November-December 2018

Late fall saw work continuing on the coupler pocket and seat frames, and starting on the flooring and end platform railings.

The seat frames are cast iron and will need some cleaning up of burrs and ridges as well as removal of the legs for the outside frames along the wall.   Craig, Tom, and Dean are planning course of action.

Craig points out a ridge in the frame and there is a grinder that will be used to clean it up.

Sometimes a bigger grinder is needed.  It works best with two people, one holding and one grinding.  Here Don is grinding and John holding.

We began fitting the end platform railings and posts.  This photo shows the railings that Joe has made.

These are the posts for the railings.  They also were made by Joe and are threaded at each end and slightly tapered.

The car originally had roof vents for the oil lamps and for the restrooms.  This is a photo of a photo of a few of the vents that were present originally over one of the restroom areas.

We have diagrams of the restroom (or "saloon") layouts as shown here for the men.  From this the location of the roof vents was calculated.

First measurements were made on the floor to locate the fixtures in the restroom.

The floor locations were used to determine where the vents should be located, in the process avoiding roof framing, etc.  Here Don and Craig are carefully measuring.

A pilot hole was drilled, then a larger hole was cut with a saber saw.  The edges were trimmed and filed so that the vent would be in an erect position on this curved roof.

It looks pretty good, guys.

We started on the flooring although installation has to wait for the bolster truck bowl or plate to be installed, a tedious process to be covered later.  In this photo Craig is positioning a floor board in the jig he made to cut a notch in the end of the board.  Each board will be notched in the ends and a spline or biscuit inserted to keep the ends from moving in relation to each other.

This photo shows how the ends of the boards will be stabilized.

Here Craig is routing the groove in one of the boards.

This photo shows Joe on the left with the two red spring pockets that he made.  An original one is to his left in front of Don while Bill K. looks on.  These go under the car attached to the steel angle brackets that have been installed at each end.  There is a diagram of this mechanism in the posting of Jan.-Feb. 2018.  The coupler attaches to this with a heavy spring which allows for some resilience when coupling cars.

Work also continued on installing the bolster truck bowls, one of which is seen here next to some vent caps.  It is upside down as it rests on the table.  The side we are seeing rests on the truck of the car and allows the truck to rotate.  The bolts holding it are carriage-type, recessed into the plate so that the surface is smooth.

This photo shows the plate right side up.  The body bolster fits into the groove where the two bolts are resting.  The large hole in the center is for the king pin which will extend through the bolster into the truck, and is the center of rotation of the truck.

Here the plate is positioned just below the bolster with bolts extending down to it through the bolster.  John and Don are marking the plate for drilling two more holes, one at each end, necessary to clear protruding bolts.

Don is marking the plate.  The brackets for the coupler mechanism are to Don's right.

The bolt positions have been marked and now the hole size is being drawn on the plate.

This is a view of the floor above showing the larger hole for the king pin and the six bolt positions corresponding to those in the bolster and plate.  Once the bowl/plate has been installed the flooring can be laid down over this area although there will be an access hole left for the king pin.  The original metal plate that covered the king pin was removed during dismantling and has been saved.  It will be re-used as well as used as a pattern for casting a second king pin cover.

Bill K. is looking toward the coupler pocket brackets from the end of the car.  The brackets have threaded rods through each end which were used in positioning the  brackets so they are parallel to and opposite each other.