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  #11  
Old 09-13-2019, 09:31 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Default Hallways

One thing I wanted to mention was the width of the hallways we went through on the tour of the main building.

I don't want to say that they were narrow but, how should I say this...

...two male adult rocketeers could not walk down the hallway side-by-side
(You get what I am implying here ).

I looked up at the false ceiling and noticed several sections were missing or damaged. I could see conduit that ran above/behind the ceiling panels.
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  #12  
Old 09-13-2019, 09:51 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Default Post Office

After the tour group made the 90 degree left turn down the hallway we were headed for an exit door.

As we headed for this door, on the left side of the hallway were two sliding wooden doors.
The doors looked old and appeared not to have been moved in quite a while.

It turns out that these doors were the entrance to the Penrose post office in the past.

During the heyday of Estes mail-orders the company was doing so much shipping and receiving so much mail (Orders) that the United States Postal Service worked with Estes to establish a Post Office right in the main Estes building when it was under construction.
We were told it was a fully functional post office offering all services.

(Can you imagine being a 'rocket-kid' in nearby Colorado Springs and always bugging your parents to take you to the Post Office ).

This is the kind of stuff I love to learn about. It would be nice if someone at Estes would write up the story behind this and include some pictures. (Hint, hint)
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  #13  
Old 04-29-2020, 03:04 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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We exited out the back of the main administrative building into an open area.

I recall not being exactly sure of where we were going next but rumor was the motor making machines area.
There was a delay as the tour group stayed in place for about 5-10 minutes.

During that time the guides pointed out a large aluminum building to our left.
I estimated it was one-hundred feet long by twenty feet by twenty feet high at the roof's peak.
We were told that this is where custom machinery was built and maintenance performed on this equipment. An example of this was the BP motor making machines.

Bill mentioned that their current machinist would be retiring and Estes was looking for someone to take over the position.

The tour group then moved on to the next destination of the tour.
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  #14  
Old 07-11-2021, 06:41 PM
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That next destination turned out to be a chain linked fence with a half-dozen or so buildings beyond it.

We found ourselves standing outside the motor production area.
Yes, here were all the Mabel machines that produced Estes motors.
Several were operating.
Every twenty seconds or so there would be a hissing noise and smoke would come out of the end of a pipe above the height of a building roof.
Motors were being tested.
One interesting thing I learned is that a batch of motors are tested right after they are produced.
The motors then go into a warehouse to cure for a certain amount of time.
Then, after curing, a sample group of these motors is test fired again to verify their performance.

As we watched, several members of the motor production staff would enter and exit the production buildings
They were dressed in an olive-drab type jumpsuit which was very thick and heavy looking. It must be a fire/flame protection type of clothing.
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  #15  
Old 07-11-2021, 06:54 PM
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The motor production buildings were located 50-100 feet beyond the chain-link fence.

At one point, the double doors facing us on one of the buildings was opened up to show the Mabel machine in action.
It was too dark inside the building to see any detail other than there was movement.

Ellis and Bill now started answering questions.

A8-3 motors were being made.

The Mable machines are not running 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

A question was asked about the production speed of the Mabel machines.
The question was not directly answered. Instead some sort apparently answer/non answer was given.
Mistake.

Mark Johnson, longtime NAR member, was in our group. He suddenly called out, " One-million, seven-hundred and (something, something) thousand motors."

That was how many A8-3 motors were made in a year's time.

Bill and Ellis stopped talking and looked at each other.

Oooops. Gave out too much information.

Bonnie Johnson, Mark's wife said,"It's just simple math".

After a few more questions the group then headed East towards a large warehouse.
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  #16  
Old 07-11-2021, 07:07 PM
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As the grouped walked towards the warehouse we crossed a paved road.

This road was a public road which created an additional issue when the newly produced motors were moved from the production building to the warehouse for curing.

Since the road was public access that meant when the motors were transported to the warehouse the driver of the vehicle transporting the motors had to have a HAZMAT license. I would assume the vehicle used for this also needed to have HAZMAT placards on it.

It's the little nuggets of information like this that make things so interesting for me.
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  #17  
Old 07-11-2021, 07:41 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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We reached the warehouse and walked along the side of it until we reached some steps.
The steps lead up to a door which we went through then turned left (I believe).

We walked down a hallway and were each handed a package of disposable earplugs.

After turning right at the end of the hallway we came upon a dining hall filled with many aluminum park bench seating areas. The room probably could hold one-hundred people at a time.

We then entered an extremely noisy room. Up against the wall was what I can only describe as a machine that looked like a circus or carnival calliope.
Dozens of vertical pipes against the wall with other pipes/tubes coming off the machine.
It was almost impossible to hear someone speaking. The woman operating the machine was wearing some pretty big sound cancelling headphones.

This was the machine which printed the motor casings. Every few seconds a new casing popped out of the machine. A freshly motor casing was passed around for all of us to look at.

We did not stay long in this room and moved on to another part of the building.
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