The 63rd Post - How Appropriate - Father's Day 6-15-14

Although I just noticed it - this is the 63rd post on this Blog. Being as its about BAR Motorcar 62, having 62 posts on background and restoration seems appropriate. 

On Father's Day, Dad and I secured permission from our fellow members of the Brooks Preservation Society, operators of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad to operate between Burnham and Unity Maine. Being members of BPS - we are covered by liability insurance and are part of the organization leasing the track from the State of Maine. 

Here we go - Dad's 18 and my 62 car splitting the 16 foot trailer - Morning of 6/15/14

Burnham Junction, Maine - MP 33 of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad

The Two cars - on the rail and preparing to head East. 

While we were in Unity yard, we shot this video:

Neither Dad nor I had any mechanical problems with our cars during the run and it was a great chance to give the cars a shakedown run and test some things. 

See you on the Rail!

Wrapping up the details - 6-10-14

As I've mentioned previously, as we get further and further through this restoration, the large projects are mostly done so the the remaining details are what take up the time.

On the 62 side - the windscreen now has glass in it! 

Over on the 18 side - Dad is mounting his horn on the roof

And here it is mounted

We also have completed the wiring on Dad's car - the 18. The horn, ignition, lights, brake lights are all tested and working. 

Back on the 62 - the Horn is now mounted, but we didn't get a chance to finish the wiring. 

The big thing left to do on Dad's is to fire it up - mine all that remains is to wire in the horn!

More to come!

Thar She Blows - 6-8-14

Its been a while since I got a fresh update on this blog and some progress has been made on both the 62 and the 18. 

Dad's been busy picking away at projects big and small. One large project that had to be addressed was the rear wheel wobble on the crank side. Thanks to Dad's friend Jim and some serious machining skill and knowledge, the crank side wheel is now without a wobble. Dad installed the brake switches on both cars and adjusted and tested the switches.In the process, he found that there was no brake lever return spring on the 18 - there is now!

We also were told that we needed to have a horn permanently mounted on each car for regulatory requirements on one railroad that we intend to operate. So much for my plan to use sports horns!

Here is the 9" air horn style electric horn that is now mounted on the operators side of the 62.

With the exception of wiring in the horn and attaching the button to the control panel, the only remaining task to put the 62 on the rail is to have the glass installed in the windscreen. 

On the 18 front - Dad's custom bracket shop has been opened again and as you can see the the tail light is mounted on the front of 18. The headlight is also mounted, just not shown.

Meanwhile on the back, as you can see the lights are mounted.

All four lights on the 18 were wired, tested and verified to work. The brake light circuit was also tested and verified to work. 

Dad's horn also needs to be mounted, along with the horn button and a few other wiring tag ends need to be tied up. Other than that - all we need to do is test fire the 18 and we'll have two operational Bangor and Aroostook Motorcars.