Chicago Great Western X 38 Russell Snow Plow

Inside Painted

Victor Humphreys has completed painting the first coat of finish paint on all the new wood lining we have applied, one careful piece at a time.  It really looks great.  We are planning a plow event for Saturday afternoon of Museum Showcase Weekend.  So come on out on the 14th and see what has been done.  A really remarkable lot of progress in the last year, thanks to the team members, not so much me.  Maybe we can shake a few quarters from your pocket change to help assure we can continue to buy the needed materials.  Or, send a check to fund RX38.

Train Line

Last week we  showed you the train line air pipe going back on the plow after being worked on.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that it leaked air badly.  The culprit seems to be a BARCO ball joint which was designed to allow that pipe to be raised and folded back on the front roof when the unit was plowing.  So Victor Humprheys and Paul Cronin tackled the project.  First, to wrestle a scaffold into position and then to take the line back down.

Careful - -

The idea was to use the scaffold to make it safer to pull on some really large pipe wrenches.  But getting down for Paul Cronin meant Dave Diaz needed to act as anchor and counterweight on the other end.  Mission accomplished.

In For a Dime

The old saying goes "In for a dime, in for a dollar".  Paul Cronin is torching off a broken L bracket used to anchor the train line on the front end.  With the pipe off again we might as well bite the bullet and make a new bracket.

The Old Grind

Where have I seen that caption before?  Well, I guess it does not matter.  With the old bracket and blobs of weld torched off, Paul grinds the remaining nubbins smooth and will then fabricate a new bracket.