Sunday in winter

Frank writes...

I was able to make it out to IRM on Sunday afternoon. The property wasn't terribly busy but there were a few people working. To start with, Joel needed some help installing a replacement headlight resistor in the Commonwealth Edison steeplecab. These are located in a fairly difficult-to-access location inside one of the hoods, shown below. To the left is an air tank, while in the foreground are resistance grids. The resistors are mounted to the far wall of the hood; the second from the right is the one that failed and had already been removed.

Quarters were cramped. Joel snapped a photo - note the new resistor in place.

And voila, the headlight works!

Then I headed over to Barn 13 with Joel and Richard Schauer to take another look at Shaker Heights 18. We did a little bit more tidying up, took an inventory of extra seat cushions, and examined the trolley pole that came with the car. It will need some straightening but after Richard cut some rubber tubing off of it we determined that it's in very good shape. Then Joel, assisted by Richard, was able to get the rear door back onto its track so that it opens and closes smoothly. This was more involved than it sounds but it's done now. Below, Joel at work - both doors (other than the motorman's cab door, the car only has two) open into a pocket between them, and here the window on the inside of this pocket is swung open towards the camera. On its exterior the window still wears the bright yellow that these cars wore along their windows in the 1950s.

And that was about it for the day for me. But Norm and Jeff were hard at work on cutting, drilling, and forming more steel parts for the front end of the Michigan car. Here, Jeff is holding a piece of steel which will go between two of the main framing members and will hold up a steel "pan" that will itself support the insulation under the floor of the car. There's a lot that goes into a project like this that most people will never see.