I finished putting the boards around the rear platform. I put a key ignition switch in the dash instead of a toggle switch. A battery from the museum was put in the battery box.

Monday April 29, Steve drove me over to Add lumber in his pick up truck and I bought a 4x8 sheet of ¾ treated plywood. I painted both sides of the plywood and cut it to fit the rear platform of the speeder. I put the left over piece in the front platform.

I went up to the museum April 4,5 I removed the old brake shoes and blocks. I mounted the new brakes shoes. I need to work on the adjustment so that the two sides come in contact at the same time. I drilled holes and bolted the new cross members in place. I put a manual choke on the carburetor.

New wood on the front & rear platforms

I had previously bought and cut out six 2x6 treated lumber cross members for the platform on the front and rear of the speeder. I took them up to the museum. I removed the rotted wood from the front and rear platform. I had planned to put the new 2x6 on the platform but I didn’t have time so I put them in the cab. I put a new air cleaner on the Ford motor.

New brake shoes

Dec 19 I drove down to the Fredricksburg car shops (about 2 hrs away) to buy some cast brake shoes for the speeder. I bought 4 brake shoes (2 were missing from the car). When I went to the museum I noticed that the wood blocks on our car were ½ inch wider than the blocks that came with the new shoes. My friend and I made new wood blocks.

Christmas at the Station

Saturday Dec 1 2012 was a nice day. I went up to the museum for Christmas at the station. It was a great day with a very large crowd of people. I made a video of the caboose hop. I drained the old gas from the gas tank on the A6 speeder and put in some fresh gas and some gas stabilizer. I did not want to run bad gas through the new carburetor. I disconnected the temporary plastic gas tank and connected the line from the fuel pump to the carb. I bought a tube of silicone and caulked the seams on the roof of the car. I removed the corner brackets for the front and rear platforms to wire brush and paint. I measured all the wood dimensions to make all new treated wood. I replaced the missing brake lever. When the brakes didn’t work I saw that the front brake shoes were missing. I hope to be able to find new brake shoes for the car.

I went up to the museum Sat Nov 10. I took a battery and a rebuilt carburetor for the Ford engine. The first thing that I wanted to see was if the battery would turn over the engine. It did crank over so I installed the carburetor. I didn’t know the condition of the gas tank and fuel pump so I hooked up a temporary gas tank which was gravity flow to the carb. Next I checked for spark. I disconnected the high tension wire from the coil and held it against the valve cover while I cranked it over. There was no spark. I took the distributer cover off and sanded the points. After a couple tries I had spark. I poured some gas in the carburetor and cranked it over. I ran about 10 seconds and then stopped. I had to do that a couple times to get gas in different parts of the carb. After that it ran pretty well. Sunday Nov. 11 was a beautiful day with a high in the upper 60’s. I went to the store and got a gallon of Safety Yellow paint, a brush and a roller. I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel to knock off the rust blisters. I brushed and rolled the paint on the sheet metal. Monday Chas and I took a lot of heavy metal out of the car. Things that looked like RR parts we put in the freight house.