So most sound minded folks take a holiday trip somewhere warm and lay on a beach…but not us at Fox River! Chief Car Officer Jeff had been talking with a recent addition to his team Eric Zabelny who also volunteers at East Troy, about North Shore car 228. It’s an interesting car that’s basically a box car with boxcar side doors. Anyway, Eric has been working to restore this car and was at the point of needing to work on the curved ends of the roof. Since we have done several of these over the last few years, we knew all the tips and tricks.

One thing led to another and over the Christmas and New Years holidays, Jeff, Connor and Eric were able to get both ends of the car done.

One end of 228 done, now on to the next.

Always something new to learn. This is the first car we did where the interior would not have a ceiling. The roof and carlines would be exposed. This meant they had to look good not only from the top, but also from the bottom. For every other roof we have done, it didn’t matter what the underside looked like, so if a nail missed a carline or an added piece of support wood was needed, no big deal… Well that was not the case on this job. It had to be pretty, top and bottom, we learned.

And here’s Jeff signing off after just finishing the second end of 228! Now come on home!