Friends COS calendar

A subset of the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the mission of preservation, restoration, and interpretation of CTSRR historic assets. The Springs group is primarily involved in restoration. See below for blog archive of older postings.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

June - July 2015

June was an abbreviated month at the COS worksite because of work sessions in Antonito and Chama, as well as vacations.  Efforts continued on the roof decking and truss rod hardware, however.

Bill and Jim are doing the honors on top.  The lower roof is done and they are installing the decking on the clerestory.










Craig is the "cutter," cutting the boards to length and handing them up to the pair on the scaffold.











Meanwhile, John is drilling holes for the bolts for the truss rod bracket on the northwest corner, again defying gravity.  His help disappeared to take this picture.








It is now July 1, an extra work session, and the clerestory decking is finishing up.  In the photo on the left, above, Don and Bob are in the heat in the top of the tent.  On the right there is a small strip to go.

By the next work session in July, John is putting lock nuts on the truss rod bracket bolts.











On the corners of the car roof  there are compound curves, both toward the end of the car as well as to the side.  Therefore flexible material must be used to cover these areas.  Flexible plywood was cut into strips and fastened to the framing.  Two layers were applied with the strips offset by half the width so the seams didn't align.  Here Don is stapling the strips down.






After fastening the strips down, filler was applied to fill the seams.  It will then be sanded after it is dry.










Trim pieces that Craig had made were installed as shown here.











Finally, the roof decking is done.  It really changes the appearance and feel of the car when one walks into it.


Saturday, July 11, 2015

A Little Adjustment - May 2015

Much of the time in May was spent in squaring the northeast side of the car where the outer sill was removed and replaced.  Apparently some warping occurred such that the car was slightly narrower at this end compared to what it should be.

The spacer blocks were removed in this section and pressure applied with a hydraulic jack to realign the sill.











John is checking the position of the sill in relation to the end of the bolster and they are now in alignment.











New blocks were made that are slight longer to hold the sill in position.












Some of the tie rods had to be lengthened which means the tent flap had to be raised and the rods removed.  This can get "interesting" when the wind comes  up.










Extension pieces were cut and threaded and will be added to the end of the rods.  Fortunately we still had the mechanical (electric) thread cutter on site.










This photo shows two tie rods, the one on the left in the process of being joined to the extension and the one on the right coupled with a coupler and lock nuts.










Then of course we have to fasten down the tent flap with the straps and ratchets.  We try to put the biggest guy (Craig) in the tightest spaces.










On this day Regis from the Streetcar Museum brought a group through our area as part of the Museum tour.  We usually are part of their tours, especially on workdays.









Meanwhile, work continued on the steel as well.  Here Ron and I are drilling bolt holes through the pivot plates at the west end of the car.











This photo shows the under side of the pivot plate with the large pivot hole and smaller bolt holes.











Work also continued on the roof decking which is nearing completion.











Thanks again to Tom for help with the photos.


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