Concrete Progress

Frank writes...

I was busy enough on Sunday, but the real news is all the progress being made by our indefatigable Buildings & Grounds Department.

Above, the contractor continues to make progress on Barn 15. Half the post footings are now in along the south side of the building and the other half are ready to be poured, with the sonotubes in place and the metal post risers at the ready.

A lot of concrete is being poured in East Union these days. Here we are standing in front of the car shop looking at the office, with new sidewalks and curbs along the west side of Depot Street.

Looking the other way, you can see the sidewalk and also the crosswalk that will support the bollards that go here on days we're open.

Across the intersection, there's new concrete both inside and outside this access door at the northwest corner of Barn 6.

And over in Barn 4, some damaged concrete on the inspection pit apron was dug out (as previously reported) and has now been replaced.

I worked on a variety of things. First, I took some measurements of original CA&E Futura lettering for reference; we're fortunate that Buzz has the tools and the talent to draw up and print vinyl lettering masks we can use to letter the 451 in as-delivered Futura. After that, Jimmy and Doodlebug Dan spent quite a while helping me switch the order of the wood cars. The 308 is now behind the 319 (at the door) and the 309, with those two cars made up as a train. We still need to top off the oil in the 309's axle caps and do a test trip with the thermometer to check those bearings, but we are cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos during the switch move.

After dinner, I did a little more work on the two Shaker Heights cars. On the 63, I completed my painting test as shown above; the left side is brown primer+maroon, while on the right is two coats of maroon sans primer. It's no huge surprise that using primer makes for a better end product, so the next step is to start masking the striping and applying brown primer.

And one issue with the 18 is that the rear coupler hangs too low because it's missing a couple of parts that hold the coupler shank up over the coupler carrier binder. One is this: a wear plate that sits atop the binder. I took this one off the front of the car, brought it into the shop, and made a drawing. We'll need to make a new one from 3/8" plate.

In other news, Green Bay & Western 109 has come into Barn 4 for a couple of weeks to expedite the woodwork being done on the car's structure.

And Joel (pictured) and Brian were working all day with the milling machine, end-milling and then reaming holes for bushings in the 277's new brake beams. I didn't get a photo, but at least one beam already had new bushings installed by the time I arrived. Once this work is complete, the 277 should be back in service.

There's always time to have a bit of fun! A generous donor just gave IRM a handcar; it's not an historic item, but was built within the last couple of decades with a steel frame and modern hardware, but it works just fine. As a piece of MOW equipment it falls under the purview of the Track Department, so before dinner Bob (standing in left background) let some of us take it for a spin on track 121. I've run a lot of things at IRM but, amazingly, this was my first time aboard a handcar! In the photo are Will, Jeron, Jimmy, and Greg.

STOP PRESS: Many thanks to our intrepid cub reporter Jeron Glander for sending a couple of photos taken today (Monday) of the concrete work along Depot Street following removal of the forms: