B&SR Box Car 56 - Official Work Thread

[Stephen Piwowarski]

I believe Marcel said his intention was to utilize original sheathing to make the doors, if possible.

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

That is good.

But the cost of lumber is increasing and the old stuff is "Old Growth"
that is mostly not available any more. If the museum is going to continue
repairing house(sheathed) cars it may pay to invest in a finger jointer.

But then I am old fashioned, reactionary, and make Scrooge look like a spendthrift.
Alain knows what I mean 

[John Kokas]

Actually, lumber prices are falling and in certain areas, suppliers are already referring to the upcoming lumber glut.  I know in my area dimensional lumber is almost the same price it was 18 months ago.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Good piece of news given you use much more wood than metal.

[Brendan Barry]

Siding going on the boxcar.

[Bill Reidy]

Terrific progress by Marcel and folks assisting.  He has put in quite an effort to complete the car's framing the past few months, evident in the second photo showing the car's interior.

Thanks for posting these photos and others on the forum, Brendan.

[Bill Baskerville]

Great Photos!  Now Box Car 56 really looks like a box car!.  That Marcel is both skilled, persistent and talented.  He also works very hard to preserve every scrap of lumber that comes with any project.  I am sure he could have built a brand new box car in less time than it took him to preserve so much of the original #56.  But as a museum, that is an important part of our charter.  Well Done Marcel!

[Dana Deering]

Thanks to all of the pre-planning and preparation by Marcel and to his expert guidance, the sheathing crew was able to get the east and west walls nearly all closed in. A little was left undone on each side so that the corners could be completed at a later date. Marcel still needs to do some adjusting to make the corners come out right.  Once that is done the south end of the car can be closed in. Marcel had already done the north end by himself!   Kyle Blanchette and Nicole Ormimski worked on the west wall while Dan Malkowski, Nick Simoneau, and Yours Truly worked the west side. Marcel provided the supervision and worked both sides as needed. The result is truly a testimony to Marcel’s meticulous skill.  It was fun to get a break from track work and to contribute my two cents to the restoration of a B&SR car.

[Bob Holmes]

I had understood from Marcel that 56 was going to be restored to a configuration that included windows as it was used as a cattle car -- probably unique to the railroad. I have always been excited about this particular plan. 

Is this no longer the case??  That would be unfortunate because rather than being just another box car, it would be recreating another wonderfully quirky aspect of our favorite 2ft Maine railroad.

Bob

[Dana Deering]

He is going to cut out the windows later.

[John Kokas]

I thought #56 was to become the MOW / tool car.  Has this changed ?

[Jason M Lamontagne]

We still plan to use 56 as a tool car.  Restoration is looking great!

Thanks,
Jason

[Wayne Laepple]

I am still wondering about this tool car idea. We have two tool houses. I will guarantee that every time someone needs a tool from the tool car, and it's parked up on the Woods Track or somewhere else, that tool will NEVER be returned to its place. I can also guarantee that any time the tool car is needed, it will require half a day of switching to retrieve it.

[James Patten]

AND, Wayne, the tool you need will be guaranteed to be at the other end of the line, even if you have the toolcar with you.

[Bill Baskerville]

AND, Wayne, the tool you need will be guaranteed to be at the other end of the line, even if you have the toolcar with you.

Absolutely Guaranteed!!!  Perhaps we should make an inventory list of where tools are located:  toolcar, track house, other location.  That way when we need a tool, we can at least know where to start looking for where the tool WAS located at some previous time.

This would be an aside task to occasionally park the tool car by the track house and relocate tools to their supposed to be proper location.