May 2016 - End platforms, siding, etc.

May was a busy month, and with the added Thursday sessions good progress was made.  The assembly of the end platforms was completed and the installation of siding is well underway.

The tie rods are in place and bent to fit through the intermediate spacer and platform end sill.

John (on the left) and Don are lifting the spacer into place.  Grooves have been cut in it to allow the rods to pass through that will attach to the end sill.  This photo also shows how the pieces are notched and mortised to fit together.

This is a view from above showing the spacer in place with a rod through it.  The end of the rod has been threaded and is ready for a washer and nut.  Two of the six rods end in the spacer with the other four ending in the end sill.

Don and Ron are drilling a hole in the end sill for the rod to pass through.  The sill was put in place and marked for drilling, then taken down to drill the hole.

The inner end of the outside rods are hooked on to the end sill of the car and held in place with lag bolts.  Don is under the car tightening the lag.

The end sill was replaced after drilling.  John and Ron are providing the lifting power.

The last step was placing the small spacer board over the sill and tightening the nuts with standoff washers.  The intermediate spacer can be seen at the lower right of the picture bolted in place.

Now the platform end sill is secured with the four tie rods, fitted with standoff washers, nuts and lock nuts.

Concurrently with the platform assembly Craig and others were applying the siding boards to the car.  Here he and Bill L. are working on the south side.  An air nailer helps speed the process.

Good job, guys.  Notice how the upper ends of the boards fit into a groove in the letterboard and the  lower ends are angled to fit the slope of the window sill.

This is the view from the inside of the car.  Glue blocks have been placed against the siding and framing as were present originally.

Here Bob is putting up more glue blocks in the side wall at the end of the car.

Craig is bolting the exterior wood piece over and around the door into place.  A previous  post showed how this was put together.

This photo shows it finished, complete with the trim piece across the top between the roof and the end piece.

This photo shows the trim pieces on the ceiling of the platform.  A few of the ceiling boards also had to be replaced along the far edge..

Originally there were rectangular blocks of wood inserted in the framing to provide stiffness to the walls of the car.  In this photo Bob is replacing one of these with a new one.

Ron glued blocks of wood to the framing at the end of the car to be able to fasten the siding securely.  The steel supports will have to be mortised into the siding.  More on this later.

 The above two photos shows Ron drilling through the steel to place a bolt through it and into the framing to hold it from bending outward.  One of the blocks for the siding can be seen behind the steel in the photo on the right.

Finally this month asymmetrical washers were obtained and installed on the bolster.  Because of the slope of the lower part of the bolster a flat washer could not be used.  Note also the lock nut in place.  All of the bolts through the floor framing were tightened and lock nuts installed.