Chicago Great Western X 38 Russell Snow Plow

I was not getting around too well yesterday so this may seem short to you all.  I am posting under the CGW X38 header since most of this entry is about that work.

Gluing

We started the day with John Faulhaber and Victor Humphreys (not shown) assembling, gluing and clamping three new windows for the snowplow.  Yes the winter season is upon us and we hope to produce a steady stream of new windows  These are quite recognizable already but remember there remain seven more steps in the process to complete them.

Kits

With the frames glued and squared, John and I moved on to the next batch of windows.  A lot of headscratching and layout work on two large planks of fresh stock, use of three of our major shop tools, and the result?  A stack of parts to be used as KITS for eight more windows, destined for the cupola cab of the snowplow.  John seems quite pleased at the results (I was also - see me smiling behind the lens?).  We are doing them this way since they all share the same profiles and rabbets.  Once that tooling is set up, it makes sense to do them all at the same time, sort of mass production.

Floored

Meanwhile Victor was in and out of the shop, lending a hand where needed and yet returning to his work on the B&O wagon top boxcar.  Even in marginal weather there is work to be done, sometimes darting in and out of the great outdoors.  Earlier this week more bad steel was removed, and this revealed some flooring in pretty bad shape.  Here, Victor is grooving out one of the new boards so it can be correctly fit around obstructions and rivets.

Earlier he had completed finish painting of the door weatherstripping for the snowplow.  And of course the usual suspects were on hand.  Buzz Morisette was working on restoring deteriorated headlining and car structure in the rear end of the the private car ELY, Tim Peters working on his marathon speed run for a new roof on an L car, assisted by Frank Sirinek, Mike Stauber, Fred Zimmerman, and Bill Wulfert, Randy Hicks (guru for all things CA&E wood), and a host of others.

I even managed some sit down time and worked on new brass seat handle castings for the Sand Springs 68.