918 March 2005 update

918 March 2005 update 918
March 2005 Update

Priorities for this month include work on the trucks, getting the loose parts back on the locomotive and try to get some painting done - weather permitting. Don McPherson, Jon Vlasak and Don Pomplun have been busy getting the trailing truck brake parts tightened up and repainted. Al Fowler and Guy Kelly has been working on the cab interior. Window mechanisms need rebuilding and glass replaced. I've been trying to get whatever painting I can do between the storms. This month the fuel tank skirts got painted silver, and half the pilot got striped. Finally, on Thursday the 31st, the right side was painted silver.,

	Fuel tank skirts with fresh paint.

	Same, other side.

	Don and Guy working on trailing truck brake hardware.

	Back door was finally repaired and repainted. This finishes up the back end of the locomotive.

	Number board boxes are finally complete. 918 is wearing the original style "EMD" plates that she was delivered in. 918 probably never ran a revenue run with these boards as WP quickly replaced them with letter suffix boards. These will be used for special occasions, and the suffix boards will normally be used.

	EMD drawing of front of F7. This is what they used to paint the locomotives at the factory. EMD blueprints courtesy of Portola Railroad Museum.

	The left side of the pilot was painted on 3/15. It was decided that 918 will be painted in "as delivered" scheme, which means pilot stripes rather than solid orange pilot. Masking this has proved to be a bit of a challenge. First, the center of the pilot had to be located. This was done by finding the center of the buffer plate and taking a string straight down. At that point the only instruction are to alternate the stripes at a 45 degree angle every 6 inches. This took the better part of the afternoon to get it the way I wanted it.

	I tried using string to get the lines right, but that didn't help much. The compound curves of the pilot really made it confusing for me.

	By the next day I got it about the way I wanted it. Or at least I hoped...

	Orange paint applied.

	2 hours later I removed the tape. I think I can live with this. Now for the other side...

Right Side Lettering

	On Thursday March 31st, Don, Phil Orth and I showed up to get the right side painted and lettered. Phil had all of the letter stencils set up and properly spaced by the time I showed up. We then traced and cut them. Me and Phil are seen here cutting out the letters. Don McPherson photo.

	Phil making some last minute corrections before paint.

	Don worked on getting the masking paper ready.

	Silver paint - from the engineroom door to the nose, including ladders.

	2 hours later the masking came off. As far as I know, this is the first time a WP f-uint has been lettered with 6 5/8" EMD Gothic letter style since the early 50's. Last f-units wearing this letter style were repainted by the mid 60's with 15" letters.

	Everything worked out great except for one issue with the letter "N". Some black paint lifted with the masking tape. This was corrected the next Saturday.

Photos and text by Dan Furtado

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