Restoring the details...

When restoring a railroad car, there is the major work on the car, but there are also the many small details that need to be restored as well.   In this case, the restoration of the bathroom mirror in ex-New York Central Empire State Express coach #2657 which is seeing an interior restoration in the R&GVRRM's shop.

We have a lot left to do on the #2567 including repainting the bathroom.   Thus the mirror need to be taken down and itself needed some restoration work to return it to its former shine and function.    Here are a few images of the progress on the restoration of this mirror which was install in the car by the New York Central when the car was converted from a 56-seat long distance coach to an 80-seat commuter car in the late 1960s.

The mirror is a combination of chrome and aluminum pieces.   It includes a light on top which turns on by a small switch on the lower right front of the mirror.   The light bulb is actually an incandescent fixture and uses a GE light bulb called a Lumiline bulb.   Amazingly, these bulbs are still being made by GE although they are now very expensive after once being very common in bathroom type fixture likes this one.

In a stroke of good luck, the mirror actually comes apart.  The glass mirror was removable from the frame and the light sockets unscrew from the frame.  This made cleanup much easier which included a general wash with soap and water, followed by a treatment with Duro aluminum cleaner and then followed by a polishing with Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish.   As for today, all of the parts have been cleaned and the mirror is starting to go back together which will include new wiring.   Look for pictures soon of the completely restored mirror.
Top corner of the mirror before dis-assembly showing corrosion from 40+ years of service.
Before cleaning (left) and after cleaning (right) of the light sockets.

"Looking back" - A new R&GVRRM video series

To better understand where you are, you need to look back at where you came from. This is the first video of a new series that will look at different events from around the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum from several years past.

On March 13, 1999, we find a sunny, but snow covered Saturday at the R&GVRRM. With the road to the then new restoration shop covered in over a foot of snow, the front loader started to plow the road only to find the slopped edge of the road where it stayed. Undaunted, museum volunteer, George Knab, went off to get a machine to both handle the snow and handle pulling out the loader, the museum's 1950s vintage cable blade Caterpillar D7 dozer!

We see George handle the snow and then pull out the loader. Alas only four short years later, we would lose George. To this day, he is greatly missed, but not forgotten. We hope you enjoy the video and we always welcome people to come to visit & volunteer to see where we are now after looking back...

Latest newsletter available - February 2010

Interested to learn more about what is going on with the Rochester Chapter NRHS and the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum?   Read the February 2010 issue of our newsletter, The Semaphore, online in PDF.    And if you want to read more, please check out our online newsletter archive.

Dental work complete!

With the broken tooth successfully extracted, a new digging tooth was acquired and is seen here in the process of being welded into place.    The museum's backhoe is one of several pieces of heavy equipment the museum relies on constantly so it is important to have it ready to go!
 
At the other end of the shop, the museum's Trojan loader was getting new filters, new fluids, a good greasing, and new fan belts.   Once the loader work is complete within the next work session or two, the museum plans to bring in its Huber-Warco road grader for some hydraulic cylinder work and some routine maintenance.    The Huber can be seen here working to grade last fall for the museum's new west siding.


The museum always welcomes new people interested in helping to maintain our heavy equipment fleet.   Please stop by during one of our work sessions or contact us here.

Time for a little dental work...

Even with winter having its firm grip on the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, restoration and maintenance still continues in the museum's shop during both the Tuesday and Saturday work sessions.    The shops allows our volunteers to work out of the weather, and improvements to the shop are constantly being made.   The next planned improvement is to start to install the concrete floor in the shop with funds coming from our 'Building Tracks to the Future' annual fund drive.

On Tuesday evening, 2/2/2010, it was time for our Case 560 Super K backhoe to get a little dental work done to its bucket to remove a broken tooth in preparation to weld and bolt on a new tooth in preparation for the spring work around the museum.    Museum volunteers, Rob Burz (pictured below), Pete Gores, and Chad Timothy took turns grinding and then finally using "a bigger hammer" removed the broken tooth.