What I did this week

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Well, i built a box car. It wasn't quite shake the box, but more like full sized!

Down at the Pemberton Historic Trust railroad museum, they just bought a new, very clean former Rock Island PS-1 50' boxcar. All the pieces arrived this past Monday, and we did prep work then. My girlfriend and I went down and gave them a hand, clearing snow and moving over an old PRR N5C to make room for the new box car. we initially tried pushing it with a tractor, but there was to much snow. Once we dug the snow and ice out, it was easy enough to push the caboose over.

I took this picture of her single handedly pushing the caboose after i got it rolling with a car mover (not sure what the name of the tool is, but is like a lever that you push the wheels with).



We both learned to use the break wheel, and how to pry open really old brakes!




The trucks arrived later that day, followed by the boxcar itself around 6 PM.





the next morning, on the 22nd, we put it all together. fork lifts helped us put the trucks on the rails, and then we rolled them to the correct distances.



After this stage, the ground got muddy and we had to wait for the rigging crew to bring in steel plates to run on. While this was going on, a few interesting things flew by.

A Bald Eagle apparently was curious about the commotion and soared overhead for quite a while.



A flight of A10s also streaked across the sky. This one made a tight bank right just after the photo was taken.



after the steel plates were placed, the boxcar was set up on blocks and the large forklift lifted the load up onto the trucks.



this guy was a little brave going under the car...



In the end though, we got it all together! We put the couplers on a little while later.