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Weekly News January 17, 2005Description
It's 17 degrees outside so a good time to send the weekly news. Things were quiet around here today and I worked for a while on the Model K. Bill Rule stopped in after lunch but otherwise no visitors. He wanted to show me the superheater out of his Packard steamer, and the changes he proposes to make. He also left some metal tape for repairing the lower seam in the water tank on the Model CX, in case Jim is not successful in soldering it.
Jerry Lucas and Jim Personti made major improvements in the CX last Thursday. The steering is tightened up, the oil pump is rebuilt (and works like a charm), and the linkage for the hand fuel pump works great. On Saturday, Bill Schwoebel and Butch came in the afternoon, fired up the car, and gave it a short run. No problems developed that we didn't know about, and with some last-minute touch-up and tuning, it should be ready to head for Ormond Beach in about a week. The event there will give us a chance for some good publicity, as we think the CX will be the only 1905 car there (100 years old).
Our Management Chart, revised several times, is hopefully in its near-final form, subject to approval by the Management Group which meets Tuesday night, Jan. 18. We have many of you targeted for leadership roles in various areas of responsibility, and we hope you are willing to do this when asked. This group's agenda also includes more planning for the Annual Meeting on February 3. We are now approaching 30 paid members in the FAHP.
Mechanical projects are not as urgent right now, but in addition to the CX and the K, which are in the upper garage, a railroad coach is also there. Steve Jensen, Anne Cleary, and others working on it determined that an almost-certain derailing cause was the weak coil springs in the trucks. We had a few heavier springs on hand, and Steve was going to try to find more, so we can do all trucks on these 4 cars. There are 8 springs per truck, or 16 per car. Emil and Jerry Novak, with the help of "Bucky", got the electric motor back in the Rauch & Lang last week, and it is ready to be hooked up. Rose Ann is still tidying up the Museum and taking down the last of our Christmas decorations, and issuing membership cards as the checks come in. The Maute boys continue cataloguing photos and connected material in our library. Butch has worked hard on refining our Public Events flyer for 2005, and he will proceed further when we establish a budget for printing these. We are thinking we will need between 5,000 and 6,000 for the whole season. Emil is on his way to California for a week, and Chuck Erikson on an assignment to Brazil for about 2 weeks. Chuck has been there several times before. He has worked tirelessly twice a week, not only in sorting bolts, screws, etc., in the shop, but in rebuilding them so they are as good as new. A great service to us when we need something quickly. This project is on hold until his return.
You will get tired of hearing about the Annual Meeting Feb. 3, but as reported earlier it will be held in the Museum here at 7:30 P.M. We hope all of you will want to come and participate. Please save the date. If I forgot something important, it won't be the first time. Please forgive. Happy Mid-Winter! Br..r..r..r..
Tom
