Pullman Sunday

Frank writes...

Besides being the second day of a successful Pullman Weekend, Sunday was a day for various random projects for me, all of them involving the CA&E fleet.

The first project was working on third rail beams. Ted and I loaded the first two completed beams for the 409 - it was Pullman weekend, after all! - onto a wagon and took them over to the car, which at the moment is on display in Barn 6 while its air compressor is rebuilt by the motor shop. After a bit of arguing with recalcitrant bolts, we got both beams installed.

I then masked and painted the bolt heads and the new metal clips that my father installed to hold the ribbon fuses in place. These are "summer" beams, with the sleet scrapers removed for servicing over at Wheaton Shop. As far as you know.

Continuing with the theme, we retrieved the last four third rail beams from the east end of Bruneau Drive. Thanks to Ted and Greg for their help with this. Two of these beams are still complete; one set of shoe hardware will go onto the last of the "summer" beams that my father constructed for the 409, while the other set of shoe hardware will go onto the first beam for the 451. The sleet scraper hardware from both these beams will be installed on new beams for the 451. The other two beams we retrieved, shown above, already had their shoe hardware harvested for the 409, so I removed the sleet scraper components for use o the 451 and threw out the badly deteriorated wooden beams.

Here's a detail you may not have noticed: the sleet scraper blades include copper shunts so they can be used for power pickup in addition to their mechanical ice-removal function. The CA&E thought of everything.

Later in the afternoon, Jimmy, Ted, and I trooped over to Barn 8 for a switch move. The goal was to put the 36, previously buried behind the other three wood cars, at the door so we can easily access it. The current plan is to pull the trailer truck out from under the 36 sometime soon so that we can remove and replace its leaf springs. A temporary shop truck will support the car while this work progresses. Here, the 36 sees the sun for the first time in a while - maybe a year or so? - with the other three cars in the background.

Finally, in the evening, Good Nick mixed up a bit of red paint for me and I touched up the two doors for the 460. This isn't precisely the right color - we're still working on an exact match - but it's very close, and we want to get the 460 back in service. The paint takes a few days to dry and cure, but these doors should be ready to reinstall on the car by next weekend, and then the 460 will be cleared for service.

So, what else was happening? The big project for the weekend involved the Electroliner, which was brought over to Barn 4 for motor repair. On Saturday, one joint in the train was jacked up and the truck pulled out to the side. This allowed one of the motors, which had a failed gearbox, to be removed and for repairs to be made. By the wee hours of Sunday morning, the repairs were complete and the truck was back under the train. On Sunday, Zach, JD, and Lou worked on reattaching motor leads and other reassembly work. Above, Zach drills new cotter pin holes in bolts that secure the motors to the support brackets.

And GB&W 109 wasn't being worked on, but it had been shoved out the east end of Barn 4 to provide some open space inside the barn for extracting the 'Liner's truck out to the side. Everyone's favorite railroad coach does look nice in the sunlight, doesn't it? Fortunately for all involved, it's not leaving the Electric Car Shop permanently, and it was shoved back into the barn late on Sunday. It's been in Barn 4 for 338 days, but who's counting?