Mr. Knebel has started in on our Erie Lackawanna commuter coach #3328. Built for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western as their number 676, it has a long history including ending up at the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, from where it was acquired.

The first photo shows the car shortly after its arrival at HVRM last year. The second shot shows the roof this week after Mark had cleaned it up and the last photo shows about half of the roof in Rustoleum primer.

Two work photos by Mark Knebel with the "roster shot" by yours truly.


Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Les, you & the rest of the gang are an inspiration to all restorers across the US.
You certainly have my congrats and respect. Thank you for sharing.

Tom -

Thanks for the kind words. Mark finished putting the primer on the roof of EL 3328 and then applied a coat of black paint, which he states is ACE brand Rustplate. Photos are below.

Les

Les, I find myself once again expressing my admiration to your group for the quality of
work that they accomplish. Keep it up.

Les --- What Tom said, sure wish I could get Mark to paint up my little Audrey someday.

Take Care & WORK SAFE

Ditto Tom and Sammy. I'm jealous.

I would love to see a rundown on the how and materials used...

What prep...

What primer, how applied

What paint, how applied

Any "learning moments"

Thanks...

Randy -

Prep: Mark tells me that he uses a Makita 4" grinder with wire cups to clean old and flaking paint and hand held wire brushes in hard to reach places. He used aluminum tape to cover holes and smeared some ProFlex on the top roof sections where old foot boards and electricals were removed.

Primer: Brand noted previously.

Paint: Brand noted previously

Application of both was mostly with rollers (different widths) with paint brushes used in tight areas.

He uses our old man lift to get up to the roof, as perhaps can be seen in previous photos. Hope this info is of some help.


Les

Mark was able to get some work in recently and the results are shown in the following photo. North side and east end of the car have now been cleaned and primed. Late today, with the assistance of museum members Bing Risley and Bob Albert, Mark was able to use our Purdue crane to move the car off of the "hill" to a place where he will now be able to use our lift to access the other side of the roof of EL 3328. Two things will limit future work on the car this year; how northern Indiana's weather holds up and a November 11th date that Mark has to get his hand surgically fixed.

Les

Due to a nice sunny day in the low 60's, Mark states he was able to get about 5 hours of work in on the roofs south side today. He states that there were more holes to patch than on the north (finished) side of the roof. Some photos of the holes are attached. A few additional shots will follow.

Les

Here are a couple of additional hole photos that Mark took today including one showing that he managed to get one end, perhaps half, of that side of the roof painted with primer.

Les

Couple of good weather days this past week, including a bright sunny day on 10/27 with temps in the 60's. This enabled Mark to metal tape bad spots and apply a coating of ProFlex to the tape. Additional primer was put on and then on the 27th, Mark was able to give most of the cars south roof "wing" a coat of black paint. A couple of photos are attached. The lower half of the curved roof on the west end still needs to be done, however the car will have to be moved again so that the lift can be put in a place where it can be utilized for that work.

Weather for this upcoming week is not favorable, with high temps in the 40's with periods of rain.

Les

Metal tape ??? It's a pity I live too far away to go around ahead of Mark with a cutting torch and MIG machine. Looks the same under paint, I guess. (I should talk, MY engine still has rotten spots covered with Gorilla Tape.)

You're right, if the group has someone who can do those things. But I think a lot of restoration projects stall because of the lack of a skilled metal worker, and the objects deteriorate while waiting for someone who can "do it right", I agree with the path HVRM has taken here.

I agree with that approach, also. Done right it gets the car water-tight and not looking like scrap until you can devote the resources to patch it with steel. I foresee having to do something very similar in our near future until we get a good welder on board and learn to hot rivet properly. Once upon a time, when dinosaurs still roamed freely, I could stick weld but I'd hate to see the splattery mess I'd make of it nowadays.