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Here I am driving in 1 of the 3500+ rivets. This has
got to be the most monotonous task I have ever performed.
My good friend Joe (the Vice President of the JLS Railroad)
came out to the shop one day to help with the riveting process.
The complete riveting job took about 3 weeks, working
4 to 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. The finished product speaks
volumes, beautiful, well worth the aggravation.
The completed car, all rivets installed except the
ends.
A closeup of the rivet job.
At this point, the riveting has been entirely completed.
The ends constructed and attached as well. I am in the process
of bluing the areas where hand railings and ladders will be attached
at a later date.
Construction of an item as simple as a door is incredibly
time consuming as well, taking around a month from beginning to
the point where the doors were attached to the car and working
properly (again working on average 4 to 5 days a week, 8 hours
per day). The doors are aluminum like the rest of the car, right
along with all the riveting detail.
The completed doors. Now all that is left is to fabricate
the door guides, tracks and hardware such as hinges and latches.
