that project. In the far left foreground is Bob.

In other news, ComEd 4 is back in service following a successful test of its rebuilt grid box on Wednesday; Gregg was working on painting more interior parts in the 277; and Jim Ward was showing around a couple of visitors from the Western Railway Museum.