Great Northern John McLoughlin

Continuing from John McLoughlin Part One, we view the transition to the full restoration of all the four open sleeping sections. Again, this from last year in 2020.

Here I am installing a new Spar urethane coated window sill.

Here is the completed lower section including newly recovered seat cushions.

Fast forward to Nov 2020 and all four sections are completely repainted and representing a typical Pullman sleeper once again.

Another view of a completed section.

Here is the hallway entrance leading into the mens bathroom.

Yes, we have not forgotten to repaint the ceilings. There is a lot of over head work to do for each one. Removing the old paint takes many volunteer hours. For this reason it takes about 15 hours to complete one ceiling area.

A picture of the lower berth lights.

The section area showing the daytime lighting without the ceiling lights on.

I am very proud of all the help everyone has contributed to this project. Yes, Its a great feeling to sit and relax in this area once again.

Andrew Kay now has begun to remove old paint from the western vestibule.

Another view.

Well now, the weather has gotten colder and we now have switched our efforts to the last remaining interior projects. The removal of old paint from the drawing room and two compartments may take a long time. If you would like to help us as a volunteer or aid us financially please send a donation to the RF John McLoughlin  fund. Thanks, Roger.

The following pictures are of another ongoing Barn 10 restoration project. The John McLoughlin, as many of you know, has been receiving an extensive historical facelift. Here are the developments from mid Summer 2020.

This is the last of four sections having paint applied. 

June 2nd finds Sandi applying more paint to the wall. 

The very eastern sidewall is now  repainted.

Viewing the multiple sections showing  the divider wall of each. 

The upholstery team of Jane and John working on recovering one of the seat cushions.

June 5th Tim Fennell continues removing old paint from the upper berth. 

June 8th Sandi has already primed the upper berth. The job gets done quickly when your working on it almost everyday.

Tim is back out vacuuming the floor.

With the first two sections completely repainted, Tim is installing the brass plate signs.

Sign reads.  This car equipped with adjustable seats  Porter will adjust upon request. 

Another view. If anyone has any of these signs in their collection, we certainly could use more.

Just like the Dover blog reports there will be addition blogs about this restoration. Thanks, Roger.

Continuing the restoration news on the John McLoughlin is the repainting of the Men's bathroom. Mark Hoffmann started by abrading two walls in late 2018.    They were primed to preserve the surface from rusting but we never top coated them. 2019 brought an increase in activity in the entire sleeper. That is when the work in the men's bathroom resumed. You will see, in these pictures, our renewed efforts.

We have sanded this wall and now Sandi is ready to prime.

Partially primed.

Now the wall has been primed and Sandi is applying the top coat.

The wall is painted but still lots to do.

We now switch our efforts to this wall. A future mirror will be installed in that large white area.

Now we have started the hardest job. Working on the ceiling and using a sander and electric wire wheel to remove the old paint. Thats Tim Fennell inspecting Sandis fine work.

Taking a break from the ceiling we worked priming and painting on another wall.

Not shown in any of these pictures is the actual painting of the ceiling. As we found out in the Mt Harvard, working over your head on the ceiling is no easy task. The ceiling did get painted! Many thanks to Mark, Andrew, Tim, Bob, our volunteers.

Here we just finished painting the last two walls. A corner sink gets reinstalled underneath the mirror.

Here I have installed most of the brass shelves. Already, it looks more like the mens bathroom.

With much of the work completed we moved on to the stripping the old paint from the steam and water pipes below the sinks. They are now also painted. That almost finishes the job. Removing the clutter will make it even better!

After reinstalling all of the wall light fixtures, brass shelves and two sinks we moved on to the more difficult job! The team was to begin the most labor intensive work yet, the repainting of all four sections. Removing old paint from ceilings and walls was going to be a major, major job! We first had to remove the four seat cushions that made up each Pullman seat. No easy task. The seat cushion themselves are very heavy. Made up of metal coil springs, straps and wood, each weighted about 40 pounds. Yes, That's one reason why these sleepers were called heavyweights. Everything about these Pullman sleepers is super heavy. They were made to last a long time. My back can attest to that. Anyway, the next blog on the John Mcloughlin will focus on our repaint of the four sections. Donations to continue this project can be sent to: https://www.irm.org/donations/category/passenger-car-department/     Thanks, Roger.