Huber Breaker Preservtion Society Mine car restoration

Very nice work DON, You and your boys should be proud.  Keep us posted on when it gets on the rails. 

laz1957 posted:

Very nice work DON, You and your boys should be proud.  Keep us posted on when it gets on the rails. 

We are enjoying the challenge. I will post updates on the second phase, which will be the sheathing on the car. The wood is ordered from a local saw mill.

With the help of 3 young capable men, my son Mark, Matt, a recent high school graduate who is a member of our preservation society, and Nick, a co restorer from our switchman shanty restoration project, we were able to assemble the wood sub structure onto the wheels. Weeks of work on the beams was done in my back yard. This included pre drilling as many of the bolt holes as possible, cutting notches, and staining and sealing the beams. 

Nice!

A labor of love for sure, thank you for posting pictures! Very nice that your boys are involved with this restoration, keeping the younger generation involved is key to saving things from our past that would otherwise be discarded and or scrapped. I look forward to seeing future progress on this project!

Rusty

Great work DON!!!!  Love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks Montclaire, Rusty and Laz. This has been a great project up to this point. I am looking forward to the placement of the hopper onto the base. Our next project is in the works, as we are in the process of acquiring a "Lokie", a small steam engine used to shuttle the mine cars. It is operational, but needs some work before it can be used. We have applied for some grants, and have some fund raising ideas on the table. we work in close association with other like minded organizations, and one in particular, The Underground Miners, has offered to donate 300 feet of rail towards our cause. They also want to display several pieces of their collection at our park. Good things appear to be on the horizon!

The hopper and frame are now joined. Thanks to Ashley borough and Bob Hess the hopper placement was a snap with the borough back hoe handling the lifting duties. Bolt placement was at nearly 50%, with 7 of the 16 mounting bolts lining up. Tomorrow, I'll do a little reaming and place the remaining bolts through the hopper and the sill beams into the  wheel carriers. Several lag bolts through the end angle irons and the 4 tabs that hang down over the carriers, and this puppy is ready for the side and end boards. There will be a false bottom, and a load of coal chunks should be here by month's end. 

The mine car is basically complete, except for a few bolts that need to be tightened requiring a helper. I need eight 4 inch lags for one end and the spreader bar. I will be making a false bottom about 8 inches from the top, and we will be getting a load of raw coal at the end of the month from a group called "The Underground Miners".

Except for the coal, the car is complete! I put a false bottom eight inches from the top using 3/4" plastic sheathing on white oak framing that is wedged in place. I cut two pieces of felt paper to lay on top of the plastic to cover any spaces between the coal.

I take it that no metal was painted on these cars?

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I take it that no metal was painted on these cars?

No, the board members wanted it left as is. I coated it with Penetrol. I was going to use Ospho, but since that tends to turn the oxidation black, it was suggested by someone on another forum to use Penetrol. It works very well. I did use a mixture of Lamp Black and water to weather the wood, and applied a coat of satin water base urethane to seal the Lamp Black.

Way to go DON!!!!

Sounds like them boys are BOOTLEGGERS?

laz1957 posted:

Way to go DON!!!!

Sounds like them boys are BOOTLEGGERS?

Thanks George. Next time you're up north, stop and visit the park.