0 A DOOR able

Al writes...


I was able to make it out to IRM on both Wed and Thur.  Wednesday was slightly shortened due to evening commitments.  Many of the folks that were out were engaged in inspecting freight cars for use in the freight trains that will be operated in conjunction with diesel days this weekend.

I resumed work on the door from the 36.  On Wednesday I was able to get all the metal parts off the door and most were wire wheeled to get the paint and 100+ years of crud off of them.  I also got most of the paint stripped off the wood.

Thursday was spent finishing up the stripping and sanding down all of the wood.  I was surprised to see that some of the interior (to the door that is) wood had never seen a coat of paint.  I was then able to get both sides of the door painted in red primer.

Randy was busy sanding and priming some of the windows that have been waiting for attention.

Taking a walk around the property I found that the Cleveland RTA PCC, 63, was out in the open with its tarp  having been removed.  This car is significant in that it represents the only "conventional" PCC in the collection.  All  of the others have some nonstandard feature of one sort or another (this includes the other Cleveland PCC which was built by Pullman rather than St. Louis).  Here are a couple of detail photos to illustrate a couple of the unique operational characteristics of the former Shaker Heights system.  

The fare collection is unique in that fares are collected on boarding on the outbound (eastbound) trip, so it is enter at front.  On the reverse trip fares are collected when alighting, hence center entrance boarding on westbound.

The inner part of this operation operates over the rapid transit so the PCCs were equipped with trip stops.  The application looks a little basic but I guess it gets the job done.

 It would be very nice to see this cars restored as Twin Cities Rapid Transit as #352.