He's Making a List

So before you go to visit Santa, you'd better make sure you've done some good deeds.

Greg Ceurvorst, for example, did a good deed by sandblasting the paint from a bell cord hanger we needed for the 309. When he was done, it turned out to be this beautiful brass assembly:

We were reluctant to paint it, but what can you do? I recently noticed a picture from Bob Heinlein of the interior of the 309 on Julie Johnson's website that I hadn't seen before. (It's labeled as the 209, but that's obviously a typo.) It's clear that there should be another hanger; I suppose the original was destroyed in the fire, but I never found any parts of it. In any case, I now have a couple of spares, so this one will be installed as soon as it's painted. Greg put a coat of primer on it, as seen here.

This is a minor detail, to be sure, but if we want everything to be historically accurate, nothing is too minor to fix, if we can.

I also made a wooden setup for holding up the ceiling while I work on it, based on a piece of thin plywood. I'll want one more, I believe. I'll put some wedges between the plywood and the ceiling panel to hold the panel in place.

The main activity was surface prep on the walls of the smoker. I applied more filler, sanded it down, and spot painted it with white primer as seen here. Next time I'll do a finish touch sanding and then a first finish coat on the bulkhead and one double-window section.

Also, the panels under this corner seat needed some woodwork, and were then painted also. These pieces seem to get beat up because people are always kicking them. One side had completely split into two pieces.

And I installed a post to hold up this corner piece. Compare this to the picture from my earlier post.

And then I spent a while burning paint off the ceiling of the vestibule. Progress is slow but steady.

And here's some winter scenery. I especially liked the snow sitting on the letters of the tablature.

Over in Barn 2, Jim Followell has painted the 319 controller cover I mentioned last time. There's a small run he has to buff out, and then it will be done. It looks great!

And here's the 451. This first coat will need to be sanded down and repainted, and then he'll do the grey.

The vestibules have been stripped and will be painted red along with the rest of the car. I can't wait to have this running with the 460 in regular service!

And the Santa train was in operation today. The first run was sold out, and the second nearly so, in spite of the inconvenient weather. The main limitation on the number of people we can handle is the rate at which people can sit on Santa's lap. I wanted to sit on Santa's lap and ask for a new carbarn for Christmas, but Ray talked me out of it. So I guess we'll just have to wait for your contributions to pile up under the tree. Remember, he's making a list!!!