A small but hearty band, Gary, Rich, Leon (who despite being ill, showed up anyway!), Jeff, Ricky and Ronnie, toiled in the early chill. Thankfully the sun warmed up the air and we were able to continue our needlescaling session in the warm sunshine.
We were able to remove all of the paint and rust inside the frame at the rear, where the firebox would be, the area from the #3 driver to the area where the #2 driver would be and from the area where the #2 would be all the way to the area where the #1 driver would be.
That is a huge accomplishment!
Thankfully George started removed the pant and crud from the area where the brake cylinders would normally be just behind the steam cylinder casting, so we won't have as much to do next week in that spot.
At the same time, we were able to blast the frame on the firemans (left) side from the #2 driver all the way forwards to the valve gear slide.
I pumped up the jack under the draw bar pin again and realized that it is losing air, so next week I will install a new jack under the pin. I had hoped that the pin would have popped out by now. Oh well!
We started a bit after 8am and finished up at 4pm. Since there was so much road grime built up on the areas we were needlesclaing, we all wore the "black badge of courage" when we finished up.
Ronnie & I took scrapers to the crud on the back of the steam cylinder casting so that there wouldnt be as much dirt flying around next week.
Until the ties and the controller for the turntable are delivered on site, we are on sabbatical from any turntable work. Lets pray that these items show up by November 9th.
Ricky working on the firemans side. Notice the condition of the paint on the frame.
Ronnie taking the paint off the boilers rear mounting plate.
Rich disassembling the ceiling fans that we removed from the Boonton Ping Pong coaches before they were scrapped.
Jeff working on the INSIDE of #35's frame. If you look closely, you can see that he has already worked on the framerail behind him and over his left shoulder, you can see that he has not yet begun on the vertical hanger for the spring equalizer bar, as it still has the black paint on it.
Keep your fingers crossed for more sunshine and fairly warm weather as we only have two more weeks rental on the rented air compressor and we still have to finish up the frame, drive wheels (3) and 2 tender truck frames.
Gary
No comments:
Post a Comment