Weakly Reporting 2024: The Week that was @ Arden

Saturday December 2 I took a drive down the Burma road from Reliance to the TDB and got to see the Yuletide shuttle returning to the Blvd on its endless loop. I refer to it this way because the car is trapped unless the switch which it is approaching in the photo is manually thrown. This is a good thing for the shuttle but I need to remember not to go to McClane if I’m out with an Operator for an Hour participant. Anyway, on to the next photo.

Here’s 1711 turning into Enterprise Wye with the big thing being a chance to see the Santa car 78 meeting with the shuttle.

The shuttle comes to rest at the crosswalk to the TDB entrance where the Santa car loads going the other way. Sunday I did a little tour guiding at the TDB and enjoyed talking to the crew there.

It’s Sunday now and I took time to look inside Mon-West Penn 274 and see the beautiful restoration of the woodwork that Bill Fronczek had been doing in the shop. The photo shows the bulkhead between the passenger compartment and the baggage section of the car, which we have learned that coal dusted miners would ride to avoid getting the passenger section dirty.

It’s Monday now and I went down to the shop to get things cleaned up following Keith Bray’s work on 8042. The photo shows the lifeguard basket I finished rebuilding as I was getting it off of my workbench and under the car. I need the work space to begin sanding and painting the passenger seats that are out of the car. Keith is tentatively returning December 17 to do a final tightening of screws on the trim and doing a final wrap up on the other things on his list.

Before his departure we were discussing the roof walk arrangement for 8042. He felt strongly that the walk needed to go the length of the passenger compartment (between the curved bonnet ends) in spite of the fact that the car arrived with only a small section at the rear of the car. I told him that I was sure I could find a photo showing the arrangement, and sure enough, this one popped up on Facebook last week. Interesting to note that the single end 8000s had eight vents on the roof with 6 of them in the rear where the air always flowed in normal operation. Thanks to Bernie’s effort several years ago we have 8 freshly fabricated vents to use after the canvas is applied. The new vents were a must as the originals had lead a tough life.

Wednesday I was on a mission to find the Wells Fargo Agency porcelain signs that I produced and had fabricated for the Wexford Station several years ago. In the process of looking at reliance I came across Dave Hamley and Dick Rhoton’s handiwork as they work to cross-fertilize wheels from the original trucks pulled from the Shaker car. Last year Pittsburgh trucks were acquired from our friend Ed Miller in Ohio (also previous owner of the Terrible Trolley. The photo shows the super resilient wheel removed from the truck.