Entries by Roger Kramer

              Yes, for all you Bar fans, I am sorry to report the RI 2612 red bar has been relocated.   Gary Sherman started the project on October 12 by removing the plywood walls of the temporary toilet. This was an after market affair and not part of the original car.  On Wednesday, Oct 16, he along with, Jane Blackburn, made quick work of demolishing the two walls that comprised the restroom area. Jane and Gary made two trips to the dumpster removing the splintered boards from the coach. Now does that area look different!                                                    After lunch Nancy Ring arrived and began vacuuming the floor. It was quite dirty from the previous needle chipping sessions of last week. What began as a red carpet stripping of the bar turn into a total removal of the entire piece!                          Incidentally, the bar is still in the car but now its  location is where the toilet once was .  We also rotated it 180 degrees to get access to the shelves in the back of it.                                                                                                               Meanwhile Kyle was busy first with repairing the sandblaster.   Then he "blasted" two support bench pedestals.  After that he then welded and repaired  a few holes that had appeared in them over the years.   Jane, next, primed them.  After letting the primer dry she top coated them with paint.    Previous to the painting she also sandblasted 17 window latches that were removed from the brass window frames earlier in the morning by myself.    She was a very busy young lady the entire day.    For only five people in this day session we  certainly accomplished a lot.                                                                                                                             Year end donations are already arriving at Irm.      Please consider donating to  the Track Space Fund for the 2612.     Thank You    Roger    

              I have fallen behind on the updates of RI 2612 but I too hope to fill in the reader with more progress. Every Week the look of the  interior is changing. The project has been attracting new volunteers to continue our efforts. Every Wednesday and Saturday there have been at least 5 or 6 people working on it and a couple of times even 8 or 9. Here are the newly added results.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Using house air with the needle chipper makes quick work of removing old paint.                                                                                                                  This upcoming entry will take you into the October timeline.    All this activity is the results of 8-10 volunteers devoting there spare time to this project.    Thanks again to Jane, Loraine, Gary, Paul, Kyle, Ray, Dave, Dan, Jan and Roger.  

                                                      With the Thomas event and the wonderful 4-day Railfan weekend now behind us work  began again in earnest.  We began by disassembling and then sandblasting spare rusty RI seat frames that we found in our storage field.  These will be installed in the middle of the car where the original six were removed to make room for the "bar."  Gary Sherman has made it his responsibility to remove any old bolts and to sandblast the rusty steel parts. Jan, Jane, and Loraine began priming them after they were sandblasted. Having the sandblaster operational is a very big plus.  Then they will be topcoated and reassembled.   Future blogs will show the results of our efforts.                        I would like to welcome to the crew another new member to our team.  Jan G. Hervert has been helping with the new task of repainting the six seat frames.    Welcome to the 2612 project, Jan!!                                               Upcoming, in the next few blogs will be the renewed effort of removing more old paint. This time the area below the windows and around the doors will be needle chipped. A much faster process than scraping a section by hand w/ paint scrapers.                          Remember to send your donations in for the new barn.    Maybe I should use the plural of barn, which is barns.  Yes, there is some talk about more than one barn being built. Wouldn't that be magnificent!                  Roger