Sunday Miscellany

Frank writes...

It was a busy day in the car shop on Sunday, and it seemed like a lot got accomplished.

My first task after arriving was to put green paint on the rest of the air compressor wagon, as shown here. This included touching up some spots like the safety chains, but did not include the wheels. Hope springs eternal that enough donations will come in to fund replacement of the solid rubber tires, and if that happens, the paint job will be messed up anyway. So, out of an abundance of optimism, we're putting off painting the wheels green. Want to help? Send a check to IRM with "RCAR - for AX545 wheels" on the memo line - and thank you!

I also put a coat of green on some components that had been removed from the AX545, including the two halves of the commutator cover and the two parts of the air strainer (plus the pipe to the air strainer, which was hung in the spray booth). Appeal to whoever removed these parts: can you please reinstall them? Not having removed them myself, I'm not exactly sure how everything goes back. Thank you! Once everything is put back together, the air compressor wagon should be ready to move out of the shop.

After that, I went over and spent some time in the 18. After we confirmed last week that the heat contactor worked, the next step was to test the thermostat itself by letting the car warm up and seeing whether the heat shut off. Rather than sit idly in the car for an hour or two, I figured I may as well paint a couple more seat backs. Above is the "before" view...

...and here's "after." With this, I only have two more seat backs in the back half of the car to paint, and then we can proceed to the front half of the car. The bad news was that the car got quite toasty and the heat never shut off until I manually turned it off, so it looks like the thermostat is not working. At some point, we can remove it and either repair or, if necessary, possibly replace it. It looks like the same kind of thermostat that's on the CA&E curve-siders, and in fact probably dates to very nearly the same era, given that the 18 only acquired electric heat in the mid-1940s.

After dinner, Nick, Joel, and I moved the two third rail beams that have just been completed (or nearly so) onto the "third rail beam cart" out in the barn. Astute viewer that you are, you'll notice that one still needs some black paint, which is why it was left facing outward. These four beams will go onto the 460.

In other exciting news, Zach and the Electroliner crew were able to get the electric markers lit. This is a sight that hasn't been seen in some 60 years! When the 'Liners were built, they used the same kerosene markers as the rest of the fleet. But the North Shore found out that something about the airflow over the train tended to extinguish the markers, so the trains acquired electric markers like the ones shown. When sold to the Red Arrow, they used these markers briefly, but then that line installed permanent markers in steel boxes over the end windows. The 'Liner crew has painstakingly recreated the correct electric markers and they're now wired in. We don't tend to report much on Electroliner happenings, but Zach reports that the restoration team has completed 90% of the work restoring the interior of the A1 car, including seats now reinstalled in the smoker section; they're currently painting the ceiling in the cafe car; and repainting work in the A car is now beginning.

Yet more exciting news: the "mechanical crew" of Jimmy, Will, and Astin, with some help at various times (I believe) from Greg and Dan, was able to remove the last wheel from New Jersey Transit 4. Some of the bolts were pretty well stuck, but heating them and then letting them cool did just enough to break the rust that the guys were able to get the bolts out. Once the last full-width tread wheel is installed, the car will be rolled over the pit and the other three traction motors will be tested (the only motor tested so far was, unfortunately, grounded).

Thanks to Brian LaKemper for sending the above and below photos of yet more progress that was made on Sunday. The D13 towed the IT Class B out of the barn so that the replacement air tank could be hoisted into the locomotive, as shown below.

In other news, Richard was making more progress on the rail display; Brian was working on rebuilding feed valves, one of which is intended to go into the 319 (thanks, Brian!!); Greg and Good Nick were out on the railroad for most of the day doing DC line work that included moving all the hardware from a failing pole near the west end over to the replacement pole; and the "mechanical crew" mentioned earlier, with help from Joel, worked on removing bad bushings from brake beams (say that eight times fast) off the 3142. New bushings are on order. And, of course, Joel was doing various things to organize and rearrange the shop.

Besides all that, there was also a nifty switch move on Saturday. Our hardworking freelance photographer, Bill Wulfert, was on the scene and sent us some photos. We'll have those posted shortly.