Another Winter

Yikes, it's December already. Where did the year go? I do not understand how astronomers can have failed to notice that the Earth is obviously rotating much faster than it did 40 or 50 years ago.

Be that as it may, we've got plenty of work to do. And there were several people hard at work on Car Dept. projects today, not to mention B&G and maybe others. More on that later.

The current focus is on repainting the smoker in the 319. After some more surface prep and cleaning, and waiting for the temperature to rise, I started painting. I finished the north wall and the bulkhead behind the electrical cabinet, as seen here. Sections where I was painting over primer will need a second finish coat, but apart from that trivial detail I'm now about halfway done on the walls in the smoker.

Next to the door to the platform, there's a grab iron. The paint on this one was in bad shape, as you can see, so I took it to the shop and wire-wheeled it to bare metal. It was then reinstalled and painted with primer.

Here's a minor detail: in this inaccessible corner there was a plate which had come loose and was trying to fall into the hole, where I might never recover it. So I carefully pulled it out. This is evidently a design flaw in the original construction, although the one at the other end is still OK. I I will install a small piece to support the plate at this end and reinstall it.

And then I'm planning to make new cards for the ends of the car, with historical information. Originally these would have been ads for booze or religion, but we don't seem to have any of the correct size. I will have the text copied to a larger size and laminated, and this should work well. I'm doing the same thing for the 308. On the 309, these spaces are occupied by pictures of scenery, as shown earlier, so I made some car cards with an appropriate text.

Meanwhile, Barn 2 was a beehive of activity. Jim Followell and his helper Danielle were working on the 451, and Bill Greenhill was working on the Cleveland PCC, as seen here. Frank recently cleaned up a controller cover from the 319, and I asked Jim to repaint it for us. This will only take him a minute or two once he's set up, so he readily agreed. And I knew he would do a much better job than we could. He has moved to Bloomington but drives up here when he can to keep working on IRM projects. He does good work, so if you're ever in Bloomington and need your car repainted, Jim Followell is the man to ask for. Surface prep is continuing on the 451, but he hopes to start painting next week.

Other volunteers working today were Buzz Morrisette and the indefatigable Tim Peters. Tim showed me the work he's doing on the doors for the 1797, which include this Rube Goldberg version (from 1937) of a "sensitive door edge." The yellow arrow points to a large spring covered with electrical tape, which is compressed whenever the door hits an obstacle. Inside it is a smaller spring; if they touch, it closes a circuit to reverse the door. At the bottom there's a lever connected to a switch (white arrow) which will be installed in a gap (red arrow) cut into the bottom of the door. As Tim points out, this removed the mortise and tenon joint between the rail and the stile, which was patched over with a metal plate attached to the outside. It looks to me like a good way to ensure you'll never be able to close all four doors at once.

And it's really not sensitive at all. It totally failed to respond to my insults and sarcastic taunts.

And out in Yard 14, it appears that Car Dept. workers installed some new tarps last weekend. This is the 4001, which has a new tarp held down by these orange straps, so the tarp should last much better. The C&LE box motor got the same treatment. This is evidently the latest fashion, and I could sense that the 321 was seething with jealousy, since it no longer has the most stylish outfit. Maybe next year, honey.