Re: Documenting Restoration Projects

Bill:

You bring up some good points. The documentation of Friends projects can be sporadic, if for no other reason than the work can proceed rather slowly and each project does not demand the attention of a full-time chronicler.

The projects I have participated on have often had a bit of archeology in the beginning: what will we encounter when we take it apart? To my mind, this is the greatest benefit to documenting the work, showing what is behind all that sheathing.

Many of the narrow gauge freight cars have similar fundamental structures, and these are mostly wood. Box cars, stock cars, refers and cabeese are all very similar, and the high-side gons differ just a bit. The odd balls are the drop bottom gons, which are truly composite creatures (I do not look forward to the day when someone has to replace the GIANT rivet at the truck bolster!). And of course, the tank cars are all steel. Passenger cars are box cars with platforms bolted/ strapped/ hung on the ends and sheathed inside and out: true mysteries.

The car men passed down most of the tips and tricks to fix these structures from person to person. I find it truly fascinating how it is possible to repair severe damage to a box car without disassembling the whole works, and am impressed in images where it is being done outdoors in less than ideal conditions! I recall seeing one of the D&RGW fellow's fine--I mean REALLY FINE--set of chisels. When you get down to it, the joint work is pretty basic and involves some care in drilling and chiseling and fitting. (and chiseling and fitting again.) Some thought is needed for the proper order of assembly. For my money, having some good photos of the disassembly with some brief notes would be about as good as it gets: any more might ruin some of the fun (no disrespecting you for sticking with 0579 to the end of the rainbow!).

Incidentally, to anyone out there reading who is a modeler and has not attended a work session, I suggest you sign up right away. Working on a team repairing/ rebuilding a car is very rewarding, makes clear the purpose of all those bolts, can explain how a grab iron is really attached, and generally makes you appreciate a sense of scale: how that retainer casting that wants to jet of into the abyss of floor could really hurt if you dropped the real thing on your foot.

(I also recommend you not accidently drop a tool into a refer ice bunker if your waist is more than 32" in circumference, or someone smaller than that is not handy to retrieve the tool).

Keith