Sunday Stripes

Frank writes...

It was a quiet weekend in the car shop. With large special events taking up five out of six weekends from early July to mid-August, and another string of special events through most of September, these last two weekends were the "eye of the storm" in a sense.

I was back working on adding more stripes to the 63. The maroon belt-rail stripes around the back and right sides of the car got a second coat and then saw the masking tape removed. The tape took off a bit more ivory paint, but it will be easy to touch up.

Later on, as seen below, I applied a primer coat to the stripes on the doors. Once the doors are done, all the striping below the drip-rail level will be complete.

After that was done, I helped out with a switch move. The 1702 was brought outside and a large wooden reel was mounted into one of the frames on the deck. It looks like a real working line car now! This operation was managed by Joel and Richard, with Greg, Jeron, and myself lending a hand.

As for other news, on my way in I drove over to the east end of Barn 15, where the roll-up doors have already been installed. There's plenty more work to do on the building, including paving the aisles and doing all the electrical installation, but it's moving forward rapidly.

After dinner I made some progress on cutting a new piece of steel for the coupler carrier at the back end of the 18, but I didn't take any photos and it's difficult to describe exactly what this part is and how it works. I hope to have an illustrated update soon.