Well John, pat yourself on the back, your the first person to break the news
to the BRHSlist regarding 9939A! John Lee & I have tried to keep this a
secret until the 11:00 am "Special Event" Friday morning of the meet. We
have let out some hints, like the 9939A under the arch in our convention
logo. However, it is difficult to conceal a whole E8! Now that the
proverbial cat is out of the bag, here are more details.
While the BRHS has had a little official involvement (Providing a lettering
& styling drawing donated to the BRHS by Jim Singer from the Leonard
Miekiszak collection and a Burlington Bulletin No. 10), it has been John & I
who have been spearheading the cosmetic restoration. John pulled in some
big favors and managed to get his contacts at DuPont to donate all the paint
for the project! He has also arranged to have the eight portholes recast at
the foundry where he is doing CAD work. These won't be ready to be
installed by the convention, but they are coming.
I've been busy recreating the nose door headlight, the E8 model designation
plates (the E5 plates that QC is selling is helping to pay for the E8
plates), builder's plates and the lettering. Ron Hirsch at the BNSF West
Burlington shops used the original 9939A door and the shop forces recreated
the housing using the IRM's Milwaukee E-unit's door as a pattern. Dave Dote
at IRM graciously allowed me to borrow it for this purpose (its now back
safely at IRM). Mike Spoor allowed us to borrow his prototype E8 model
designation plate as a pattern. Stiern Laser in Fenton acquired the
stainless, masked it, laser cut the stripes and the E8 then sandblasted the
portions that required paint. A good coat of black Rustoleum finished these
off.
The 9" BURLINGTON letters and the 1" unit numbers were graciously provided
by Scott Blair and the vinyl sing makers at Havelock. These are at the
museum, waiting to be applied once the final coat of silver is applied. The
Burlington Route herald and the faux grills on either side of the headlight
are being done locally by AnyKinda Sign.
Thanks to an EMD employee and BRHS member, who works on site at the UP's
North Platte diesel shop (and his son), we have a Mars light to put in the
upper headlight casing. This happened while I was attending the NMRA
Regional convention and touring Gary's home layout. He has a complete
engine stand in his garage and when I asked him if he knew how I could
possibly find a Mars light for our E-unit project, he said he just happened
to have on under his layout. Gary had already donated many things to the
BRHS archives and after discussing this with his son, gave the light to me
to bring back to St. Louis!
The folks at the Museum have been extremely helpful - Molly Butterworth,
curator, Ted Link, my main museum contact for the project and Don (please
forgive me I've forgotten his last name) who is the head painter. If you've
looked at the photos that John linked to, you've already seen Don's
handiwork!
The 9939A is masked and fully primed waiting for the paint to arrive from
Dupont. Plans are to unveil the locomotive by rolling it out of the paint
shop at 11:00 am, Friday, September 13th.
This is just one of the many fun and exciting events planned for the BRHS
2002 Convention. So if you've procrastinated and haven't sent in your
registration, or are yet undecided, WHATS YOUR PROBLEM? ;-) All joking
aside, John & I are trying to make this meet one of the best ever and hope
you will try to make it!
Dave Lotz & John Lee
2002 BRHS Convention co-chairmen
PS - John is partially correct in his assessment of Silver Charger's state.
However, it does do more than turn over...the diesel does run. I've
witnessed it.
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