Curve-Sider Combo

Frank writes...

Sunday was a beautiful day to work on CA&E curve-siders. But then, what day isn't? As it turned out, all three of our curve-siders were the subject of work.

Let's go in numerical order and start with the 451. During the week, Greg started working on mounting the flag brackets back on the #2 end of the car, and on Sunday, he and Richard completed the job (though we still want to take the brackets back off and paint them before they're permanently attached). Here, Greg lines measures to position a bracket. As with the rest of the CA&E fleet, these were originally mounted about halfway up the end windows but were relocated about 8-10" lower around 1950. This is one of those little things that not everybody notices, but we do our best to get the details right. In other news, Ashtin continued his rapid progress wire-wheeling the baggage racks, a job that is nearly done. And I made some more progress needle-chipping the ceiling in the main compartment.

Then there's the 453, which hasn't gotten much attention recently. It was switched from track 131 to track 132 on Saturday (more on switching later), and on Sunday, I went out there with Dan and Jimmy to take a look at the #2 end coupler. This will need to be removed and either rebuilt or replaced, as it's missing some important components. We removed the little keeper bolts that keep the main coupler carrier bolts from turning and Jimmy got the anchor pin out as well. Next will be to remove the coupler itself. Stay tuned!

Most of my time was spent working on the two doors for the 460 that my father repaired. The goal was to get to work painting them, thanks to some nice red paint that Jamie and the Diesel Department guys procured for us. Thank you! Above, a light touch-sanding with 220-grit sandpaper shows how noticeably the original red paint has discolored over the last 70 years or so. This is the side door.

Here are the train door (left) and side door after sanding, spot-priming, and masking. I masked off the original lettering on the train door to preserve it, since it's in pretty good condition.

Good Nick spent a couple of hours after dinner mixing up the paint, spraying both doors, and then cleaning up. A huge thank you to Nick for all this work - the doors look spectacular! Unfortunately, I forgot to get a "finished product" photo, but I should be able to do that next time.

This photo was taken by Brian LaKemper and shows a 3D printed test for new "adjustment plates." CA&E third rail beams had these cast plates mounted to the back of the beam where they bolt to the truck; they were designed to make it simple to raise and lower the beams in small increments to account for wheel wear. Ideally, if we can scrounge up the funds, we'd like to get new ones made to replace the ones that are missing, so this print was the (successful) trial of the 3D file I had drawn up. Many thanks to Zach and Robbie for printing these up!

In other news, Brian also took this photo of Joel holding another test print, this time of a trolley shoe insert. We're planning to get some of these made and wanted to see if the 3D drawing was accurate. Fortunately, it fit perfectly. Rapid prototyping does indeed come in handy!

Of course, there was plenty going on in the shop besides work on CA&E cars. Brian was doing more work on S governors, and here we see several components with fresh Glyptal.

The 3142 was on the pit, with Joel, Jimmy, Richard, and Brian among others working on the car. Here, Brian reams out a hole in one of the car's brake beams.

And now for our ever-popular recurring feature, Joel's Saturday Switching Round-Up! Many thanks for our indefatigable investigative reporter, Joel Ahrendt, for sending us photos from the south yards that he took during switching on Saturday. (There was switching going on Sunday, too, but it was the Diesel Department's turn that day.)

Here, CTA 6126-6127 have been towed out into Yard 13. This is the only preserved pair of 6000s that actually had trolley poles mounted in service.

The two "Met" cars, 2888 and 2872, make an appearance outside.

Our South Shore "picture window" car, the 28, also made a rare appearance outside. This car was acquired from TWERHS back in the late 1980s and has never run at IRM but is complete and in reasonably good condition.

Here's a shot of North Shore 172, with its orange paint looking rather nice in the bright sunlight.

Rio open car 1889 made more trips in and out of the barn. I'm not sure who the ground man here is, I'm afraid.

Part of the South Shore fleet is spotted in Yard 14: coach 8 and package trailer 504.

Since I wasn't there to confirm that Joel's crew didn't kick the 640 all the way from South Junction around the curve and into the yard, I'm going to go with the story that that's exactly what he did, and this photo depicts the car free-wheeling merrily along instead of simply sitting still. The next time you see Joel, tell him to quit kicking cars through the yards.

Speaking of switching hijinks, occasionally bad things happen to good display signs. This veteran Kevin McCabe sign fell off THI&E 50 while the car was in motion, and although the crew saw it happen, the sign fell on the rail just a foot or two from the truck, too close to stop before running it over. Oops. I think we'll need to call up Dave about a new sign.