Freight Car Department

We spent most of the day yesterday on our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  WOW!  Two workdays in a row with good weather.  So this entry will show you some of that work, not so many pics since I spent more time on the business end of a needlechipper rather than behind the camera lens.

Visitor

When I arrived about 8:30 I was greeted by long time member Kirk Warner who now lives in Florida.  As always he was eager to get started and is a very hard worker.  Out comes the needle chipper and here he is 'enjoying' the removal of a substantial amount of old paint on the right side of the plow.

Done

We finished a lot of small and some not so small touches on the left side of the plow in recent weeks and now that side is essentially DONE.  The new door is glazed and installed (not without more drama as befitting that task), grab irons re-installed, truck and flanger blade primed and painted, and you have already seen the new windows on that side in previous entries.

Front End

In addition to all the paint removed by Kirk Warner we also continued chipping and cleaning the front left ramp on the plow.  Victor Humphreys is priming that.  Earlier, Bill Peterson worked on the front roof area, and another section is done.

A Stretch

Reaching all these areas to clean them is is a stretch.  No less as Victor continues to prime what are hard to reach areas.

Get a Light

It was not all work on the plow for the entire Museum and many were occupied as the crews for Diesel Days.  On one of my cooling breaks (it only got to about 90F in the shade but there was no shade), I noticed Bill Wulfert has many of the restored 50th Avenue platform light ready to install.  I know this is not plow news but hope you will forgive me - we grow with diversity.