Oyster Bay Railroad Museum to obtain "Ping Pong"

[MADDOG]

Hi Al,
I already have the numberboards made up in white lucite (?)the engineers side will read 1964 and the firemans side will read 1834.
Unlike the fair, I am installing red & green lenses in the front of the numberboards as these will look great at nite with the headlight shining! Still not sure if we will leave the front coupler in place. After next weeks final painting session we will will install the working air horns and build a staircase & platform as we are planning to open up the display area for the Oyster Festival in October.
MADDOG

[RGlueck]

Are any of the exhibits now standing in their final position, in line with the turn table?  IIRC, you have four permanent exhibits on site at present; two cabooses, the WF cab, and a P54 coach.  Consider placing the G5s cab next to the FA1 cab for the upcoming exhibit.  A quick coat of paint would make it look presentable.  When will you bring the remaining equipment to Oyster Bay?  There is a steel caboose, a New Haven 40 foot boxcar, and a P72, if I recall.  Yes, I know space is limited!

For me, a day without whine is like a day of vacation.

[MADDOG]

Hi Richard.
 I have three beauties at home who "whine" when they want to go out for a quick walk. My boxer Roxey has a bad habit of sniffiing her harness and crying!.
Anyhow, since the turntable has not yet been finished, we cannot start receiving our other cars. Once we finish up the turntable, we will start removing everything from the southeast corner of the turntable until we finish all the way up to #35's boiler. After that we should be in a position to start laying track inside that area which would allow us room to start placing our 'fleet".  By the end of September, we should also have finished our LIRR crossing shanty. One of our volunteers is a carpenter and I must say after working with him on this piece, a true craftsman. Nothing is in line with the turntable yet and we will be receiving the 2 LIRR 25 ton diesel switchers on Tuesday Sept 15th. The crane and riggers are ready & waiting!!!
#35's cab is out of the way at the present and presents a bit of a safety concern for us, so we will be limiting the scope of travel within our site. The turntable is behind a low fence at the present time and only the 4 other pieces will be open to the public as will the Museum preview center at 102 Audrey Ave.
As always-time, money and able hands. Something I know other rr museums don't have enough of !
MADDOG

[MADDOG]

A follow up to past postings,
With a generous contribution from the LIST chapter NRHS, we have begun the restoration of former LIRR P54 #7433.
Our interns from Barry Technical School (BOCES) welding department began by cutting out one of the 4 corners of the car beginning just left of the side door. The area where the roof sheet meets the side wall is the most susceptable to moisture intrusion. Its strange that when they removed the angle straps that were riveted to both sheets on the insde of the car, they found that the inner roof sheet doesn't go all the way down to the side sheet. There is a significant gap that gets filled when tehe angle gets riveted in place.
As the outer roof sheet has a slight upcurved lip, at the edge,  to help drain water, we have found that the numerous application of roofing tar has straightened out the angle which helps the water to displace itself from the "gutter". This causes the water to sit and eventually migrate up the inside of the sheet into the insulation between the two roof sheets.
We left the first area open over the past 2 weeks to dry out and  will begin patching in new metal this coming Saturday.
MADDOG

[Block Limit]

I'm glad to see this finally coming along. If I had weekends off I would come up give a hand.
Considering that the P54 did run within the last 10 or so years could this car be restored to operational-static condition.
The P54 should be restored to a point where it can one day be operated again.  Even if it means swapping it's trucks out with a more acceptable truck.

[MADDOG]

I'm glad to see this finally coming along. If I had weekends off I would come up give a hand.
Considering that the P54 did run within the last 10 or so years could this car be restored to operational-static condition.
The P54 should be restored to a point where it can one day be operated again.  Even if it means swapping it's trucks out with a more acceptable truck.

I see no reason, other than the LIRR, that this car cannot be ridden after its restoration.
We will have to swap out or rebuild the trucks either way, though.
MADDOG

[Block Limit]

So I gather that when done the car should be operational? 
Will the tucks be swapped or rebuilt? or will that only be done if the railroad agrees to let it run?
With swapped out trucks of a different type, the car should provide a smoother ride? The original P54 trucks were supposed to temporary or so I read.

[MADDOG]

Once we finish everything else on the car, My plans are to raise the car up and pull one truck at time out so we can steam blast the crud off of it. Then we will have an expert come in and see if the entire assembly CAN be welded together.
This is a similar issue we have with the tender trucks for #35. The truck frames are riveted and they will have to be fully welded as well in order to pass muster. I feel that this can be done without sacrificing the "originality".
If the FRA told the LIRR back in 1950 that all riveted steam locomotive tender trucks HAD to be welded, the LIRR would have complied immediately.
MADDOG