I Feel Like I've Been Here Before

Frank writes...

Thanks to the shop guys, who did a terrific job of conducting all the annual inspection work on the 319, I knew before I even arrived Sunday what I'd be working on. Joel even sent me a photo.

Sure enough, one of the elements in grid box #1 under the 319 was almost completely burned through. It's also burned into the adjacent grid element. There's still contact, so the car can move itself around, but clearly we need to fix this before it goes into service. And unlike failures at the "bottoms" of the grid elements, which can be patched quite handily with small nut/bolt/washer sets, this particular failure point requires replacing the grid element.

This all seems a bit familiar, of course... I've rebuilt a number of these grid boxes on our CA&E cars. It's a weak point in the system, I suppose, though these castings also weren't intended for 100 years of service and we probably accelerate more slowly than they did on the CA&E, putting additional strain on the grids. (Though trust me, I'm quite happy putting more strain on the grids and less on the motors!!)

With the 319, my hope was that we could pull grid box #1 off the 321 and swap the two boxes. But it turns out, we already did that! Back in 2013 (12 years ago to the day), my father and a brand-new volunteer named Brian Patterson had swapped these two grid boxes. When Will and I went over to Barn 11 to the 321, we found the grid box originally off the 319 there, complete with the spike still stuck into it. So, we removed it and brought it back to the car shop.

The box is shown above, after the pulled the spike out but before we took the box apart. This box is really odd: the five elements at the left end are completely out of the circuit. They're basically just there for show. Is it possible that the shop would move taps around to adjust the rate at which the car accelerated on certain points? That seems strange, but it's the best guess I can come up with. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day disassembling the box and starting to clean up the box frame. I'll need one replacement tap, one replacement grid element, a bunch of copper washers, and new mica tubes and washers, but it should be a straightforward rebuild.

Again, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who worked on the 319 inspection! Among other things, Joel swapped out an intransigent trolley shoe insert while the guys also replaced a balky governor. At the end of the day, the shop crew switched the 319 back over to Barn 8 and brought the 309 over to Barn 4, as seen here. Will even got a bit of an early start on 309 inspection items.

So, what else was happening? I swung by the south end, where the Southwest Storage building, the "U-store-it" style building, looks to be nearly complete.

And the posts are in along the north wall of the next building to the east, the South Storage Building. I think our B&G Department's motto is "go big or go home!"

Sunday was the second of three days of Bunny Trolley Hop, and it seemed quite well attended. Matt Kalnins sent along the following three photos of streetcars at Depot Street, starting with the 4391.

This car and the 3142 received nice magnetic Bunny Trolley Hop panels on their flanks

The third car in service, the 144, has wooden sides so didn't get the additions. Here, motorman Paul Cronin and conductor Zach Ehlers demonstrate proper CSL attire.

Elsewhere, the indefatigable DC Line crew were out working on various repairs while Joel was doing more transferring and rearranging of parts and tools as part of the shop expansion project.