GTW caboose work

I did drive to North Judson today.  Spent about 4 and a half hours there.  Knebel had sprayed the finish coat of paint on the NKP boxcar that's over by the kitchen car.  Looks great!  Now Joe has to letter it I guess.  He and Bob Jachim were the only other ones at the museum.  Bob opened the troop car so I could get into Metra 1529.  Mark went down and sanded the rust off of the new storage tank that is going to be used for kerosene.  Then he painted it with aluminum paint.  Looks real good.   I checked out the inside dimensions for seats from the Metra cars.  We can put a row of side seats on one side (8 seats, maybe 10 if we can squeeze in a regular seat on the end).   Then 6 or 8 seats on the other side.  That will cover the 16 seats on the end platform.   I checked underneath the car and it is very close as to whether the bolts will go through the wood floor without hitting the first steel beam that runs the length of the car.  We can drill a test hole to see if it makes it.  Then bolting the other end to the side of the car would be easy.  But, we would have to put some wood blocks under those side seats to raise them up about 4 or 5 inches.  There is some great wood back by the wood furnace in the Shop if we want to go that way.  There are enough orange side seats upstairs in the 1529.  Or we could use the dark blue seats from the 1502 as an alternate.   I then started on the south side window.  You will recall that used the oak wood that you furnished to make the new frame for the north side window, but never did the south side window as the car has always been in the caboose train.  Had a hell of a time breaking that "temporary" chip wood frame that I put on the south side window, but was finally able to get it removed.   Went through the wood back by the furnace in the shop and found three pieces.  I just had enough to make a new frame.  It is put in and looks good.  I need to put a bit of wood putty in a couple of nail holes, then sand two small spots, caulk the edges and prime the frame and paint both frames orange.  This is the side window that Dauber complained about water pouring in.  This should solve most of that problem I hope.  Still need to check the roof over both windows for possible holes.  There may be some; maybe not.   Number of folks stopped by; most just gawking, but a few came over to look in the Shop.  I tried to stay busy but talked to a couple of them.  Finally put everything away and locked everything up (Mark was long gone by this time) and pulled out of there at about 4:15.    Les