Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

The first shot is of the sand blasting 'camp'

Great photos Rich, even though we had about 50 feet or so between our two tankers and Don's RPO car, we still managed to flock it with a liberal amount of sand blasting dust. OOPS!

Russ Hanskom and his OP derrick team doesn't sit around, first they finish OP, test it, now they are working on building an enclosed wood rack so we can keep future project wood out of the dirt and weather.

I am sure proud of my team, we sandblasted those two tank cars down to bare metal, and it only took about SIX TONS of sand! Then cleaned them, (and today without any help from me), Andy, Al, and George primed BOTH CARS in less than ONE DAY!

TWO tank cars sandblasted, and completely primed in less than FOUR DAYS. These are Get-R-Done guys, and I got to work with them.

BTW, after the shot of the camp I went down to see Don. He had what looked like most of the mail racks in now AND he said the plumbing was done under the car. It looked good under there, chuck full of stuff. I wasn't about to open my lens up just then as the wind was blowing from the camp and the air was full of abrasive dust. I wanted to come back later but...... Stuff happens.
If some one can get over there, there are now two things worth photographing. The painted tank cars and the rpo plumbing.

Rich: Did Don say anything about what is left to finish in the interior?

The interior appears to be complete. BUT, anyone who has ever done any restoration work will attest to the truth of this; "It is never completely finished."
There is always something more you want to do.

Do you know if there are lights in the car?

Craig,I afraid I don't know the answer to that. I'll see if I can't find out for you.

Craig, as of session F there were no lights inside the car. Don Bayer told me that the lighting taken out upon beginning the restoration was installed by penetrating the roof at every light! Given all the work he did to get the RPO water tight, he wasn't about to take that approach to lighting the interior and I think he was leaning toward some battery powered lights inside to obviate the need for the approach the Grande took. Of course, I would suspect that would be dependent upon finding battery powered replica lighting. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the update.

Thank you Vance.
Craig, I apologize for dropping the ball.