Sunday Report

Frank writes...

Sunday I split up my time between a few different small projects.

Above, you can seethe "shoe hanger" casting that we removed last year from one of the third rail beams stored along Bruneau Drive since it was acquired from Trolleyville. You'll notice that the bolts have seen better days, which is to say, the bolt and nut have rusted into a single piece that isn't even hex-shaped anymore. I figured this could stand to be fixed, so a few minutes with a cut-off disk got rid of these bolts.

The three bolts hold this small casting, whose technical term is a "glottis," against the shoe hanger casting. The shunt from the third rail pickup shoe is clamped down by this thing, and then the current passes through the fuse, which is held in by the top bolt. "CA&E" and a number starting with "3" is stamped into the back. My best guess is that this thing is bronze.

And here's the shoe hanger with new nuts and bolts. We'll want to replace the shunt and fuse later, obviously just for the sake of appearance, but now the bolts can be loosened and those components easily swapped out.

I also sand-blasted this spare grid box end casting (actually, I think this one originally came from the 321).

It was then primed. I'd like to have a spare grid box "kit" on hand for the next time we have a grid failure. In theory, we ought to be able to pull a box off a car, disassemble it, wire-wheel the contact faces on the grid elements, and reassemble the whole thing in about a day. As a practical matter, it tends to take a couple of weeks, but that's largely because we don't have all the components (like mica tubes) already on hand and because it takes time to clean up and paint these castings.

I can tell you're flabbergasted at the monumental progress I made in just a couple of short hours! While your heart rate slowly settles back down, let's see what else was happening.

On Saturday, the #1L wheel was removed from NJT 4, though it was necessary to torch off the two obstinate bolt heads to do it. They've since been drilled out, so I assume the plan is to use an Easy-Out to try and remove them.

Also on Saturday, Mike and another volunteer were doing more wire-wheeling on our CSL air compressor wagon, AX545. The roof is now cleaned up, so if they have more work to do before they start priming the thing, it can't be very extensive.

Zach and Brian were working on stenciling the grid covers for the inside of IT 1565, our "Class B" boxcab locomotive. We tried spraying these a few weeks ago, but with the overspray, it didn't look right. Above, Zach is having much better luck by painstakingly painting them by hand using a pounce brush. At bottom left is a test piece that was used to refine the method. The key is to keep only a small amount of paint on the brush so that it doesn't run in under the stencil.

The above and below photos were taken by Zach. Above, the curtain is drawn back...

...and voila! That's pretty sharp!

Finally, I spent a while helping Richard move buses, though in the end only one got moved because the next two that were intended to be "switched" refused to start. I remarked to Richard that I'm a bad luck charm - the buses must like me about as much as I like them! But no matter; we also took the more modern of the two Janesville buses, the one that will be used as a "Fill the Bus" food pantry collection site for the CARE Center in Marengo during our Happy Holiday Railway event, over to the other end of the property to get refueled.

We also took a side trip to see the progress on the new barns. The Southwest Storage Building extension is now complete, and we've been granted occupancy. The new South Storage Building, which was funded by the Motor Bus and Trolley Bus Departments, is very nearly done. It appears that nearly all the interior electrical work except for some hookups at the main breaker panel is complete. And above you can see a photo taken inside the cavernous Barn 15, where the electricians have been running conduit. The boxes are going in along the walls, but the lights aren't in yet overhead. Nevertheless, the work on this building is moving very rapidly. After dinner, I caught Joel in his office, battling manfully with an Excel spreadsheet in an effort to get as many cars as possible to fit into the various available barn tracks once Barn 15 is open for business.