More Painting

It was another nice day for painting the 36's interior.  But if I want to get this project done, it's necessary to pretty much be a hermit, so I barely talked to anybody else yesterday.  

The center parts of the third section of ceiling got finish color.  Then there was more sanding and primer on some of the lower parts.

 Then finish color on the wall sections, baggage rack, etc. including the thermostat and thermometer.

More window shade tracks were taken to the shop to be stripped, and were then painted with primer back in the car.

I also painted the new latch on the 308 blue, but forgot to take a picture.   Anyway, it looks pretty good from a distance.

Then I visited my secret stash of parts, looking for a buzzer cord.  The 36's buzzer cord broke during the last revenue trip back in September, and in any case it wasn't a wire-core rope like it should be.  I found a cord from the 309 that had separated at one end many years ago, and was thus too short for the 309.   But for the 36 it's more than long enough, so we're in luck. 

36 Report

Today was a nice fall day: sunny and cool.  More painting in the 36 was the order of the day, but let's start with a couple of minor patch jobs.  

First is fixing one of the windows in the 36.  Sometimes the springs on the sash can effectively dig a little hole into the window post, making it nearly impossible to raise the window.  The CA&E solution was to nail in a couple of thin metal plates on an ad hoc basis to keep the windows movable. It looks like this, before and after.  The problem seems to be solved.

Next: latches for holding up the folding signs.  The original castings are in very short supply: IRM only has one, and it seems to be hard to reproduce.  Both of the foundries I've talked to so far didn't want to try it, but I need to keep searching.   On the #1 end of the 308, I had resorted to a short section of paint stick attached with a wood screw, but that's pretty pitiful --- and embarrassing. 

 On the #2 end of the 309, we have a repro I made from some dimestore hardware, which looks much more like the original, and we can probably do even better.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the one good casting!)

Anyway, I worked it up at home, and installed it as seen here.  Much better.  It was then painted with primer, and will be painted blue next time.

Several of the Car Dept. guys were working on the new trucks and motors for the 24.  They have several problems, but nothing we can't overcome.  

This part of the project, of course, will need to be lubricated.   With money.   Hint.

But almost all of my time was spent sanding and painting, as usual.  The second section has gotten much closer to completion.   

Nick came by to visit today.  I should have gotten a picture of him admiring my work, that really would have been special.  Just use your imagination.

There are lots of projects of various sorts that we could use help on during the winter, several of which can be done in our nice heated shop.  Face it: you're going to get bored watching TV, cabin fever will set in... hey, you could come out to IRM and do something useful.  Let us know!

Breaking News: Motors for the 24

Today the motors for our 1898 open-platform L car, 24 (1024), arrived at IRM.  Our friend Bob Olson sends us some pictures and reports:

The GE 55 motors, which came from a long since scrapped freight motor at MOT, are intended for the CRT 1024. Trucking was provided by Volkmann Railroad Builders of Menomonie Falls, WI. The trucks, which weigh approximately 10 tons each, were loaded at MOT Thursday and delivered to IRM Friday morning.

Dress in Layers for Winter

As mentioned last time, the 321 has been retarped, and here's what it looks like in daylight.  Thanks a million again to all who helped with this project.  In a few months the car should be able to go inside, and we'll see what's left of it.  I walked over to check on the straps, as requested, and everything seemed nice and tight.

Tim continues to work on the 24.   Here the recently riveted end sill has been installed.

 

 The protruding angle sections will support the end buffer, which is being assembled in the shop.  This reminds me a lot of rebuilding the 308 back about 2002.

Norm and Jeff continue to make progress on the 28. 

And as usual I spent the day sanding and painting in the 36.  Nothing too exciting.  I prepped and put a first coat of primer on the center ceiling in the next section.

 Gerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber happened to stop by to check on me, which was nice.  We talked about how our various projects are going, keeping the cars warm, and our favorite operas.  I should point out that even in the remoteness of Barn 8, visitors are always welcome.

And then primer on the next couple of window posts and sills.  Incidentally, I changed my mind about the thermostat.  The older interior color was definitely a dark blue, not green.  I decided the green color on the thermostat must be the first exterior green applied at Brookins.  There were a few spots of this green paint on the window sill, which makes sense, but for some reason they decided to paint the thermostat that same color.  Other than painting the floor red, nothing else inside the car was ever painted at Cleveland, which is why it didn't occur to me earlier. 

And I reset a seat back which had been misaligned for a long time, and sorted parts, and filled some screw holes.  At Cleveland the 36 and 319 had little hasps with tiny padlocks installed to keep people from opening the electrical cabinets and flag boxes, for what little that's worth.  One of the first things I did when the cars arrived was to remove them, since they really looked foolish.  I filled the screw holes on the 319 several years ago, and did the 36 today.  Probably you would never notice the holes if you weren't looking for them, but they always bothered me.  And it's nice to have a few small miscellaneous projects in between all the sanding and so forth that goes on. 

Buses and Tarps

Frank writes...

Sunday was my last day out at the museum for a while; my job has me on the road for much of the winter so I tend to be a "sunny day" volunteer despite my best intentions.  But I tried to make the most of the day.  The first job was to test the grid box I installed last week, which I did with the help of Joel Ahrendt.  The good news was that it tested fine; not even any sparks!  The bad news was that when Joel went under the car to drain the air tanks he noted that one is leaking at the end of the tank.  So that tank, the inboard main reservoir tank, will need to be replaced.  Rats.

I didn't get any photos of the 36, since nothing visibly new happened, but after that I went over to the Hoffman garage and got another "bus tour."  Since last weekend IRM has acquired two more buses from the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis; this is the last of our last bus acquisition from MOT.  The first is pictured above and below.  All bus photo are by Richard Schauer and were taken earlier in the week when the buses arrived, so all rights reserved, don't republish, etc etc.

It's a Yellow model 716 bus from Connecticut Company, ConnCo's number 590, built c1937 if I remember right.  It's a diminutive little thing that seats only 23 people.  Chicago didn't have any buses exactly like this but the CSL did have a number of similar models from other builders, some this size and some even smaller that looked like bread trucks with windows.  In the above rear view note that the back of the bus is sloped, like a sedan of the era, and would have a spare tire mounted under the rear window.

Of the four buses acquired from MOT this one is in the best shape.  The seats probably don't even need to be reupholstered, though it needs new windows and some woodwork on the roof among other things.  Note that the engine sits in the front of the bus to the right of the driver, meaning the door is set back a few feet to make room.  Weird.

And the final one is this trolley bus from Indianapolis Railways, which was in the roughest shape of the new acquisitions.  This is a Brill built in 1934 and fills in a gap between IRM's Brill trolley buses CSL 84, built in 1931, and CSL 192 and 193, built in 1936.  Is that the low tire pressure alarm I hear?

This is one of only two survivors from Indianapolis Railways and the only trolley bus.  The other survivor is actually of the same vintage and heritage: a Brill Master Unit streetcar shell owned by an outfit near Indianapolis.

This trolley bus needs a lot of work but it's complete and it's our only piece of equipment from the Indianapolis street railway system.

But let's get back to work.  There were a bunch of us gathered in the Hoffman garage gawking at buses, and the gang agreed to help out with tarping the 321.  We'd been talking about this for a couple of months but it was always too windy.  With no wind we headed out to Yard 11 to get to work.  The above photo was taken by Gwyn Stupar and shows what a 30'x70' tarp looks like when it's rolled out.

There was a big crew that helped out: Joel Ahrendt, Greg Kepka, Ray Piesciuk, Richard Schauer, Joe and Gwyn Stupar, and Bob Sundelin.  A big thank you to everyone!  Above Joe, Ray, Gwyn, Bob and Joel (back to camera) are seen as we start to rig the tarp up to haul it over the roof of the car.  Yes, the 321 already had a tarp on it, but the tarp had become porous due to UV radiation so it needed to be supplemented.

This morning's Daylight Savings Time switch didn't do us any favors and it started to get dark around 5pm as work progressed.  Here's the tarp in place but not yet tied down.

And it's dark but the work is just about done.  Cargo straps are used to keep the tarp in place.  Joel did some final clean-up, tying up the ends of the tarp.

And here Joel is tying up the tarp corners while Bob conducts a visual inspection of the shop truck journal.  The hope is that this tarp will only be needed for a few months, as the 321 is one of the cars that will go into indoor storage once Barns 13 and 14 are approved for occupancy.  Once that happens we can remove the tarps and examine fully the effects of six years of outdoor storage.

So what else was happening on the property?  Ed Oslowski was working on repainting the smoker/baggage compartment of IT 277.  And Norm, Jeff and a new volunteer were hard at work on the Michigan Electric car; above Jeff is seen cutting some new steel plate.  Work at the moment is focused on the front left corner of the car.

And then there's the Electroliner, seen in the background with three of its motors in the foreground.  These are from the end trucks, both of which have now been removed and replaced with shop trucks.  The center (idler) truck is also out, leaving only the second and fourth trucks to be pulled and replaced with shop trucks.

Which reminds me: the mystery item from a week ago?  It's a "Liner Lifter" - a fixture that was fabricated in the IRM car shop last week to make it possible to lift an end car of the Electroliner without screwing up the pilot.  Just put the forks of a forklift under the pilot, put the Liner Lifter in place so that you're lifting the center sill (the pin on the tow bar pocket keeps the fixture from shifting), and raise the forks.  Voila!

Trick or Treat?

When my father was growing up in Batavia, he and his friends would go around knocking over the neighbors' outhouses as a trick for Halloween.  Nowadays you'd go to jail for doing something like that, but back then, boys will be boys.  For Halloween this year somebody dumped a big pile of coal in my favorite parking spot, ha ha ha!   Is this a trick or a treat?  I think it's a treat.  At least now I'll never have to be cold all winter!

Anyway, back in the 36 progress continued with the somewhat more convenient heat provided by electricity.  The first aid box, pamphlet holder, and fire extinguisher bracket have been installed and painted as needed, so the bulkhead is pretty much done.

Working westward, the first double-window section is pretty much done, with new paint on the baggage racks and the wall panel behind them.

And then in the next section, first finish on the window sills and wainscoting below them.  And a few other details I didn't bother to snap.  Since I got out late, I didn't have a chance to visit with the other projects.   Next time!

36 Report

 A satisfying amount of painting was done in the car over the past few days.  I won't dwell on the details, all the sanding and surface prep and so on, but you can see the results.

 

A first coat of the middle color in the first section, and a second coat of the lower color on the smoker bulkhead.

First primer on various parts of the second section, and several window shade tracks.  All the window shade tracks later got first finish color.

And then first finish color on the lower parts of the first section, including the corner seats with their fancy turned legs.

And first finish on the lower parts of the ceiling in the first section, and parts of the second.

 OK, now let's see something really exciting: hot riveting!  Tim and Gerry riveted together the new metal parts of the east platform for the 24 on Tuesday. 

 We're not doing enough rivets to justify the use of a furnace, so Gerry heats each one up with a torch.

Once it's red hot, his assistant (the project manager) deftly moves it into place with blinding speed.

And at the same time Gerry picks up the riveter and peens over the end of the red-hot rivet:

Tim has to drill a few more holes, and the assembly now looks like this.

 Meanwhile, the contractor was working on finishing the new floor sections on the baldy.

A recent acquisition, NJ Transit #4 has been temporarily moved outside, making better pictures possible.   This car will be restored to its original identity as a Twin Cities car.

Henry Vincent is hard at work tallying up the hours worked by all the operating crews.  He also does this on a regular basis for all the time sheets filled out by volunteers.  Whew!

Lettering the 810.

 This week's mystery.  What is it?