Sunday Report

Frank writes...

Sunday afternoon I worked with Richard to complete the remaining work in the 460 and "release the car to the Operating Department," at least as far as I'm concerned. This mostly consisted of driving a bunch of decorative upholstery tacks into the backs of the antimacassars, per original practice, and cleaning up the stuff left over from the project, such as extra machine screws. A huge thank you goes out to Richard for all his help getting the 460 seat project completed!

After that, Ashten and I went over to the 453 in Barn 13. I want to include a few seats removed from the 453 in the next batch to be redone, so to start, we removed three of the regular "spinner" seats, as shown here. Unfortunately, unlike the other two cars, all these antimacassars are held in not just by upholstery tacks but also by a row of regular steel carpet tacks, hidden after installation by the metal bar across the top of the seat. After dinner I returned to the 453 and was able to carefully remove all these tacks so that we can send the seat backs out for upholstery work while retaining the antimacassars for reinstallation when we get to the 453's seats.

Going back in time a few hours, when I first arrived on the property, Tim (shown here) dragooned me and Matt into helping him hoist the first of the newly varnished ceiling panels for Northwestern Elevated 268 into place. Above is the "before" picture...

...and here's the "after" picture, with Matt and Tim in the frame. The wood sticks with cloth over them just helped hold the panel up while it was guided into position and the wire for the light fixture was snaked through the hole. This car is really going to be beautiful!

About 50' to the east, I snapped this photo of progress on the wiring trough on track 41. The B&G guys have hung these "unistrut" sections underneath the garage door that will support the wire trough up to the point where the "flipper" will go in.

There was a lot of activity. Nick, Greg, Bob, and Jimmy were out on the railroad performing repairs to the overhead wire following some damage from a bad wind storm a couple of weeks ago. A few guys including Brian, Jeron, and Will were working on inspections and various car repairs, including more air gauge work. And Joel was working on sorting parts and organizing.

He found his brass plaque. A bit of online research suggests that these plaques appeared on Boston Type 3 semiconvertible cars.

Joel also found this neat piece of business reply mail. I wouldn't try mailing your dues to Chicago 3 these days.

And now, as a free sample of our famed series of Hicks Car Works Correspondence Courses, we present to you:

How to Make the Most of Your IRM Roster

We have good news: after 15 years, IRM has issued a new printed roster! You'll receive it with your next issue of Rail & Wire, which is currently in the mail. Obviously, this applies to you, an upstanding IRM member and contributor to society, right? Right!

Step 1: Your issue of Rail & Wire has arrived in the mail! A modest celebration of this occasion is appropriate, after which you notice that the new printed roster is stapled into the center of the magazine. It's kind of a 20-page-long centerfold.

Step 2: Open the combined magazine/roster to the centerfold, as shown here. You'll see four staples holding it together. Using a letter opener, pocket knife, scimitar, or other flat blade-like object, gently open up the topmost of the four staples.

Step 3: Now, do the same with the bottommost staple. See, you're getting the hang of it already! You'll be an expert at this just as soon as you're done with the project.

Step 4: Find the spot where the magazine ends and the roster begins. Grasping each separately with a thumb and forefinger, carefully pull the roster away to separate it.

Step 5: Now, setting the roster aside, take the magazine and bend the two open staples back to the original closed condition. Careful attention at this stage will limit punctures and minimize blood loss.

And there you have it! You can now read your issue of Rail & Wire while keeping your roster separate to use as a reference going forward. Many thanks to Richard for demonstrating these techniques (oh, and also for creating and maintaining the entire roster in the first place).

But, you ask, can't I just leave the roster in the middle of my magazine? Of course you can! Nobody will judge you. Well, few will judge you.

If you enjoyed this, make sure to register for our professional development correspondence courses on rattan seats, MU control circuits, and more, plus personal enrichment courses on subjects such as talking like Shakespeare.