Chicago Great Western X 38 Russell Snow Plow

Parts

The old TV commercial seemed to say "Parts is Parts", at least for a chicken.  Not so true for restoration work.  Bill Peterson is cleaning up many of the cupola window hardware parts.  Earlier he had completed the fitting and installation of the floor repair pieces inside the rear compartment, left side.

Locks

Victor Humphreys is installing a very old mortise lock for one of the doors on the snowplow.  Lots of drilling, fitting, chiseling.

Cupola Framing

Buzz Morisette continues the tricky work of restoring the window framing and sills in the cupola.  Here he adding some paint to the framing for the left rear window.

Cupola Roof

First thing in the morning Victor Humphreys went up on the roof and finished the second coat of new paint on the cupola roof, before the metal work got too hot in the sun.  Uncertain weather drew out this task, but we are off and running now.

Cupola Maroon

We also applied the first maroon to be seen on the cupola.  This to the posts, trim, and framing exterior, while Buzz applies some finish grey to the new wood sills and posts on the left side.

As mentioned in the first entry for Wednesday, it rained off and on all day and that chased us inside the shop and allowed us to continue more work inside the plow body.  This has been a long stretch of inclement weather on our regular workdays, so not as much progress on the exterior painting has been accomplished.  But the last of the old open grid steel roofwalks have been torched off and we got a lot done inside the car body.

Cupola Roof

Despite dodging raindrops, Jim Leonard was up on the roof, and down, and back up, and down, but managed to move forward on the roof of the cab cupola.

Priming

Thanks to Al Rheinschmidt (and all of the rest of the crews) for their work today.  Al primed many boards to be installed inside the CGW snowplow; all those shown here and ANOTHER batch.

New Sills

Buzz Morisette started making up two new window sills for the cupola, here jointing the boards.  There were quite a few following steps and they were ready to fit, then prime painted at the end of the day.

Floor Repair

Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard are inserting the last of the three piece floor repairs at the end of the day.  The nice white walls are the new interior lining we have been installing during our rainy weather work.  We added door trim, more siding inside, and floor stripping and cleaning and repairs today.  So much of that work will seem all but invisible to the walk by visitor, but it is no less necessary and moves the project ahead.

Priming

Paul Cronin is priming the many new boards for the interior lining, cut and sized in the shop last Wednesday.

The Flanger

It did not matter that the skies were gray and promised some drizzle.  Ray Pollice is sheltered from it as he operates a needle scaler attacking the flanger blade.

Will It Fit

Over the winter season we constructed two new doors for the plow.  Victor Humphreys and Jim Leonard are checking to see how it fits.

Yes It Does

There were a few trims and cuts to perfect the door into the opening, but minor really, in the scheme of things.  Victor and Jim hoisted it up into the plow body more than once and here are enjoying the view out the window.