March Madness - March 2014

I will cover what we did in March in this post and subsequently do April and May, which hopefully will get us current.  March was a busy month as we had 4 work sessions to move things along more quickly.  Extra sessions were added the Wednesday after a regularly scheduled session and participation was quite good.  Work continued on the bolsters as well as starting to install the roof decking and reworking the new outer sill that was out of position.

The first work session was a scheduled open house in conjunction with the Streetcar Museum.  We were greeted with about a foot of snow, so paths had to be cleared for guests to access the areas.

Everyone chipped in with whatever implements were available to move the snow out of the way.  I believe it is Bob with the shovel on the left and Don with the wheelbarrow.

Displays were set up in the car and here John is showing a guest what it will look like when done.  Behind John are some drawings of the car.

The most obvious change in appearance in March was the beginning of the installation of the roof decking.  The boards were oiled prior to installation at Jim's shop.  He is on the left in this photo and was a professional cabinet maker so is a valuable addition to our group. Ron and John also helped with the oiling.

 After oiling the boards were moved out into the sun to dry.  If the shop looks like an airplane hanger, it is.  It is located at a small airport nearby.

Old nail and screw holes in the carlines were filled before nailing the new boards on.  Here Lenny is hard at work.

This photo  shows the holes filled and sanded, ready for new nails.  The fascia and one row of boards have been installed in this view as well.

The chop saw was set up in the car to cut the roof boards to length.  Bob is doing the honors at this time.











The boards are then handed up to the crew on the scaffold to be nailed in place.  Jim's nail gun provides consistency in nailing as well as minimizing damage to the boards.










Here is the view from below.  Visible progress, eh?

More platform boards were cut to complete the platforms around the car to support workers and the scaffolding to work on the roof.  Bob and Ron are teaming up here.

On the May 11 posting there was a photo of the new outer sill showing a misalignment of the sill relative to the bolster, with the sill inboard from the tip of the bolster.  So the sill needs to be shifted outward, which John and Bill K. are attempting to do here with a hydraulic jack.  Also, it means that the framing braces must be redone as well in that segment of the sill.

It also means that some of the tie rods must be lengthened to fit the new (original) width of the car.  In this photo Ron is threading rods for replacement.

Also in March, drilling continued for installing the bolsters.  They will be bolted to the outer sills, and holes in the wood need to be aligned with the holes in the steel.  The best way to do that is to drill using the holes in the steel as a guide, but that involves defying gravity.  So our team got creative with the magnetic drill, not relying completely on the magnet.

This photo shows the business end of the drill passing through the steel bolster and into the wood.












Again, many thanks to Tom Simco and Glen Hall for sharing their photos.

2014 Project report by John Engs

With John's permission I am posting his project report on 0252/470 that he did for 2014.  It summarizes work through August 2014, and contains some detail that I have not included previously.



Click here to view the report.

August 16, 2014

Bolsters and body truss rods - Fall & Winter 2014-15

To refresh our memories, the first photo is of a drawing of the under carriage of one end of the car at the trucks or wheels showing the bolster in cross section running across the width of the car.

The truss rod bracket is under the bolster and is bolted to the outer sill on each side.  The round part is a clevis to which the truss rod is fastened, shown here sloping downward and to the left.

The photo above shows the bolsters before installation.  The lower straight piece was on the car.  The curved piece was removed and scrapped previously, and new one fabricated by Urich.  They will be bolted together eventually, with the curved piece underneath.

The photo above shows one end of the bolster in place with temporary bolts through the outer sill.

This is a view under the car along the bolster.  Notches had to be cut in the platform sills to accommodate it.  It passes under the steel that is reinforcing the inner sills.  The bottom of the steel is lower than the original sill and spacers are required to lower the bolster and truss rod brackets appropriately.

In this photo Bob and Don are drilling the bolt holes in the brackets and spacers that will support the bolsters and to which the truss rods will be connected.

Here a spacer is being drilled with the magnetic drill. using the matching bracket as a guide.  The drilling was a slow process and continued for several weeks.

I jumped ahead in time, but this is one of the truss rod brackets in place, with the spacer next to the sill, and the bolster between the spacer and the bracket.  This process also was ongoing for several weeks.  Aligning the bolt holes was tedious.

 This photo shows the bolster at the east end of the car extending beyond the sill (the end is in the lower part of the picture just to the right of center, orange in color).  This means the car is too narrow in this area.  This is the sill that was replaced early on because of rot, and apparently warped or shifted during replacement.  More on this later.