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From: MDelvec952 mdelvec952 AT aol DOT com
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:52:34 -0400
Subject: DL&W F3 Volunteer -- Good bye, Gray Ghost
"Tri-State_F3_Scranton_7-4-2010_021.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1600x1120 (24bit)




Greetings, all, and Happy July 4th. It's been a while since typing. The heat caused a power outage at home on newsletter night, and when the power came back 27 hours later, the home computer had the benz and wasn't working, and we still have boxes to move and unpack. All is back in shape at home. How many among us fans of steam era technology hung a 48-star flag? There's one at my house, and 48-star flags have been on the engine at Steamtown. We have to be careful as the Park can only display the current U.S. flag.

Tri-State's F-Troop worked the entirety of July 4th Weekend in Scranton. It was hot. It was very hot. Masking is long and tedious work, moreso in the heat. And we can now see what took ARHS the five weeks to finish -- hats off to ARHS for finishing the 664 when it did.

While the work is time-consuming, we're doing a great job on the masking. The nose curves are on and masked -- that complicated design is within 1/8" of symetrical, which is quite a feat. The top stripe is masked on both sides. All that's left to mask is the chicken wire on the fireman's side and then to cover the entirety of the unit to protect from overspray. What I hope is about four hours of masking remaining and then we can start painting.

July 10th weekend saw little done in Scranton. Tony Traglia, who has been helping us with the painting chores, went to the hospital later in the week for what we hope resulted in a minor cardiac procedure. We are certainly praying for a problem to stay minor, and we're waiting for news. In the event that Tony can't continue in the next week or so, we've engaged another painter who is on stand by. We hope to be painting later this week and into the weekend.

What we discovered over July 4th weekend is that we can use many more hands during the masking process. A few can do the measuring and critical edge masking, while others can follow behind with rolls of paper and plastic to cover the big areas. With four more people we could have covered the entire carbody as needed for the first color. Rotating crews during the heat would have made the job much easier as well. Our plan is to paint the maroon areas first, then cover the maroon to shoot the yellow. Then, we'll cover the yellow to shoot the three inches of black along the frame. Enough hands will help keep our schedule.

While this coming weekend's work sessions can't be nailed down exactly yet until we see what Tony's availability will be, and what circumstances at work for me will be, we will be doing something. Some notes from people who can make it would be appreciated -- remember, we're required to wear name tags and I have to make them up. There might be weekdays involved either side of the weekend. It's important that once we start painting, that we keep painting. If all goes well, we should be able to finish the striping in three or four days, with the masking requiring far more time than painting

Right now we're in a bit of a quandry in that we're running the risk of our masking tape being on the locomotive too long, and of that first coat of paint being on too long to cover again without some sort of preparation. Before moving on we'll have to look over the masking and fix what needs it, reinforce what's there, etc., and test the paint for its ability to adhere to more paint. There are a few methods available to allow us to properly paint over the gray. There are a couple of places under the yellow that we'd like to sand to smooth a little. We're probably looking at three to four days to finish the striping. The Park people have been terrific about keeping the F3 out of the sun as much as possible.

The other big project that was completed July 4th weekend was moving us out of the roundhouse. All of the accumulated stuff that we had on pallets in the roundhouse is now organized, cleaned up and inside the carbody, thanks to the fastidious efforts of Tom Kelcec. As the volunteers return to Scranton most of the loaned tools and hoses, etc., can be returned. So many thanks for those who lent and / or gave us tools and material.

In other news, we regret to announce that we did not get the NRHS Heritage Grant that we had requested. With the painting process taking longer than we thought, the NRHS leaves us a little short in our financial plans, so we'll continue our fund raising efforts. Thanks to the generous gifts from so many people, NRHS Chapters and our many friends, we have just enough money to complete the painting process. Future monies will go toward the mechanical issues so that we can see them pulling trains in September. There is a button on the Tri-State web site that directs contributors to our Ticket Turtle page -- point, click and support. Very easy. www.tristaterail.org.

Stay tuned for news on the upcoming sessions. Some pictures from July 4th weekend follow.

Mike Del Vecchio


Below: Let the striping begin. On Friday 7/2 sign painter Dave Rush joined us. In this photo he is double checking the stripes for straighness. Note his near-perfect reflection in the gray paint. Tony Traglia did a great job, and praise is heard by almost everyone who passes the work site.




Tony, below, and I are laying out the bell curve on the nose using the EMD drawings blown up by Steamtown Graphics on Mulberry Street to actual size. Dave Rush rolled a pounce wheel over the lines on the drawing, which perforates the paper. Dabbing some charcoal powder through the holes leaves a line on the paint for masking that's easily removable when it's time to paint. This is the same method that painters at LaGrange used when painting F3s in 1948.




Below, I'm dabbing the perforated line with the charcoal powder.





Below: Drawing a line through the chicken wire required a lot of measuring and double checking. We masked to that line, and in between every area of the chicken wire. No matter how careful we mask, it appears we'll need to touch up the area with a brush afterward. By now, how many of you noticed the pencil is at 44 on the ruler -- the former Bangor & Aroostook road number of the 663, BAR 44. Nope, that wasn't an accident.





So long, gray ghost... At the end of the third day of masking in the hot sun, I am covering the nose herald before 663 gets pushed into the shop for the night. The careful measuring on the herald is to ensure the correct 1/2" maroon border surrounds the herald. The nose curved turned out very well, within an 1/8" of perfect symmetry. We can't wait to see the final result. The light black line for the lower maroon stripe can be seen over the ventilator, the result of a pounce wheel and charcoal bag. For those eye-balling the masking job, the brown tape is layed over the blue tape, which is difficult to see in the photo next to the lighter brown tape. Notice that this same EMD paint design was used by the Frisco. If anyone restores a Frisco F-unit, we can help lay out the nose curves and stripes.
--47681641-3c5e-460c-a088-2b2f76c29f44

Tri-State_F3_Scranton_7-4-2010_021.jpg

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