Take A Seat Please

It is amazing what is and what is no more.  One of the biggest jobs on #102 is going to be restoring the seats.  It is amazing that I get to even say that.  There are few cars of this vintage that have any part of the original seats left, let alone most all of them.  Granted most all need serious help, most of the outside arms are rotted from when the windows were taken out and most of the inside arms are broken around the fastenings.  The bases are cast iron and in good shape, amazing,  however the footrest castings tucked in under the seats are mostly gone, probably the most protected area inside the car, go figure.

The original work card on #102 had the seats covered with old gold plush  After pulling away two layers of heavy Naugahyde we found old gold plush, amazing!  So it turns out that plush (wool mohair blend woven on a heavy cotton wool backing) was so ubiquitous to train upholstery it was called seating.  I started looking for replacement fabric, plush is not a easy thing to find and true plush with mohair, as far as I can tell, is no longer made in United States, amazing.  We lead the industrial revolution, with Wilmington Delaware being one of the largest car manufacturing cities in the world for the world.  Now, you have to look hard to find any evidence of the Jackson & Sharp yard, even when you know what your looking for.  Not to mention the loss of all the supporting industries.  The following is an add in the first Jackson& Sharp catalog published in 1893.  All gone, amazing.

However using the internet and empowered with the idea of doing the car right I found two companies still selling plush in the United States.  One company in Belgium one in the Netherlands.  Now check this out, one of the companies does small run custom colors in plush and provides free samples.  Either this is a case of old world craftsmanship or computer driven technology that no one understands.  But I'm not going to argue with the results.  The sample is on the left, the original 121 year old seat is on the right.  Amazing!

A Miller Platform

According to the original car card 102 had the patented Miller Platform.  Patented in 1866 it was one of the first platform and couplers to become widely accepted as a replacement to the pin and link (the first coupling system).  It had opposing springs that kept slack between cars to a minimum to reduce telescoping on starts and stops. It also put the forces of the draft gear in plane with the sills mostly eliminating cars riding up and into the car forward in derailments, radically reducing loss of life.  The miller hook did have several flaws and the standard soon became the Janney coupler.  At some point in its life 102 had the Miller hook changed to a Janney coupler.  This was accomplished by keeping the Miller buffer plate and chopping wood away to accommodate the larger Janney coupler.  They also had to cut into the truck for additional room. 

Presently, the A-end platform is missing the sill and hardware and the framing is very dry rotted with both draft timbers broken. The B-end has suffered from some damage that was repaired with metal - then vandals set it on fire.  So the debate became to rebuild as delivered, recreate the current modification or move to a Janney platform to go with the current couplers.  Historically it seems wrong to build a platform that never was, to use the Janney coupler.  I don't think that I could rebuild a Miller platform and then purposefully destroy it to make a bastardized platform coupler arrangement.  After research and discussion we came to the conclusion that it would be best to rebuild the original, use what Miller hardware was intact and if possible recast missing metal parts.

No Goldmine

Well, the first layers of paint are off the seat arms (not to be confused with the seat ends).  In my readings I've only seen a single reference to nickel plating on seat parts.  After stripping the paint it became apparent that the seat arms were plated.  I of course assumed that it had to be nickel if not German silver, a mix of copper, nickel and zinc, as it did not look at all galvanized.  With my prize in hand I went over to the Senior Sawyers, retired volunteers helping to keep the replica ship Kalmar Nyckel in good shape, many of whom were Dupont engineers.  Needless to say I was mobbed with interest and in a couple days time I had a complete description of the base metal, the pivot metal and the zinc plating.  There went my goldmine, however it remains a mystery as to how it was applied.  It does not show spangles that it should if were hot dip galvanized, yet looks heavy for electroplating.  Though it is all a mute point, as it was originally covered by a zinc oxide primer with powdered brass in varnish finish coat.  The other question is what do the letters mean?  Feel free to speculate.

Second Start

Well it has been a month and some, it is probably time to write.  It has been a slow start with delays on the completion of the new shop that I am to work in.  I have taken all the seats out, as well as all the trim wood that I feel I can safely remove without compromising the car.  Much of the finish trim is integral to the structure.  I have been researching materials and methods used on the original car.  I have learned that some things are available at a price others are not.  A lot of parts will have to be fabricated.  Most of the processes are still done, at a price, but others will have to be done with more modern techniques.

One of the more interesting finds is the clerestory windows.  All the windows were broken out by vandals, with many of the shards falling between the screen and sash.  The original glass was an etched ruby flash glass.  Flash glass is a thin layer of colored glass melted onto clear glass.   The flash glass is first coated with an acid resist then a pattern cut into the resist is peeled away leaving the design.  Next, this is the tricky bit, you put it in a bath of hydrofluoric acid till the thin layer of colored glass is dissolved.  I don't think I will be trying that.

I hope to be more diligent in recording progress in the future. Please feel free to respond.

Shaky Start

This is the beginning of a 30 month project and my first blog, so bear with me while I come to grips with 21st century communications with my head firmly in 19th century technology.