A day of remembrance and optimism

Saturday September 11th 2010-


I am flying my flag at half mast today, having put it out at 7am this morning before leaving for the day.
Never forgive, never forget.
Remember the people who gave their lives to save the others who were murdered 9 years ago.

A smaller than avereage turnout today, only 6 of us but what we lacked in hands, we sure made up for in efforts.

The turntable motor frame assembly now has its 2 coats of paint and the entire braking assembly has been given at least 1 coat. Some parts have 2, but next week we will give every part from this assembly another coat and do any touchups needed on the motor frame before we begin reassembly.

We checked the pin that holds the 2 drawbars on #35's frame and it hasn't "popped" loose yet, so we cranked up the jack another notch and gave a few new squirts of Kroil brand creeping oil to the pin between the drawbars and underneath the frame.

Hopefully we will find it loose within the next 2 weeks so we can remove the drawbars and have them cleaned and coated.

One of the chores that we were given in our extensive list of "things to do" by the restoration contractor was to get any of #35's parts off of the ground. We have been a little lazy in the way that we have handled a few of the really large and/or heavy steel parts and have put many of them on the ground.
Hey! they are made of very thick steel so we figured a little time on the ground wouldn't harm them too much. Well, today we took all of the parts and placed them on either side of #35's frame on top of ties or pallets to get them off of the ground.

Next week we will start cleaning, coating and reassembly of the 6 drive wheel bearing box assemblies. These are made up of 7 parts which will only fit into their respective boxes and do not interchange, so it will be a challenge to us. I am sure that it will take up the better part of a day to accomplish this task.

Gary