September 2020

September saw the move of 470 back to Antonito.  There were some busy days and weeks in preparation for the move.  Most of the painting was completed and it was made weather tight for the trip to the Railroad.  The shelter had to be dismantled for crane access to lift 470 onto a flatbed truck.

Some prep work was done prior to spraying the paint.  In this photo Randy Q. is masking off the roof at the west end of the car.

Craig, Ron and I are masking the side of the car with tape and paper on the roof.

Brad has agreed to do the exterior with his airless sprayer.

You have to start somewhere.

Brad is moving right along.

The Pullman Green is covering very nicely.  Because of the color of the shelter fabric filtering the light it is difficult to tell the true color.  Here it has a brownish cast.

Here is a view of the north side where there is less color distortion.

The west end where the end of the shelter is mostly open.

It was thought three coats might be necessary but after the second coat it was apparent that coverage was very good and a third was not applied.  In this photo Randy is removing the masking from a window.

Mike and Don removing more of the masking.

The exterior doors and end platforms were painted by hand.  Here Craig is painting one of the doors.

Mike and Randy are priming the end platform.

Wayne is priming the railings.

The west end looks good.

The vent caps were installed in case of precipitation during the move.

Craig worked from below fastening the duct in place.

Ron was guiding from above.

This is a photo of the vents at the west end of the car.  The one on the left is for the stove/heater and the other two are in the women's lavatory.

These are the vents at the east end of the car.  The first two (left to right) are in the men's lavatory and one on the right with the cover is for filling the water tanks for hand washing.

Moving day was on a Friday so that week was spent preparing for the move.  The shelter was dismantled starting with removal of the end pieces.  John Weed was volunteered to man the lift.

After the end pieces were off the large center section was released.  Then we all pulled it up, over, and off the frame.

It came off fairly easily.  Folding it up was harder!

The framing arches had to be removed so that the car could be lifted up and off the pit area.  This required ground crews on each side of the car as well as an aerial crew.  The arches were disconnected one by one and carried to the end of the car and set aside.

We finally get an unobstructed view of the car in the daylight, with John Engs in front.  For those that are not familiar with the Trolley Museum the large red building behind 470 is the Rock Island roundhouse which now houses the Museum's shops and display area.

Moving day arrived along with a very robust crane.  The flatbed truck has been backed in front of the roundhouse next to the crane.  The end of an operating streetcar is seen on the right.

Going back in time a little, the riggers  with the crane company executed the move very competently, with a little help  from Randy.

The straps are in place and ready to lift.

Up and over the truck.

Down gently.  The car had to be cribbed up so the truss rods cleared the bed of the truck.

Here is most of our crew, the "peanut gallery," during this event.

470 is loaded and ready to head south.  The truck's name is painted on the side of the hood, "Train Wreck," hopefully not an omen.

The next morning the truck and car have arrived safely in Antonito.  Don and John Engs have kindly provided photos from the work sessions there.

Another crane and off the flatbed and on to the trucks that have been built for 470.  These have been positioned in front of the Friend's Car Restoration Facility in Antonito where work will continue.

470 was towed inside with a tractor.

Into the CRF.  Much work remains to be done, permanently attaching to the trucks, couplers installed, brakes, completing painting, etc., etc.

The car was jacked up and put on jack stands to work on the trucks and to provide more room underneath to work on brakes.  Notice that the end platform and railings have been painted black.

Here is a look at one of the trucks.  The truck rotates in relation to the car on these plates for cornering.  The height is critical also so the couplers match other cars, and spacers are needed to adjust this.

In this photo Bill K. and Craig are making a platform for the air tank for the brakes.

Bill K. putting the platform in place.  I have heard that Bill was evacuated because of the Cameron Peak fire near Ft. Collins.  We wish him well.

Bill and Randy with the air tank in place.

Craig and Dean are installing grab irons in this photo.

Randy and Bill are working on the coupler pocket in this photo while John looks on.

In this photo Randy and Ian are working on one of the couplers.

Ian and Don are celebrating Don's birthday on the last day of the work session.  Ian was largely responsible for construction of the trucks.  Don provided most of the photos from Antonito.  Thank you both.

We will pause this blog again for a while.  There is still a long punch list of things to do before 470 is on the tracks.  Another work session in Antonito is scheduled this fall and there will be more in the spring.  The goal is to have it ready for service next summer.

August 2020

 We continued in August with "2-a-weeks," that is, two work sessions a week with the goal of moving 470 to Antonito in mid September.  As many of you know the move was completed on schedule on 18-19 September.  In this post we will review the efforts and accomplishments that allowed this to happen during the month of August.

Dean, as one of the younger people in our group, took over the work on the clerestory.  The platforms and scaffolding on the sides were removed to install siding so he had to use ladders.  In this photo he is installing one of the "teardrop" panels in the end of the clerestory.

Here Dean is shaping one of the panels to fit.

A panel in place and primed.

This one is in color.

The clerestory window screens were painted prior to installation. John E. is doing the work here.

This photo shows a screen ready to be screwed in place.  A spacer board can be seen at the right edge of the photo.  These were used to cover the framing where double framing members were present as can be seen to the left of the screen.

This photo shows a finished end section.

The window frames and body framing were primed and painted before the screens were installed, here by Tom.

There was quite a bit of prep work involved before we could apply the primer to the upper part of the car body.  Here Wayne is doing some scraping around the windows.

Don is doing some sanding.

Bill L. is scraping.

John C. is taping windows prior to priming.

Next was priming the upper part of the body around the windows.  Don is shown here but there were many participants.  The priming was done by hand but arrangements were made to have Brad come and spray the color.

Bill K. priming the west end.

Dean priming the overhang.

Good job, everyone.

We had to re-prime the siding boards to be compatible with the paint to be used, but first sanding was required.  Craig and Don are sanding.

The siding boards were installed, Craig using a nail gun in this photo.

The siding was glued on as well as nailed.  Ron is applying the glue in this photo.  The siding originally was glued with hide glue which had lost most of its adhesive qualities when we removed the old siding.

The siding was installed and primed by the end of August.

The upper sashes on the car body windows were screwed to the frames.  They were not meant to open but were somewhat loose in the channels so were secured.  Also in this photo note that the windows have been covered in paper prior to spraying the color coat on the car.

 The exterior doors also were taped and covered with paper as it was decided to paint these by hand.

The pull cord straps are assembled and ready to install.

Ron has installed them in the ceiling as shown here.  The cord will pass through the brass ring at the bottom and run the length of the car.

The cord passes through the cabinets at each end of the car and these rings will be installed in the front of the cabinets for the cord.

This photo shows a ring in one of the overhead cabinets.

One of the doors is original and this photo shows a brass shield over the key hole which was preserved.  The one at the other end of the car was missing, however.

Ron was able to reproduce one in brass, the shiny one on the right being the new one which will be installed on the other door.

The car is scheduled to be spray-painted on September first so this was a busy month.  More to come.

Thanks to Tom, John, and Don for contributing photos.