Yuletide Cheer

If this doesn't cheer you up, I don't know what will: 

Due to popular demand, this bulkhead panel got a nice coat of varnish today so the new paint won't affect the original pattern.  And then there was more surface prep on various parts of the end of the car, and the walls in the last section.   The pocket door got a first coat of primer.

Among other things, more of the wainscot was painted the final color, as were four more arm rests.

 

And I took one of the defective rollers for the pocket doors to the shop and talked it over with Tim a little.  On the left is one from the 24; it had springs to push the roller out of the housing and hold it against the door, but all of these springs have rusted out.  On the right is the smaller one from the 36.  These have rubber rollers, I believe, but several of the them have broken up and disappeared.  I'm going to try to find the right material to make new rollers; a stiff rubber tube with the right ID and OD should work, if it's available.

 On the 28, Norm shows some of the new parts being made to rebuild the front end of the car, alongside the rusted-out originals.

Mike and Bob have been working on the other gate, and it's almost ready.  The hanging lights are now installed and connected, and the final coats of paint were being applied.  Mike says they might be able to install it this weekend.

We now have an actual truck in the truck repair bay.  This is one that was in IRM's collection; behind it are two motors recently retrieve from storage.  They're in relatively good condition, actually.

Tim is removing the axle caps from an MOT truck over on 41.

 And the siding has been installed on the east platform.

Need some more Yuletide cheer?   Here we come a-wassailing.... 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Utah

David writes.........

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Hicks War Works Utah branch. We've been pretty quiet this year, but I have some content planned for 2016 that our readers may enjoy, including a piece tentatively titled "A Day at Heber" which chronicles my typical day in train service at the Heber Valley Railroad, as a way to compare and contrast to the IRM operations most of us are familiar with. 

Here's a sneak peak. A few weeks ago, I deadheaded on an special early morning shift, before my shift started, and rode up in the recently repainted UP CA-5 caboose.  During the North Pole Express trains, we use the caboose as a convenient staging point for Santa. It's also a nice place for the Conductor to ride part of the trip back, as to not be in the way of Santa, the Elves, car hosts and Coca Chefs.  

36 Report

 The Christmas season is always busy for most people, with things like choir rehearsals cutting into one's usual time for IRM projects like sanding and painting.  What can you do? 

In half a day, I managed to sand down the rest of the last section of the ceiling.  This one had more problem areas than the others, so will require more patching, but it's all got at least a first coat of primer and a first layer of putty.

As Tim has suggested, the stripped bulkhead area with the nice DNA pattern will be covered with a coat or two of varnish before painting, to preserve the pattern as much as possible.  This is what we did with much of the 309 and a few parts of the 308.  Now whether anybody in the vast indefinite future will ever try to strip off all the paint is open to question; I personally think you would have to be insane, but that's just me.  In any case, that's our contribution to the spirit of preservation.  I hope.

 Speaking of Tim, he's been polishing up the brass air gauges for the 24.  This seems like a safety issue: they shine so brightly, the motorman might be blinded.  In olden days, Tim would have been made an admiral in the Queen's Naveee....

 And here's one of the new motor hatches:

And work is progressing steadily on the Cleveland PCC.  You still have to watch where you step, but they say that will be fixed soon.   L to R:  Lorne, Erik, and Ed.  

And finally, here's the arm for the other gate at the entrance, nearly ready for installation:

At the Starting Gate

 The track and signal guys have now installed the first crossing gate at the Museum entrance.  The wood is all new, but the rest of the parts were salvaged from various US&S gates of this type in our collection.  This is the first actual crossing gate on the property, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it operate!

In other news, the Great Western plow group are welding together the frame to hold the headlight, which is mounted above the plow, directly in front of the cab.   And on the 24, the metal bumper has been attached to the east end of the car, which is now nearly complete.

 






 In the shop, I cleaned all the old paint off the last two buzzer cord hangers and the interior grab iron. 

Inside the 36, the number over the end door looks like this.  Because the underlying paint is alligatored, I decided to strip it off and repaint everything.  So the number was carefully traced.   There's no evidence of a number to go along with the DNA gold-leaf pattern, however.  Anyway, this will not be hard to reproduce.

And after a lot of sanding and prep, the final center section of the ceiling got its first primer.  

And here's the card table, with its new support leg.   The leg hasn't been painted yet, but I'll get to it.  Meanwhile, it makes a nice support for things that don't weigh very much, like sandpaper.

Lots of other things were going on today, as usual.  Bob Bruneau came out to visit, brought by his son Chris.  It was good to see him again.  And several of the usual Wednesday crew were working on their various projects. 

Drink Responsibly

A Public Service Message for the Holidays from Hicks Car Works:

 

A man's gotta know his limitations, so please drink responsibly.