Entries by Joel Ahrendt

Welcome to the Electric Car Department Update.

You might realize that I didn't update things last week. Well, that was the weekend of the Safety Meeting, Rules Test, and the Annual Meeting. Those pretty much consumed the weekend, with some work being done on Sunday on the usual Suspects. The biggest news would be that CTA 3142 has been moved off of the pit, and released for service.

CNS&M 160 made it's way over to the pit for the undercarriage inspection. That started last week, and concluded over this past weekend. By Sunday afternoon, the car was for the most part finished, and moved back to Barn 6. The two CNS&M (160 and 714) still have to be sequenced before they can be run together, but that should take place next weekend.

CA&E 431 was the next car over to the pit. There were some rope replacements, and other little bits that were done on this car.

The "L" guys worked on the inspections of the 4000, which will conclude this Thursday and Friday if all goes well. Painting of parts for the 4000's continued as well.

Along with the Yard 5 moves that have been going on, the S-105 has moved temporarily to yard 6, and the ITC caboose moved onto the 40 track.

On a more personal note... running the coach train on Saturday was a day that, as one trainman said, "took the romance out of railroading." It was quite windy with ice or sleet or some sort of stuff hitting as we pushed backwards. On the plus side there were good crowds out considering the weather on Saturday for the "Scrap-a-train" day. The next event is the Electric Car Department shop tours on Saturday.

Hello all, and here's a few things that have happened over the weekend in the Electric Car Department.

CNS&M 749 got some wire replaced in the Battery Charging Circuit Box. Because this car has been modernized, with electric conductor bells, the batteries have to be kept charged, so work has been done to make sure they do charge. The grids were replaced for that circuit last year, but this year, the wires that are missing the insulation have been replaced. There will be some pictures of this showing up in the Member Photo Gallery on Joe Stupar. (But their not there yet).

CTA 3142 has had it's brake beam put back in and set correctly, as well as some more work on the line switch.

The Michigan car has had more work done on the roof and tack molding. This is part of the long process it takes to get a roof ready for the canvas. Of course, once the canvas is on, it's a long process to get it all weighted down, tacked on, and painted.

Work on the doors continues on the PCC car that's in the Barn 4 work area. These cars, being all metal and running on salted streets, seem to have a lot of metal work to be done. It's moving along which is always a good thing.

We have taken the air tanks from the TMER L10 over to the steam shop, and when they run the hydro machine next for their own tanks, they'll run these two for us. Much thanks in advance to the Steam Shop for this.

Rusted air pipes are being replaced on the Baldy 4000 series CTA car that is also in barn 4. These pipes have to be cut, then bent to the correct angles (and let me tell you, if you don't do this often, you always need a practice pipe to work on to get the bends right); then they get threaded on the end.

The Lake Shore Electric 810 box car had some more work done to it. The air system is slowly being returned to it's appropriate spots.

There was also a board meeting, the last one with this configuration, on Saturday.  As always, if there was other work being done, please comment it below. And if you see there are some comments; please read them :)

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

Hello all, I am back from vacation and can report on some of the stuff that has been happening.

CSL 3142 has had it's inspection done, and work has been done on the brakes. They seem to work much better now. There is still some discussion going on about the line switch, so that will have to be resolved fairly quickly.

CNS&M 749 has had more painting done on the inside, as well as all of the interior decals. This car gets closer and closer to being done.

CSL 105 has had the windows glazed and worked on. Windows have also been worked on for the CTA trailer.

Door work for the PCC car that's in barn 4 is ongoing, but is getting close to being done. The channels for holding the weatherstrip is the current part being put onto the doors.

Since I have reported last, the operating season has begun and CNS&M 714 has been (after a few little kinks) running pretty good. The cars look good with the cleaning that has been done.

If there are any other things I've forgotten (which is probably a lot since I haven't been out for two weekends before this last one), just put them in the comments. So, that means if there's comments on this, you might want to read it.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt