Tie rods and ties - February 18, 2012

This work day was devoted to continuing replacement of the vertical bolts through the sill and plate along the sides of the car, as well as elevating it another tie height.  There was no work session on Feb. 4 because of weather.

Bob and George are working from below to remove the old bolts that pass through the 2x10 plate on edge along the lower side of the car, and down through the outer sill.  They had to be driven up from below, and pulled out as Ray is doing from inside the dar.  As always, Tom is "handy" standing by.  New bolts were passed down through the plate and sill, then snugged up from below.  Tom continued with placing the brackets attaching the framing to the sill as described last time.

John gave the horizontal tie rods one more "tweaking" with a socket wrench to be sure they were all tight.  Then ties were put in place in preparation for jacking up the car another notch.  Ties and blocks were placed at each corner of the car, and each end of the car was raised with jacks on the corners, alternating ends.



Now Tom can stand under the car without hitting his head (Craig, probably not so much).  A third set of ties was also placed in the middle of the car for additional support in this area as shown on the right.

Tie rods, sill, etc. Jan. 21, 2012

The tent flap was raised and the remaining tie rods inserted throught  floor framing.  Some guidance was required from under the car to direct the rods through the holes.

These photos show the tie rods passing through holes drilled in the brackets used to secure the horizontal framing to the new sill.  These framing members originally were mortised into the sill, but the tenons were cut in order to remove the old portion.  The rods were then fixed with washers and nuts on the outside of the sill.  The brackets are secured with lag screws.

The photo on the left shows the joint between the old and new portions of the sill that has been secured with epoxy and bolted with three bolts.  The ends of the tapers have been squared off  to prevent slippage with compression forces, as with coupling cars together.  On the right Craig is installing the hardware that secures the end of the truss rod that goes the length of the car.  This was cut to remove the sill, and more will be shown about this later.

Finally, the car was raised another tie thickness.  One end was jacked up and blocked, then the other end the same.  On the left above Glenn, John, and John are raising this side, and Bob is on the other on the right above.  Bob was not really working alone as I had been working with him.  Working under the car is getting easier, although one still has to be aware of the crossbars holding the rails as shown on the right under the ties.  Hard hats or cheesehead hats help.

Craig has made an excellent reproduction of the boiler plaque from Locomotive 463 and mounted it on a board with a photo of it as shown.  These may be available to benefit the restoration at some time in the future.

A New Year - Jan. 7, 2012

Out with the old, in with the new - side sill, that is.  On New Year's eve day several hardy souls removed the east half of the north sill that had rotted from the water from an icebox in this corner.  On the first work day of the new year the new sill was fitted in place.

In the photo on the left is a view of the northeast corner of the car showing the framing that was mortised into the  top of the old sill, and the new piece on chairs next to the car.  The photo on the right is looking in the opposite direction.  The new piece and remaining good section of the original sill will be joined with a taper as shown, then glued with epoxy and bolted together.

In the photo on the left, Bob is cutting the taper into the original sill end.  On the right, it was asked how many Friends it takes to change a sill?  Craig's answer was "As many as we can get."  It took a few tries to get all the mortises and notches to fit snugly, but the process went quite well.

It took some tweaking with saws and chisels to get all the pieces to fit together, but eventuall they did.  Some of the tenons on the vertical framing had to be tapered to raise the new sill in place.  The horizontal tenons were cut during removal of the old sill, and will be replaced with angle iron plates.  In the photo on the right a clamp is holding the old and new pieces together temporarily.


Concurrently with the sill replacement Ray and John were replacing the horizontal tie rods.  The side of the shelter had to be raised to remove the long rods, and things got rather interesting near the end of the process as a cold front went through and blew the fabric out and up.  It shifted to the other side as well, but everthing came back together as we tightened the loose side back down.  At the end of the day the vertical and horizontal tie rods had been passed through the new sill and were securrely tightened.

Up and Out - December 17, 2011

There was a work session the Saturday after Thanksgiving which I missed, as we were visiting family in North Carolina.  The day was devoted to raising the car in preparation for removing the rotted sill on the north side.  The crew used hydraulic jacks, blocks of wood, and railroad ties to elevate the car three ties higher than it was, allowing for room to work and drop the old sill down from its attachments.

In the photo on the right, above, Craig is cutting a horizontal truss rod that goes through the old sill to be removed.  Bob Kohler, who joined us recently, ponders the situation.  Bob worked in the City yards next door to us, saw activity that interested him, and became involved after retirement.

There were long bolts through the 2x10 framing at the interior base which passed through the bad sill and had to be pulled up out of the sill.  The vertical tie rods were loosened from below and pulled up as well.  The horizontal tie rods were cut as they will be replaced anyway.  We will have to roll up the structure sides and remove them to the south as the roundhouse building is adjacent to the north side.                                                                            

The next step was to screw small pieces of wood into the under side of the sill to act as a shelf for the replacement piece in order to accurately mark the length as well as some of the holes, etc. for fastening.  The new sill can be seen on the floor next to the  north wall.



The last two photos show some work that Craig had done earlier on the moulding below the windows as well as the window frames.  The long piece is now fastened in place.  Spring clips have been made to retain the windows in the open or closed positions.

More oil - November 5, 2011

Painting the framing with linseed oil continued on the first workday in November.  On the left,  Ray (on the ladder), Tom (standing), and George (sitting) were hard at work.  On the right, above, Rich is doing the carlines overhead.  This pretty much completes the oiling except for the underside of the floor framing which will be done after the car is raised.

The other activity happening concurrently with the oiling was installing the vertical truss rods.  These were all replaced as many of the old ones were rusted.  They extend from the top to the bottom sills through the vertical framing as seen in the photo on the left above.  On the right above, the spacing every few feet is evident, as well as the top nuts securely tightened with historically correct square nuts.

Linseed oil, etc. Oct. 29, 2011

The last work session in October saw the floor framing on the left, above that has been cleaned and treated with linseed oil.  Note the door frame with the finished post on the right that is lacking on the left.  Craig has made replacements shown on the right, above, since most were not usable.

The next photo shows the new sill that has been marked for the mortises.  The vertical framing members next to it have tenons on the lower end that engage the sill.  There also are mortise and tenon joints on the inside of the sill with the cross-framing, so the replacement process will be "interesting."



The next photo shows Craig drilling the mortise, and finally in the last photo, chiseling the final shape.  This will have to be done many times over.

Open House, October 1, 2011

The Trolley Museum and our Friends COS group had an open house on October 1.  Car #470 was cleaned up and ready to show.  The railroad logo was prominently displayed next to the car.  Rich has his Friends T-shirt on and is ready to work.

The Model A club showed up with a display of a variety of "A's", including passenger cars, trucks and even a few Model T's.  They were scattered around the grounds so people would move around to the different displays.  We had a couple next to our project.  Attendence was good with a few hundred people passing through the gate.

Operation life saver had a display showing what happens in a car vs. train event.  I was told that no one was in the car at the time of impact, but the driver had stopped on railroad tracks prior to the train's arrival.  Sorry, I do not know why they decided to park there.  Maybe they didn't have a penny.

Some work was accomplished in spite of the visitors.  In the photo on the left above John and Craig are discussing the replacement of the rotted sill.  The new one has been tapered where it will be joined to the good part of the existing one, in the view on the right.