Repairs to the wood roof of Canadian National coach 4992 are almost complete. Working on the north end of the car, Tony Pratt is attaching new curved wood pieces to the roof. These cars used a composite roof, with steel structural framing, wood strip underlayment and heavy canvas as the outer layer.
In this rebuilding, any deteriorated wood has been replaced, and heavy commercial rubber roofing membrane will be the outer layer, replacing the old canvas. This is the first major roof rebuilding the Museum has done and it will serve as a guide for this work on the other CN cars in coming years.
Project Leader Sam Walker performs the "measure twice, cut once" ritual on a piece of edge tack molding before bolting the new wood part onto CN coach 4992. These pieces form the edge of the roof above the steel car side, seen in the background of this image.
—Photos by Howard Pincus
