918 December 2004 update

918 December 2004 update 918
December 2004 Update

Due to the generally bad weather, progress slowed down a little this month. Nevertheless, work continued...

Fuel tank skirts and nose bondo...

	Early in the month it was decided to back the locomotive up a few feet and clean the pit. This was to facilitate work being done on the brakes.

	Work continued on nose bondo - a seemingly never ending job.

	The very last patch of Perlman green, just ahead of the cab door on the right side.

	More bondo...

	Preparing the fuel tank skirt for paint.

	View down the right side of the locomotive. Almost looks done from this angle.

	Fuel tank was repainted black. Notice the new support brackets for the skirt.

	New skirt for the left side. Don McPherson designed and fabricated these after looking at many photos of WP f-units. No drawings or diagrams were available.

Headlight and Number board boxes

	918 had been in a number of collisions in the past. The number board boxes took quite a beating in their time. There was also quite a bit of water damage from water getting past the bezel gaskets. Here Don is seen welding in more metal onto the lower edges of the box. This was quite frustrating for him as every time he applied heat to this area, the existing metal would disintegrate.

	Metal work done on the right number box. Bondo will follow later.

	Close up look at the rust inside the number board box.

	After the rust was cleaned up and the metal treated with Rust Mort, the number box was repainted interior suede gray.

	Headlight bezel with old gasket. See January '05 update for restoration photos.

	View inside headlight compartment.

	Headlight before restoration.

	The headlight was cleaned up and the back side repainted silver. The wires were re-wrapped as well.

	View showing the builder's plate. This was made by Pyle - National.

	The builder's logo is etched in the glass mirror. If you look closely you can see the manufacture date - 7 - 49. This is probably the original headlight since 918 was finished in January 1950.

The roof got an extra coat of black paint this month too.

On Saturday December 11 we were visited by several of our local
railfan friends. Walt, John Stashik, Harry Wong chat with Howard Wise.

One last view of WP 713 before it heads to the canyon with the Black Widows and the rest of the
PLA equipment that has been stored here for more than 15 years.

Photos and text by Dan Furtado

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