Scrrraping Along

On Thursday I was again working on the next new third rail beam for the 460.  Here are some of the castings I had to start with.  The bolts are frozen and have to be cut off, as well as scraping and grinding off as much of the surface rust as possible.

Part of the way through the process, they look like this.  It makes a mess, but thanks to recent building expansion, financed by our generous contributors, we now have a room set aside for dirt-producing activities like this.  So I'm not interfering with the guys who are trying to paint their nice new parts.

Meanwhile, out in the barn, progress continues on the GB&W coach.  This is the north side.  Jack Barnett was hard at work making and installing new window sill pieces.

The interior looks great.

As does the south side, with only a few things left to be done.

Phil was working on the 306.  This is the new toilet compartment; the original was removed by Shaker.

I thought I took a picture of the beautiful new door lying on the bench, but it vanished.  (The picture, not the door.)  He was working on adjusting the hinges to fit it in place.

Back to the CA&E, here is the cleaned-up cylinder mounted on the new beam, to make sure I drill the holes in the right place.  Once everything is bolted together and painted black, it will look like new.

Finally, here is an actual scraper that everything else is built to operate.  This one was worn down so badly the blades were nearly gone, so new pieces were welded onto the nubs.  And the new pieces then started to wear (and rust) away.

It struck me that I could easily make these out of wood at home for next to nothing, compared to the considerable cost of having steel castings made.  And since we will never actually try to scrape ice off third rails, once the scrapers are painted black they should be indistinguishable from the real thing.

Speaking of which, for most of the third rail mechanism there's no good substitute for the real thing.  Fortunately, we have original patterns from Wheaton for making new castings, and we're now in the process of getting quotes.  The next exciting fund-raising drive is probably just around the corner!