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Sunday, March 29. 2009Weekend Track Dept UpdatesSaturday Report by Frank DeVries: Tom, Adam, and myself made up the crew. I arrived early and resolved an air leak problem in the mower, I found one of the air lines had gotten out of place and rubbed against the drive shaft. I replaced two hoses with a quick trip to Napa, and pulled them up into the cab and had the machine running again. While at NAPA, I also retrieved the hydraulic filter for the same machine. Tom and Adam were out next. Tom took the mower to get fueled, and was back on the main to finish mowing. Adam went to barn 2 to finish draining the fuel out of the 585.I continued to work on bolts to remove the two failed motors off the Jackson 6000 tamper, but decided north winds and 33 degrees, this was a job better left for another day. Off to the barn. After Adam drained the fuel and re-filled the tank with fresh gas, Adam and I tackled the leaking brake calipers on the 585. We jacked and cribbed the front of the car to allow access to the underside. Since the bolts didn't want to budge, we employed the blue wrench and quickly had the old calipers off the car. In short order we had the new calipers on, and bled, and tested. This car should stop on a dime, and give nine cents change. About this time, Tom was coming back to the property, having finished mowing the main. After a minor derailment, we had the mower put away. That machine will need to be greased again after it's winter workout.  Karstens BEFORE cutting  Karstens AFTER cutting After lunch, Adam got the fork lift out to sort material back by yard 10/11. Tom and I switched out 24 track to get the tamper and tie crane first out. Monday Wes and Warren Lloyd are going to again do the track department a huge favor and go retrieve the engine for the tamper. If they have time, and the snow isn't too high against the door, they will once again put this engine back on the frame of the tamper. Hopefully Fischbach has it right this time. Next weekend we will have to get this baby out and break her in. After the switch move, it was back to the 585 to get the engine running again. I left our heroes improvising a new rubber fuel line to the fuel pump. I'll run to Napa next time and get some replacement 1/2" ID fuel hose to complete that job. Frank D. ------------------------------------ Sunday's Report by myself: Today started out kinda dreary; snow on the ground, drizzle and lots of clouds.  Steam leads looking more like Wisconsin 40 years ago..  Lifting a Panel into Place  Yard 13, 6 of 10 panels set As soon as Barn 11 is ready for us to work in, we will. Within the next few weeks we'll try and get the three 112lb track panels to Four Mile Siding and set in place, just as we did in Yard 13. By the time we left the sun was out in full force without a cloud in sight with temps in the mid 40's. The property was almost entire void of other life, but it was well worth the trip out. Check out the rest of my photos from the day in my Member's Album: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album144 Adam RobillardRoadmaster lzeje657@msn.com Tuesday, March 24. 2009Milwaukee Electric L 4 Update March 21, 2009In my absence, Buzz Morrisette has taken on the job of making new wood items to replace badly rotted parts on this locomotive.  Footboard Assembly Here, Buzz is making good progress on an all new footboard assembly for the locomotive pilot. Somewhat unusual, it is a one piece fabrication of white oak, compared to two simpler footboards to each side of the coupler. Tuesday, March 24. 2009Wood Shop Update March21, 2009I got to visit the shop for the first time following my January 12 injury, and got to take a few pics, although still not cleared to drive myself out there or to do much actual work.  Molder Here is the Fay molder/sticker with completed guard cage for the flat belts. Only awaiting an operator with two good arms right now. Do I see any volunteers?  Tenoner And here is our H. B. Smith tenoner from the Illinois Traction System. This century old machine has seen a lot of progress with clean up, painting, repairs, and the start of an elaborate cage to guard the multitude of belts needed to run the machine. Chicago Rapid Transit 1268 - Tim Peters has spent much time over the recent bad weather months on this wood bodied rapid transit car.  30 Windows in 30 Days!! Yes that caption is correct. 30 new windows manufactured in 30 days - but working seven days per week. This view shows Tim Peters at the rear of the Berlin sander, Dick Lukin feeding new frames in, and Henry Vincent assisting. Note the stacks of frames ready to sand, or which have just been completed. In addition to the side windows (three different sizes) there were two motorman's windows and four cab windows for the North Shore 757 which went through the process.  Sanded Frame Tim is catching the sanded frames about one every 25 seconds. The machine makes short work of finished sanding and smoothing the glue joints.  Side Door In his spare time working with the many windows, Tim has rebuilt the third side door for the 1268, used to load passengers. Monday, March 23. 2009Recent Track Dept UpdatesMarch 13-14, 2009 Last Saturday's gang was Tom, Frank, Steve and myself. The original goal for the weekend was to get the mainline walked and inspected for defects and Tom continue to brush cut on the main. Frank and I ended up getting out early and spent the entire day walking from MP0 to MP 4.8 marking defects along the way. We came up with 3 full pages of issues to correct, mostly loose bolts and missing washers, but a few other important defects like sink holes near 4 culverts... A day of repairs will be necessary very soon, but for now the line is open to 40MPH without any speed restrictions. Tom spent all day on the mower cutting brush from Seeman Rd to Four Mile Siding. He made huge progress cutting areas with very heavy brush. The improvement is very noticeable.  PHOTO Sunday was Frank, Steve and myself. We hit the main early with the EJ&E 585 motorcar, hydraulic power cart and tie crane and headed to Four Mile Siding. Frank ran the crane prepping the siding extension for three track panels... This involved picking up about 50 ties laid out and clearing the area for weeds. In the meantime, Steve and I drilled two bolt holes at the end of a rail that had never been drilled on the siding. We now have bolts in both rails and the joint put back together. There is no reason Four Mile can't hold revenue trains now. We greased the new power switch at Four Mile, and continued greasing all of the spring switches as we headed back to the property for lunch.  PHOTO -------------- March 21-22, 2009 This weekend we had a different focus. Saturday we picked up the transmission filter for the Model 50 Burro crane from NAPA we had previously ordered. Getting that and a complete set of filters for the 6000 filters set up the day's tasks. Frank was out with Trackbolt (Frank's daughter Emily) and Tom was out with Tyler. Frank and Emily did wonders getting oil changed and filters replaced on the 6000 while Tom and Tyler did a great job cutting the mainline. By dark Tom had the entire line cut from one end to the other! Only a few chainsaw jobs left and we are 100% done with brushcutting. As promised, the line is tree free by regular ops next month. Tyler and Emily helped me top off the transmission fluid in the Model 50 burro and we tested it out with much success. A few hickups, but it seems with the proper amount of ATF and a clean filter the crane hauls very well. We tested it by moving cars around Yd 11. The diesel guys had a bunch of trucks that needed to be rolled into storage at Yard 13... Long story short, 3 axle trucks don't roll well through streetcar curves.... We assisted by re railing those trucks about 10 times in a span of 3 hours... We had one set of trucks tucked away and another set half way to it's storage spot when the main radiator coolant line on the 50 Burro blew apart leaving the crane paralyzed with a passenger truck hanging from the hook.. This was around 9PM and we called it a day until we got parts due to lack of options to lower the trucks... Sunday Tom and I made it out mid-afternoon armed with 5 gallons of antifreeze and a new hose. By the time I showed up Tom had the new hose installed and antifreeze topped off and we fired up the crane. We finished re railing the passenger truck with the crane and Tom hooked it up to the Jeep with a chain to drag it into it's storage spot a few rail lengths down. It was a sight to see and got the job done without any more derailments or broken windshields...thank goodness. The rest of the day was moving equipment around for the next project and getting the Burro Crane put away.  PHOTO Thank you everyone for all the hard work so far this year. Soon we'll wind down the machine maintenance and focus more on projects. Coming up soon we are going to try to get Four Mile Siding extended another 150', repair defects on the main and prep machines for tamping and tie work. Machines that still need a fair amount of work is the Jackson 6000 tamper and the Model 30 Burro crane (X-17). We are out nearly every Saturday and help will be appreciated more and more as we get into the operating season. Let me know if you can join in the fun! Adam Robillard Roadmaster lzeje657@msn.com Sunday, March 22. 2009 |
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Comments
Thu, 01-21-2021 19:44
Hello Jack Yes, the buffers have been installed but the canvas curtains cost about about 1500 each to purchase. Thanks Roger
Wed, 01-20-2021 07:46
is there a eason a lot of passenger cars have no diaphrams on them? i see several have the buffers installed
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:20
Hello Jason. Your comments are very much appreciated. Yes, there is much hard work that goes into all our restorations and maintenance here at the [...]
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:13
Hello Jack Yes, It will be one of our most impressive cars that we have at IRM when its completed. Thanks for the pat on the back! Roger.
Thu, 01-14-2021 21:05
Those cars look great so far guys! Man I wish I had the time to volunteer and become a member at IRM that looks like so much fun especially with how [...]
Tue, 01-12-2021 16:30
the pawnee is looking great a pat on the back to all involved
Mon, 01-04-2021 12:31
Hello Jack Happy New Year from IRM. To my knowledge there was no damage from the minor ice storm that we had in late December, 2020. Some [...]
Sun, 01-03-2021 20:12
the museum area had lots of ice storms in area did the museum get a lot of damage
Thu, 12-24-2020 13:27
roger, Thank you to all of the Passenger car department volunteers. The #109 is going to be a great car when all done! Ted miles, [...]
Sun, 12-06-2020 08:46
Hello Ted We havenot finished lettering the 975 but we are well on the way. Look for a few blogs from me now that the wearther is colder and the [...]
Sat, 12-05-2020 18:36
i watched crew replace switch by diesel shop on dec 5. its good to see museum have equipment to do job and save money
Fri, 12-04-2020 14:56
It has been a long time with no news; have you finished lettering the Southern Pacific locomotive? Please post a picture. Ted Miles, IRM Member