Baltimore & Ohio 374065 Wagon Top Boxcar

Exercise

The boxcar got some rare mileage 'exercise' as it was pulled from Track 40 by the US Army switcher.

Into the Barn

The car was turned end for end to facilitate the next work, and then travels Track 41 going into Barn 4.  Note the good progress in cleaning and priming several of the side panels.

Patches

Not the old pop song "Patches", but some new steel.  Five areas of rusted out sides were removed and new steel plates made by Victor Humphreys.  Rod Turner welded them in and now the grinding will ensue to smooth out the repaired areas.  At day's end the car was turned again and placed back on the Track 40 work area.

New Fixture

Meanwhile back in the shop, Rich Witt was making the female part of a new set of fixtures and dies to bend some sheet metal for future application to the car.  Using hard oak, we are hoping the new metal can be formed to shape and then used to patch still more rusted out parts on the car.

Boy it was hot - triple digit on the thermometer (in the shade) and there was no SHADE!  Heat index topping 110. 

North Door

So what did our intrepid team of volunteers choose to do?  Work with the acetylene torch on repairs to the B&O boxcar.  The north door opened reluctantly and had suffered decades of use and some bent areas, causing binding.  By getting an early start, Gerry Dettloff, John Faulhaber and Victor Humphreys tried to beat the worst of the heat.

Guide

Gerry is heating a door guide on the right side which had been knocked inward at some time in the past.  Then John and Victor would attack the cherry red steel with tools to straighten and reposition the offending items.  Several small adjustments were made, and the door can easily be opened and closed by one person now!

Rivets

Since the torch, tools, and crew were already out, they were convinced to start on some of the needed carbody repairs.  Deteriorated steel sheeting will be replaced and in this case it was riveted to the car frame.  Gerry is heating a rivet head to burn it off.  Then the rivet stub is pounded out to allow for cutting away of the steel sheet.

Did I say it was hot?

Another nice day, almost no rain in the last two weeks!  It is beginning to make the farmers nervous but a good crew toiled on with the boxcar project.

Removing Crud

Victor Humphreys, Simon Harrison, and Kevin Tudor (up on the scaffold), continued removing the accumulated old paint and rust from the A end and the right side.  You will now begin to see the primed areas starting to grow and join together on two of the side panels and the end.

The Crew

This is not a lot different than the above photo except that Kevin's wife, Jenny, grabbed my camera and captured me in the group.  Not that I was able to contribute much physical labor, but my heart was in it.  You can see cleaned areas that are about to be painted with primer.