109's Clean Front * June 20 2011

After gentle media blasting, the front and top of 109 are nearly ready for primer paint. The last few areas of old paint will be removed with an electric sander. In this phase I found the original red oxide primer and orange paint which had been brushed on. Two coats of yellow were on top of the orange, one applied by VGN and one applied by N&W workers some time after the 1959 VGN/N&W merger.
June 20, 2011.

Original Colors * June 15 2011

When Sheffield Motor Car Company shipped its motor cars, they left the plant painted dark green. I am finding traces of that dark green paint as seen in the picture of the controls, A part number was revealed in the cleaning. Also the car's Virginian era color of orange is showing up on the car, both on wooden pieces and on the aluminum parts. The original VGN color of orange is verified by a former Virginian signalman who told me that the VGN used orange paint on the motor cars which was the same orange as was used on the stations. He added that this practice was followed until they were painted yellow, starting about 1958. Black was used on some metal parts, such as the guides for the lifting handles. June 15, 2011

A picture shows a sheet of paint that came off the front. The red is the red oxide primer used when the front and top were added in 1953. Notice how the orange brush stokes show up! The motor car was last painted by N&W in Roanoke in April 1964. That date is on the right side of the battery box.

Nooks and Crannies * June 7 2011

Getting the several layers of paint off some metal pieces is very hard, even with a media blaster using a hard blasting material. I tried used a chemical paint remover and when the paint started to blister, I hit it with the sandblaster. That has worked some of the time. A few days ago I had another idea; heat the stubborn areas on the steel wheels with a blow torch and then hit them with the sandblaster. That is working very well. But whichever method I use, progress is slow. The wheels are particularily difficult because they must have come from other cars that had been damaged and retired. Three wheels seem to have four layers of paint while one wheel has five layers! Ghee, the car should be lighter not having all those layers of paint! ;O)

More Motor Car History VGN 109 nee 905 * May 28 2011

Being a retired history teacher, I know the value of primary sources. To learn as much as I can about my car and Virginian's motor cars and the men who used them, I am seeking out former employees and interviewing them and digging through company records in my personal collection as well as the N&W Historical Society's archives.

A company collection, "Authorization For Expenditure Register 1915-1959," reveals that a model 41 Sheffield motor car was purchased from Sheffield - Fairbanks Morse Company of Three Rivers, Michigan on July 3, 1924. The cost was $240.00 for the car weighing 450 pounds and producing 8.5 horse power. The car is direct drive, meaning when the engine is running, the car is moving. To start it, the model A-like controls must be correctly adjusted and then the car is pushed. The operator must quickly jump on before it runs away! The AFE states that the car was purchased "for Victoria" which was a crew change point on the Norfolk Division at milepost 120 and it was numbered 905.

When Sheffield shipped the cars, Sheffield had painted them in their standard color scheme of dark green with the engine painted black, some engine parts being silver and the fuel tank being painted red. Iron mechanical parts, such as the brake apparatus, were black. The railroad repainted the green parts to orange.

In 1953, Virginian contracted with N&W for that railroad to install an aluminum half front with a single window and a roof. A manually operated windshield wiper was added in 1955. Also added was a battery powered headlight, which hung on the front hand grab iron, with an attachment to the rear for a red tail light. These lights were required under a new Virginia law. Although there is no company documentation, employees recall that the car numbers were changed when these improvements were made. My car became 109.

My car survived the VGN-N&W merger of 1959, the NKP-Wabash-N&W merger of 1964 and into the era of Norfolk Southern which was created June 1, 1982. The car was still on the NS (combined N&W-Southern) equipment roster in 1986 but was finally retired in two more years. It was purchased by a collector in Ohio who kept the car safely stored inside until selling it to my friend in July 2009. It was brought indirectly from Dayton, Ohio to Lynchburg, Virginia, arriving at our home July 20, 2009. It spent its first night inside my newly built replica VGN motor car shed.

A picture shows the wire from the battery headlight to the rear red light. The headlight was hung on the cars grab iron.

Another picture shows the various N&W numbers the car wore after the VGN merger with the N&W in 1959. When sanding the front the first day I owned the car, the Virginian number appeared on the left, VGN 109! Also, one picture shows the N&W number on a back, lower brace; N&W N 109. As I worked to find the car's original number, nothing new appeared on the front as the old paint was removed. My last chance was on that lower, back brace, I hoped. As I sanded away the N&W on the left side, nothing appeared. Virginian must not have had any lettering there. However on the right side as I sanded N 109, I thought I was seeing 1005. But 1005 was in the series of Virginian's Sheffield model 40-b motor cars. I sanded even more lightly and I found that what I thought was a 1, actually was the right side of the letter N. The last two digits, 0 and 5 were clear, but the digit to the left of the 0 was not. More careful sanding showed faintly that the digit was a 9! My car was originally 905! The layers of paint were: red primer was the first layer; orange; yellow; then N&W paint - lighter yellow for two more layers. I have added an illustration to show this sequence.

Removing Old Paint May 27 2011

My plan is to clean the large surface area pieces in place and to remove smaller parts to clean individually. In one picture, I am using my media blaster to remove paint from the aluminum top. Prior to this stage, I used an electric sander, sanded by hand and worked with chemical paint removers. I want to balance doing a very good and thorough job without hurting myself. I realize the paint may be lead based and I am wearing a protective breathing mask and working in an open, outdoor space.

I am concluding the following based on the layers of paint and primer I am finding on the aluminum parts. I believe that when the aluminum pieces were added in 1953, they were primed with red oxide and the car was painted orange. From a former VGN signalman, I have learned that about 1958, VGN painted these cars with a shade of yellow darker than the other layer applied later. After the VGN-N&W merger of December 1,1959, N&W painted the car in Roanoke on April 30, 1964 and from what I have found, a primer was not used. The entire car, including all of the aluminum pieces were painted yellow, including the bare metal inside the front and inside the roof. That explains why the yellow paint had peeled so badly in those places.