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Sunday, May 19. 2013Coach dept.... Ins and outs
Here are a couple of updates from the Coach dept rolled into one Blog. First, Mike, Ray, and Mark have been completeing the annual assessments and inspections of the operating coach fleet. This takes about a month to month and one half. They have been checking on the functions of brakes, wheels, and the condition of the trucks. This year upon inspection of the Inglehome's wheels and truck frame it has been determined that one truck has a serious defect and it has been taken out of service. Until this is resolved the observation car will not be operating anymore! Taking into consideration that it is more then 100 years old it will need some Major work to be placed back in service. Another project almost finished by the Sunday crew has been and cleaning and repair of the "Silver train." Last week Mike, Ray, amd Shelly installed the portable A/C units into the various car to keep them "Kool" for the Summer viewing public. More guided tours are on the schedule for this year. A note for you folks who enjoy these cars is the fact that Track Storage Charges have not been paid on the LOCH SLOY! If you would like to help erase this debt Please send a donation to the LOCH SLOY FUND. It owes more than $6,000. Thank You!!! This Spring, one more project has again started up. It's the restoration of the women's bathroom in the John Mcloughlin sleeper. Irm is hosting a convention for the Great Northern RR Historical Society in late July of this year and touring John Mcloughlin is on part of the schedule. This gives the small team of Mark, Brian, and Roger an added incentive to make things happen. Would you like to join us? Just stop by any Saturday in back of Barn #3. Look us up! We'll be there!
 Interior and exterior brass sash removed from bathroom of the John Mcloughlin. Waiting restoration in my basement  Brian sanding in the washroom  Mark needlechipping It was a little cool when this picture was taken... Sunday, May 19. 2013CGW X38 Update - May 18, 2013 Control Cupola Buzz Morisette is up inside the control cab as we try to re-engineer how all the windows, sills, and stops will go together. Note that much of this was totally useless and rotted away. He is holding up one of the original windows for size and placement  Ceiling Lettering Before too much dismantling was done to replace the bad parts, Buzz took many pictures to help document the areas. Kind of unusual to find instructions painted on the ceiling - but here it is.  Center Front  Left Front  Right Front Here is an experiment in formatting so you may see the front of the cab by stitching together the three views. The left front view shows faint traces of more lettering; the right front view shows "EMERGENCY VALVE" stenciled in red. Lots of piping, electrical, gauges - most of which will have to be removed to replace the spongy wood behind them.
 Step One A lot of the work is now started with removal of the window post and corner posts on the left side. Look closely and you will see the empty mounting holes in the steel members. And what a scenic view out the window! Freight cars, of course - that is our department.  Look Closely This view looks downward at the left front corner. the wood has been removed to the bare steel framing. And another trace at the very top of this image of more lettering and flaky paint - we figured this one out - but not without some headscratching and creative railroad archeology. Sunday, May 19. 2013Wood Shop Update - May 18, 2013 More PCC Work Cleveland Transit System 4223 - - - Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz are fitting together pieces inside the left rear of the car. We are relying almost totally on the memory of Eric who started working on this project more years ago than he would like to admit.  Right Interior Eric is admiring the interior work on the right side to the rear of the car. Amazingly, this part has most of the pieces where they should go.  Right Side Of course the object of doing as much interior work as possible has a side benefit. With all pieces and their sequence accounted for it is possible to install the passenger windows. It has been a LOONG time since we could look down the side of the car and see a view like this. During the day I fussed a bit with the old narrow ceiling panels containing the bulls eye lights. Try as a might, I made little progress with the rusty light fixture screws, following in the footsteps of at least three other volunteers. Then I got a tip from Dave Diaz who was passing through the shop and his idea worked like a charm - relatively speaking. I managed to remove two of the fixtures in about 30 minutes.  The Jig Jeff Brady and Bill Peterson are reworking a steam bending jig for work on the Michigan Electric 28. The good news is that Jeff has just about perfected steam bending and this allows creating custom stock for special situations. Not something that was in our arsenal of tools and techniques. You steam a board, bend the board, and after it takes a set, check the curve and fit. Here, they have made a few adjustments to the form.  HOT Wood When the wood has been steamed long enough you need several sets of hands to handle the 200 F stock, clamp one end, and quickly bend it around the form and clamp it down. You have about 60 seconds to do this or face the probability it will be too cold and stiff and you might as well start the next piece. Thursday, May 16. 2013CGW X38 Update - May 15, 2013 On the Roof Gerry Dettloff, Jim Leonard, and Dave Rogan are up on the roof of our snow plow. Gerry volunteered to drag the cutting torch up top to remove the first section of metal grating, while Dave is needle chipping more of the cupola roof. Sharp eyed readers may notice something different in this picture. The completed side of the X 38 is in the sun! Yes, some excellent cooperation by other departments resulted in this unit being turned end for end, as well as the B&O wagon top boxcar just to the east.  Grating Jim Leonard is lifting away the old metal grating. This will allow us to clean and repaint the area below it. For the period of this restoration, wooden roof walks will be added in place of the metal.  A Wooden Lining Victor Humphreys is installing another section of the interior lining inside the snow plow body.  Cupola Roof Here is a better view of what Dave Rogan was cleaning on the cupola roof. He and Jim Leonard worked mightily in the sun most of the day. Removing old paint, wirebrushing the area, and then applying primer. In addition to this roof area, they did some paint removal and priming on what is now the north door wall. Buzz Morisette has begun the tasks needed to install the new cupola windows, John Faulhaber is working to trace and document lettering in the cab. And on the B&O boxcar a repaired door threshold plate was installed. Thursday, May 16. 2013Wood Shop Update - May 15, 2013 On the Move Chicago Aurora & Elgin 309 was on the move on Track 41 heading into the Barn for the inspection pit. Father and son team, Randall and Frank Hicks, worked throughout the day and accomplished most of the items on the checklist and inspection report.  Lighting Panel Rich Witt has completed available work on several recent projects and volunteered to work on removing light fixtures from a ceiling panel for Cleveland Transit System 4223. They are very stubborn and recalcitrant, the metal screws being truly well rusted into place. Later in the day we got to see an original First Aid Box from the CA&E cars and Randy Hicks entered a request for six of them to be built.  The Last Box John Nelligan is grinning broadly next the last of seven resistance boxes to be restored for Charles City Western 300. And why not? It seems he may have spent the last several months glued to a stool at the sandblaster cleaning the many parts before assembly work could be done.  In Place John is beside himself and also beside the locomotive. The first grid box is in place and mounting porcelain ready to receive the next three.  Toy Boxcar John Faulhaber and Henry Vincent are just finishing up the children's activity boxcar sponsored by Ray Bellock. Before the day was over it rolled happily out of the shop doors, another project complete.  Getting Legs Jim Foraker worked on parts for our new saw base. Legs and mounting pads were cut to length and prepped for welding.  Steam Department Norm Krentel is enjoying the pleasant weather as he monitors the steam generator and steaming tube while a length of white oak is warming up inside. This for another of the curved pieces being made for Michigan Electric 28.
Wednesday, May 15. 2013Steam Department Update 05-11-2013A short and second hand update this week, courtesy of Phil and Collin, as I was enjoying myself in New York City last weekend. It sounds as if good progress was made on a number of fronts. Unfortunately everything else is overshadowed by the news that Glen, one of our regular team, was seriously injured in a motor bike accident last week. From what we can gather, he is in the ICU at Rockford Memorial and the path forward is unclear at present. Our thoughts are with him. On 1630: · The flue removed last weekend, that has to be reworked, was cleaned up and prepared. · The jacketing painted last week is now back in store and the last of the jacketing is now down in the shop for cleaning and painting. · Mike reassembled the bucker, which is critical to riveting the patch into place. It was hooked up to the air supply and works!.
· Phil, Tom and Mike started working with the bucker in the firebox to determine how it can best be supported to provide a smooth and reliable position when riveting. This is essential as the core of the riveting process is that the yellow hot rivet must be passed into the firebox, put into the hole and the bucker accurately and firmly applied in a matter of 15 seconds. If the rivet cools too much or the bucker moves, you will get a badly formed rivet and the need for many hours of work to drill it back out again and re-prepare the hole. So there will be a LOT of planning and practicing ahead of driving the rivets
A rivet must be set in each of the holes. So we need to be able to place the bucker quickly and firmly and use it in each position, while still allowing room to place the hot rivet. On the Shay: · Alex used the degreaser and put it on the front truck. (Sounds like I had better make plans to borrow the steam cleaner from the car shop to finish the process)
· Alex, Brian, Cameron, and Phil fired up the furnace and annealed the last of the flues. They are now ready to be put back in the box car. This was a very positive sign for the future. The whole team was young guys all in their lower 20's or teens, which makes a big change from the reliance on us old codgers!.
In other areas: · Bill, Stu, and Bob worked on the water supply in the boxcar and started on the modifications to the pumping system. The objectives are to ensure that the locomotive crew can reliably get water with minimum knowledge of the system without risk of damage and that treatment chemicals can be added automatically. · A key piece of the planer was refitted. The directional control lever was reassembled. As is common with rebuilding old equipment, this was much more difficult than it sounds. A pin had sheared off in the shaft and Bob had worked much of last weekend to get it out without damaging the shaft. So, a good day, from the progress point of view. Nigel (as scribe for Phil and Collin !)
Tuesday, May 14. 2013DM&IR 84 Window Repairs Complete for NowOn Saturday, May 4, 2013, Chuck Trabert installed the last of the windows refinished for the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway 84 coach over the winter. Chuck has been working on the windows of this coach for the last several winters and feels he is almost caught up with the most urgent window repairs in this car.  Chuck Trabert installing a refinished window in the DMIR 84 coach Window repair is not an easy job and it is costly to buy new glass, hardware, paints and varnishes. This car is frequently used in passenger operations and receives even more wear and tear as a result. All passenger cars required to be outside are at greater risk for damage from the elements so there is a goal to get them all under the shelter of a barn to be spared the worse of the sun and rain. You can help make that happen with an easy $25 donation for indoor storage. Choose the Passenger Car Department and add your donation to the cart. With your hep we will eventually get all passenger cars under cover. Many thanks! |
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Comments
Thu, 05-16-2013 21:52
Looking good Bob! I hope to come out soon once I'm done with school.
Wed, 05-15-2013 21:28
I was not around at the time. General discussion suggests that it was "pretty marginal" in a number of areas. Nigel
Mon, 05-13-2013 11:08
"THUMBS UP!"
Fri, 05-10-2013 02:15
No, it will not be necessary to hold any of the work waiting for the plow to be turned, end for end. Weather will be the major factor, but there will [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 19:54
The CGW X-38 plow is really coming to life. Bob Kutella and Vic and crew need to be very proud of your collective efforts. I am very appreciative of [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 15:20
The snowplow looks great! Are you going to apply the door and upper windows befor it is turned to continue work?
Thu, 05-09-2013 09:09
Max, Is there any progress to report yet, in regards to the installation of the poles and overhead wires? Have a good day, sir.
Wed, 05-08-2013 18:40
Thanks for the update! I still don't understand why Commonwealth #5 was removed from service. Do you know why?
Tue, 05-07-2013 09:28
Mr. Kolanowski.....I was just wondering if the Spaulding webcam will be up and running soon for us stay-at-homes. Thanks!2FP
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:04
Max, Has work begun yet on the construction phase of erecting the poles and putting up the wire? Wish I could be there to watch it happen.
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:02
Keep up the good work, Bob. Wish I could be there to help!!!!!!!
Sun, 05-05-2013 18:53
Ah yes, I have made such Jibs myself. If it were me, I would add in each corner an angled piece from the base to the Jib to act as sway bracing. [...]