Sunday Report

Frank writes...

The car shop was hopping on Sunday, with a big crew out working on several projects. We'll start with what I was doing.

I put a first coat of maroon on the stripes around the back end and rear right side of the 63, as shown here. After one more coat of maroon, the masking will come off, and all the belt-rail striping will be done except for the doors. I touched up the ivory on the belt rail under the motorman's side window, as well, which you can see below if you look closely.

I also cut out the stencil I'd drawn for the car number, which was created working off original photos. After dinner, I painted the car numbers on the front and left side of the car. It will also get numbers on the right and rear side. At some point we'll also need to add the RTA emblems, which in this livery is a white GCRTA logo on a square white background.

The big project for the weekend was the Electroliner. On Saturday, a big crew had jacked up the 801 A car and then the truck was slid sideways on heavy-duty casters. The #2 motor in this truck had experienced a grounded cable inside the motor case, so it should be a straightforward repair but will require taking apart the motor. With the truck removed, the motor was removed and a spare put in, after which the truck was slid back under the train. Between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, a crew of volunteers worked on hooking everything back up, after which the 'Liner went for a couple of test trips.

The good news is that the newly replaced motor worked great! The bad news is that an issue arose with the gearbox coupling on a different motor. But that's why you do testing like this. The next item on the to-do list will be diagnosing exactly what needs to be done to fix this. Stay tuned...

In other exciting news, a crew including Steve, Mike, Drew, and Alex was working on installing seats in the 306. All these seats have been completely rebuilt by the 306 restoration team, including tearing down every seat frame to its component parts and repainting/repairing each part as needed. The restoration team is also constructing the toilet compartment, with the doorway framed out over the past week. The car's interior is looking spectacular. I didn't get a photo, but the controllers have also been installed at both ends, located in the original Fox River Electric location rather than the more centered position they were moved to by Shaker Heights.

And finally, the building contractor is continuing to make progress on Barn 15. The sliding door is now mounted on the west end of the barn.