Laboring on Labor day weekend

Instead of taking off like most folks-your intrepid volunteers were fast at work again!
Steve "Nappy" , Ronnie and Rich were busy welding up more steel for the cab of #35,
IN between running the work session and other items on his list,. Leon took our entire drill bit collection out and began to sharpen them. It wasn't glamorous work but something that is sorely needed as we are always looking for sharp bits!
John G made great strides, continuing to remove almost 100 years of crud off the truck frames on the Ping Pong coach.
Mike B painted the staircases for #50 + the yellow dinky #398  while I was working on  the patch panels of #398 as well. I kinda like the new look of the staircases.
While they had already been welded, the patch panels still needed some fine tuning on the bodywork.
I can finish up next Saturday while everyone else can begin to cut out the rust on #397, the blue & grey dinky.
And finally, after months of of struggling, I took one last try at getting the door to the Worlds Fair Cab to seal up so we don't get any more water into the cab unit.
I re-tapped the latch assembly, filed down the striker plate and added some shims to build the striker plate out so the tongue latched more securely. Finally I added one more layer of weatherstripping to the bottom 1/3rd of the door frame and now we can't see any light coming into the cab from the door.
Keep your fingers crossed as we will test it next week with a hose.
Have an enjoyable Labor Day!

Loss of a friend

Always a bad time to lose a friend, however, last week OBRM lost a great friend in Walter Karppi.
Walter was always well known for his humor and his humbleness. He had a great love of trains & trolleys and never had a bad word for anyone. We offer our condolences to Dagmar & his family at this time.
Walter won't be forgotten.
We can only be thankful that he chose to share his time with us. He was one of the good guys and will be sorely missed.
Gary

A grand day in Oyster Bay

Even though I left early today for personal reasons, quite a lot was accomplished!
First and foremost (to me at least) Mike B & I completed the installation of the last oiler on the steam engine's connecting arm. We also began to cut out the new plywood shims for the bearing clamps on the grinding attachment for the take off belt and I also ordered the new take-off belt and timing belt for the engine today from McMaster-Carr.
The rest of the guys were hard at work continuing the great job of rust repair panels for the yellow 25 ton diesel engine (#398), completing the installation of the train simulator in the M1 trainer, doing some minor upkeep on the steel under the turntable and also the repair of the floor under the ping pong coach..
A few were also hard at work clearing almost 100 years of caked on grime from the trucks under the Ping Pong coach. Scrapers were augmented by hammers and chisels-that's how hard the crust was.
With enough hands on deck, we accomplished quite a bit-quite a feat for a bunch of volunteers!!!
Great job folks
Gary