In the last few days, with the application of the gold leaf on the lettering and a few other details the booth is really coming together quickly. We still have to make a couple of sample panels for the right side and the cork board needs trim on the other end. In-between a couple more small pieces need installing. And everything needs to be thoroughly cleaned along with a few touchups of the paint here and there but it is looking pretty good. Best of all we did it without burning the midnight oil and we still have a few weeks to spare. We are looking to see many old friends and meet many new ones at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions EXPO in Orlando. We are booth number 980.
Noise handles
We are working on a whole bunch of very cool but top secret projects in the shop right now but I can't show you those (quite yet). In the evenings I continue to put in a little time on the rail truck and am making great progress. This evening, I managed to squeeze in just enough time to design, cut, fabricate, and install the noise handles. These levers are to operate the bell and whistle. They are of course mounted between my seat and the sidecar where the grand children will ride. The bell lever is the handiest and I suspect it will get lots of use. A little further reach (by design) is the whistle lever. A good tug on this lever will trigger the compressed air valve and sound the whistle, which is much louder than the bell. It's going to be a whole lot of fun! The list of brackets and pieces yet to build is quickly getting shorter. Soon it will be time to get the rig on the tracks once more. I'll do up another video as soon as that happens.
There's nothing like real GOLD!
Gold has a magic like nothing else. The effect we get with gold leaf simply can't be duplicated any other way. It gathers light and reflects it back to the viewer. The lettering on our display booth already looked great when we painted them metallic gold but we knew that they would look ten times better when it was gilded. Today Becke got a good start on that task. The process is relatively simple. She painted two or three letters with a fast oil based size and let them tack up until they squeaked when we did the 'knuckle test'. Then she laid on the 23K gold leaf and burnished it with a special ultra soft brush. The letters instantly came to life - pure magic!
