Illinois Railway Museum Blog

New Track Switch

Here is a shot of a new track turnout completed last week.  Would that be to a relocated or relabeled Track 114?  The confusion might stem from the remaining switch and stub that was Track 111, unless we consider that Track 110, now.  Got it?

First Materials Delivered

Building materials are starting to arrive and be unloaded and staged at the site.  Actual construction may start this week!

CRIP 19135

Winter weather shut down a lot of remaining work on this car, Rock Island 19135, since our department has no shop space, even inside an unheated Barn building.  You will be happy to know that needed parts to repair side bearings and 'coupler droop' are being ordered and we hope to have this restoration completed and the car in operating condition this season.

For you die hard fans here is a quick link to the ROSTER info for this car.

To see the Kirk Warner GALLERY album of 233 restoration pictures (so far), with commentray, click HERE.

Taking Shape

Here is a good woodshop shot of Tim Peters feeding our shaper and Jim Meindel 'catching' the milled stock.  The product is tongue and groove siding, complete with V groove on the face, for wood el car 1268.  We produced over 200 running feet of this special stock, in less than two hours, including set up time.

A job well done

A very satisfied Tim Peters holds two pirces of the finished siding up to the camera, to show the finished cross section and how well they will fit together on the car.  The stack of siding in the background gives you an idea of how much was produced.

Stubborn old paint

Jenny and Kevin Tudor are restoring and repairing windows in our woodshop.  Looks like fun!

July 8, 2008

Future TV stars?

Today the shop was up and running.  Here we see John Faulhaber and Tim Peters along with the camera crew from Channel 47 in Peoria, Il.  They were out for an episode for Illinois Adventures.  Many other segments were shot at IRM.

July 9, 2008

New doors are ALWAYS a good thing

Henry Vincent is back from vacation and working on new doors for the Illinois Terminal 101.  Over his shoulder, Jim Griffith continues on the wood shelf project for the Strahorn Library.

No tool too old

Here we see Henry Vincent using our vintage Delta drill press (circa 1934) to drill the small wooden moldings that hold the glass panels in the above doors.  On the table is a clever fixture Henry 'invented'.

Mechanical work too

Dick Cubbage helped out on the new to us, circa 1880 Fay molder.  He was squaring up the pedestals and supports and working on cutting the countershaft to length and then on pulley alignment.