The southward expansion of the parking lot, which we've mentioned before, is now a reality. By 9AM, most of the asphalt had already been laid, and the contractors were starting to finish up the work.
At the south end, which will be the new entrance to the Museum, there's essentially a sidewalk leading to the Schroeder Store, which will be the ticket booth, book store, and gift shop. Eventually this (on the north side of the street) is where the Vistor's Center will be.
Here's a dump truck putting a load of steaming-hot asphalt into one of the spreaders.
By the end of the day, it looks like this:
Just like downtown!
Over in Barn 8, Gerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber are working on improving our storage facilities in the MD cars. New shelves are being made and installed.
I did various miscellaneous tasks of sorting out parts and so forth. I wanted to finish painting the 319's interior walls, but the sun went away and it started to get cold, so I only got done about half of what I wanted to do. But every little bit helps.
Meanwhile, Max, Bob Olson, and Tim were working on installing a new power line to the 50th Avenue station.
Tim pokes his head out after exploring the crawl space.
In a matter of weeks, all of the book store and gift shop operations will be moved over to the Schroeder Store, and these baggage cars by the depot will be abandoned. In spite of our best efforts, they've deteriorated over the years and become an eyesore. I don't think any definite plan for these storage tracks has been decided yet. I'd suggest this might be a good location for the Art Train cars, but there are lots of possibilities. Anyway, when Dave Diamond is in charge, things can happen faster than anybody expects, and for all I know some of these cars may be down to the trucks in a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd take some pictures beforehand.
This wooden baggage car is probably beyond hope. It is one of the C&NW cars acquired by Frank Sherwin at Chicago Hardware Foundry back before IRM was organized, and which later passed into IRM ownership for parts storage and came out to Union in one of the hospital trains. It's surprising it's lasted this long.
The troop sleeper is in good condition, on the other hand. I think.
And after a lot of switching last Saturday, two of the IC Highliners are now in Yard 5 to be worked on. Two of these cars will be scrapped for parts and the other two will be restored to operation, but I don't know which is which.
