Wood Shop

We had a very busy day in the Barn 4 shops with projects, left and right, old and new, and a very large turnout of volunteers.

The Rack

The biggest surprise was the sudden appearance of shelves and steel for new storage racks in the shop addition.  I do not know of many that had a hint that this was going to happen so quickly.  But many turned to the task and very quickly some impressive racks were assembled.  Here, Tim Peters in inside one of the racks on his knees, while Pete Galayda, Simon Harrison, and Henry Vincent assist.  I LOVE the way this place works!

Control Cabinet

Across the aisle, Lorne Tweed was engaged on a new control cabinet for below the front dash for our Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  Most of the cabinet is a new fabrication, and Lorne is proceeding to add all the switches, fuse blocks, relays, the stuff that makes up a complicated control system.

Ceiling Panel

Simon also returned to the task of restoring the first ceiling panel for the 4223.  A lot of sanding and cleaning, and it is now ready for a coat of primer.

Spaulding Tower

Dave Diamond brought over a piece of badly deteriorated window sill from the Spaulding Tower - and this is one of the GOOD ONES!  It is a constant battle of maintenance and restoration for the many buildings now on campus.  Rich Witt and Dave Rogan are doing some headscratching to try to figure our how we can make some more of this.  It is of course an odd custom shape but we think we can do it.

Post Caps

Jeff Brady is working on newly fabricated window post caps for our Michigan Electric 28 interurban car.  Most of the old pieces are so badly rusted that the bottom few inches resemble a lace doily and they could not be saved.  The new sheet metal caps require something over thirty holes and countersinks to be drilled into EACH ONE.

More Ceiling Work

Buzz Morisette is really concentrating as he bandsaws a new piece for his restoration work on our private car ELY.  Victor Humphreys continues to work on our B&O wagon top boxcar despite weather that is not ideal.  He removed a steel threshold plate on the floor inside one door, and we scouted for some 12 gauge steel plate to fashion a patch and get it welded in.  And there was a lot of work done for our CGW X 38 snowplow, enough perhaps to group those on another BLOG ENTRY.

As usual there was a lot of activity in all of our shops and barns.  Here is just a short peek at what was happening in my area.

Wagon Top

Victor Humphreys continues his steady assault on repairs to our B&O 374065 box car.  He puts a lot of mileage on while 'commuting' from the shop to the car located on track 40.  This is a piece of wood to be used in floor repairs.  Victor wrote a very nice article in the latest RAIL & WIRE.  Please heed it and help support the work using fund R374065.

Windows

Every winter the shop becomes filled with window work.  Eric Lorenz has been working to replace rubber gasketing and bottom bumpers on the sash for Cleveland Transit System 4223, our PCC car which is an ongoing and active project.

More Windows

Yes the shop is officially named the wood shop, and we DO make a lot of sawdust.  Tim Peters seems perplexed after he was walking by and we asked him to inspect some of the new windows being made for the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.