Cutting Corners

As usual, there were several projects to do today. For one thing, I learned that the three IT cars will be moved over to Barn 4 this weekend, so I did some cleaning and straightening, and moved CA&E spare parts into storage.

And here's an explanatory sign I wrote up and had laminated, for display in the 319. It looks good, if I say so myself, so I'll go ahead and make one for the other end and two for the 308. The 309 has scenery photos at the ends of the car, so I have car cards with similar information.

The 319 is going to need a complete roof job, and part of this is producing new tack molding. The old tack molding is completely unusable. The only challenging parts are the four rounded corners on the lower roof, as shown by the yellow arrow (L).

On this corner most of the piece has fallen out.

So I acquired a big chunk of clear poplar and started cutting it out on the big bandsaw.


When done, I smoothed it out on the belt sander. You shall observe, of course, that this is nice new wood I'm sanding. One should never try to strip paint using these shop machines. The FBI is still hot on the trail of the last person to do this.

The piece has curves in three dimensions, so it's not easy. When I needed replacements for the 309 back about 1977, I handed the one good sample to Dennis Storzek and asked him to make some. About an hour later, it seemed, he handed me the four new ones, and I never figured out how he did it. I'm afraid it will take me a little longer.

Most of my time was spent on the ceiling; I believe I have the sagging portion held up as best I can, so I puttied over the screws, sanded them down, and put on a coat of white primer. I still need to reattach the corner molding strips. I also spent some more time removing paint in the vestibule. (There, that should satisfy the censor!)

In Barn 2, we see that contractor Bill Greenhill and his employee Jim are making good progress in prepping the Cleveland PCC for painting. He expects to start on the finish coats early next week.