Saturday, September 25, 2010

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day.......

Surprisingly, everything came my way today!!

I showed up @ 8am and met Paul at the local Dunkin Donuts-I only had coffee, no donuts! I swear!!!!
Anyway, Wayne showed up a little while later and set up to needlescale the frame of #35.
Around 9am, Leon showed up and while Paul was busy setting the punch codes of the frame on #35, Leon & I began the final assembly of the turntables braking system.
PaulFloroffstamping35frame.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
This took quite a while as we needed to re-fit both brake shoes and remove and adjust all of the levers a few times.
LeonworkingonTurntablemotorframe.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
At 11:30, both Ronnie & Rickey showed up and set about to continue the paint removal on #35's drive wheels. At 12 noon Paul & I had to leave for a meeting. With Wayne needlescaling and Leon now working alone on the brake system, I was astonished when I  returned at 1:30 (with lunch for all I might add) to see that Wayne had cleaned off nearly 2/3 of the frames right side.
Wayneneedlescaling35frame.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
35FRAMENEEDLESCALED.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
Leon had completed the brake assembly and after bolting up a couple of parts and adding a few cotter pins, we tested the brakes and they worked nicely.
LeonworkingonTurntablemotorframe.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
The guys broke for lunch which gave me some time to clean out and ream out a few of the bolt holes so we could begin to reassemble the steel framework for the turntables braking platform.
After studying quite a few photos of the turntable in action, we have concluded that there was a wooden platform that the operator used to stand on that brought him up high enough so he could operate both the brake lever and the controller. This allowed a one man operation of the turntable. Way cool!
Turnatblemotorframesandboxinstallation.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
The above photo shows you one of the platforms frame pieces in the upper left corner and you can make out the brake handle to the right of it. Also you will see that we added both of the sand boxes to the frame at this time. Even with the weight of the unit in operation, during inclement weather the LIRR still need to add sand to the ring rail at times, in order to provide traction for the drive wheel.
Leondemonstartingbrakeapplication.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
Here's Leon testing the brake system. He is holding the long lever which will rise through the wooden platform and here you can clearly see the two pieces of steel going in a vertical position on either side of the brake system. To these parts, Pressure treated (PT) lumber will be bolted and assembled into the platforms frame and a PT deck will be placed on it afterwards.
 
When we called it a day at 5pm here is what the frame looked like after we painted on a light coat of metal primer. Remember it was a LIGHT COAT! This is what we were told to do by the restoration contractor. A light coat will allow anyone to see any cracks that might have developed in the steel of the frame.
35frameinprimer.jpg image by THEWINEGUY35
Where Paul is standing (with his back to us) is where Wayne stopped for the day. He  stopped just to the rear of where the #1 drive wheel would be.
 
Next week, I will be away, but Leon & Wayne will run the work seesion. I can only imagine how far they will get the frame needlescaled and maybe (?) the turntables motor frame assembly will get put into the turntable pit and re-attached to the turntable bridge. I also suspect that my other guys, also known as the "newbies" (Ronnie, Rickey. John, Gerard, Evan, Louis) will continue to get the drive wheels cleaned up.
 
All in all, a fantastic day, workwise and weatherwise.
 
I will be posting late next week as I won't be around until Monday to write up my blog.
Gary
 

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