Baby, it's cold outside

But not up in Oyster Bay!
You heard me right.
After a few really freakin' cold days, we had a "warm" one.
Since our weekly "call to arms" didn't go out on time, only 3 hardy souls were able to show up.
I had a plan to install ALL of the cross pieces that our master fabricator/welder, Fred Rubin previously fabricated.
Since Fred texted to tell me he wouldn't be able to come over, we took it upon ourselves to "work my plan", so to speak.
We brought out a loaner 120 volt MIG welder (thanks you John Petsche for leaving this for me) and welded tabs to the tops of the cross pieces, so we could drop them all in place.
Since I am, in no way, a welder, this was a good opportunity for me to practice.
We laid out every piece on the South half of the car and began to grind the metal and tabs clean to ensure good penetration of the welds. These were only tack welds but still needed to hold a lot of weight. This side went well but slow, so after a slight break, we tackled the North side.

Same sequence of events, however, I had more confidence and I predicted a finish time of 1:30.
The last piece of steel dropped into place at 1:33.

After we finished, we cleaned up, locked up and went over to the visitors center in order to remove the display of Railroad Advertising that we had for the year.

We then moved the model steam locomotive (damn heavy!) and dropped the doors off at the Historic Presidential RR Station for storage.

 We finished off before 3 and on my way home I dropped off some raffle prizes to Dodds and Eder to be packaged for the Holiday Express Weekend that we are holding Saturday and Sunday December 8&9 at the visitors Center. We have held this event for many years and look forward to it.

********Saturday we have noted LIRR author/Station Restoration Chairman and all around great guy, Dave Morrison signing his latest Arcadia book, Main Line East.

Sunday we have Santa and on both days, our horse drawn carriage rides.

CHEERS!

Gary

everyone knows it's windy!

HI folks,
today, George, Bernard, Ronnie and I helped Fred  to install the angle braces under the bathroom floor which allowed us to fit up the  toilet  flange. The flange plate sits on top of these anglse which Fred welded to the perimeter frame and center sill of the Ping Pong Coach.
It never ceases to amaze me about Fred's expertise. He makes it look so easy.
I even had Bernard take a couple of photos of me testing the toilet to make sure it would hold weight!
And yes, I have no shame!
Enjoy the pictures below.
Gary

do we need service?

we did, but know we don't!
As of this past Saturday, we have PROPER 120 and 240 volt service right where we are working.

So, we took advantage of this and Fred, George, Paul and I installed the first new piece into the Ping Pong Coach.  To us it was HUGE!
To most people, they would look at a 3ft by 9 inch sheet of metal and go, hmmmm.
this part was fabricated by Fred and welded into the south west corner under the bathroom floor and will allow us to add the steel angles that were previously fabricated under what will be an installed toilet flange.
Next week! those angle braces.
Gary