Multi-tasking - 12-1-12

One of the tasks today was to replace the stabilizing blocks in the frame of 470.  Many of them were servicable and were left in place, but many had to be removed.  Craig obtained the lumber and planed it to the proper thicknes to fit in the grooves of the framing.  In this photo John and Craig are discussing the process.  Craig brought his nail gun which he is holding that sped up the process.

John kindly took a picture of me sanding the frames prior to glueing the blocks in place.  There was some residual of the hide glue used initially that was removed, as well as roughing the surface for better adhesion.  The grooves for the blocks can be faintly seen in the vertical member of the framing to my left.

In this photo, Bob is cutting the blocks to fit.  There was some variation in size of the openings, as well as shape where the angled braces are located.

The blocks were both nailed and glued in place, with glue placed around the periphery as on the small triangular blocks stacked below.

This photo (taken by John) shows the blocks in place from the inside of the car.  Originally they were only glued, not nailed.

Meanwhile Lenny, John, Tom, and Glenn were involved with steel issues, preparing for securing the steel pieces to the inner sills.  Here Lenny is doing some measuring near the splice in one of the inner sills.

Tom S. has been busy fabricating a prototype assembly for fastening the inner sills together.  John and Glenn are evaluating the device, and it looks like Tom is on the right track.  The bolts are 3/4 X 18-1/4 heavy hex bolts inside schedule 80 pipe which should secure the sills together.

I-beams - 11-17-12

 Today we continued with levelling and straightening the car.  We placed I-beams under the frame at about where the bolsters (trucks) will be as a base.  This meant rolling up one side of the structure as shown in the photo.  Fortunately we had a good crew to lift, and we have one end on a sawhorse in this photo.

In the second photo, the beam is levelled and we are starting to slide it over the ties and under the car frame.  Thanks to Regis from the Trolley Museum who was cheering us on, we have some photos while I was helping lift and shove.

Here John and I are helping to slide the beam in from inside the tent.  We have help on the other side of the car.

This is the view from below.  The beam rests on the ties that have been blocked up from the rails installed initially, and jacks were used to make room for the beams.



Tom is manning one of the jacks at the end of the car.  The ends tended to droop due to the flexibility of the frame, and had to be levelled.

Here is the same thing from the other side with John M. and Tom F.supervising.