Today was a beautiful spring day, perfect for painting outside. It's lucky that what I want to paint has wheels. I hopefully put away the space heaters and drop lights that were cluttering up the 319, and did some switching to put it at the door, since it will be the next in line for inspection.
The 36 poses on the connector:
Followed by the 319:
And it was then parked outside the barn for painting. The lighting is much better, and you don't have all the extension cords and drop lights in the way. It was windy enough that the car actually rocked a little sometimes, but not enough to make me seasick.
Vestibule #2 is nearly done. Compare to last time.
And by the end of the day, much more on vestibule #1.
The 4391 was over the pit for inspection. Joel and several of the new guys were hard at work on it.
Tim is applying the complicated masking to the 24 in preparation for spray painting the gold color.
Later in the day:
The Track Dept. have been working for a while on the diamond and tail track:
You never know what might show up on the interchange track. Here we have two beautiful PV's paying a visit to East Union while in the area. They're in the Chicago area to serve some corporate clients, as I understand. I asked Nick how much it would cost to charter a trip to Kishwaukee Grove and back, and he said I don't have enough. That's probably true.
The dome car was built for the UP, and the obs car started life as an 11-double bedroom sleeper on the IC.
These cars are absolutely spotless. A little dirt and dust got on the trucks, so here we have two guys washing and scrubbing them. I'd be happy if my windows were this clean!
Anyway, we all got a nice tour, courtesy of the owners, and guided by Mike McCraren. Here are a few interior views.
The silverware is authentic, and came from various lines.
Note the dinner chimes.
That was very impressive, but our clients will just have to be satisfied with interiors more like this:
