Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I know, I know...i have been remiss in my postings lately. i have to admit, its parlty because i dont like to simply rehash old news. So at least for now i will try to give a bit of an update

Maintenance is always the priority for us durning operating season. We have all the coaches to inspect, clean and test for operations, plus deal with malfunctions along the way.

One Lackawanna coach needed a brake valve, it is now repaired and back in service

The CNW combine 7700 has been out of service this year waiting for roof repair, as we dont like it to rain on our visitors indoors....

Well, Mike finally had the time to make progress on it. New Aluminum panels formed and mounted, and last week the process of repainting was begun. Give these forlks a ton of credit for doing all the dirty work to keep the cars operaing for the trains.

http://www.irm.org/gallery/CNW7700

Bob Hunter keeps making progress on Dover, and Roger has begun th eprocess of painting the corridor. That is the final piece of the ability to open the car for passage. Once the corridor is painted, we can clear out the buffet end and allow visitors. That will give us a chance to make a second complete walk through track in Barn 3, which will be nice for our visitors.

on another front, I have been busy with power feeds for the cars in Barn 3. Last year we began to install quick disconnect inlets for the cars, to not only create a secure, safe power feed, but also to create a system making the cars interchangeable when we relocate them. Last rport i talked about getting the one on the dover Strait done, and with the exception of a bit of housework, it is complete. Anticipating the arrival of ATSF fans over diesel weekend i also managed to get the plug installed for ATSF 2544 as well. Not a fancy part of the job, but it cleans up the image a bit. We now have eleven cars in te barn lit for display, and four of them det up with the new power feeders.

Roger keeps plugging along with John McGlothan, and in case i didnt mention it, he also got many windows intalled in the Glen Springs.

http://www.irm.org/gallery/GlenSprings/abg

Out in Yard 5 the streamliner sleeper set is in display mode, so not a lot of new work going on. We have a new member of our dept "family" and he is interested in CBQ so I am happy to welcome Kevin to the group. He began last week taking Amtrak paint off a door, and it successful, he is welcome to just keep on going. Since i lose a lot of my time with display and barn maintenance, I really appreciate additional help to keep projects moving.

Another item in the works is somewhat hidden from view for right now. Adam Robillard from the track dept was kind enough to donate to the Silver Ridge allowing me to have two matching bedroom chairs rebuilt. One was complete but raggedy, the second was a bare frame that i discovered in our storage. Realizing i had the chance to make a set, i planned the work over the winter. They are not back yet, mostly waiting for metal parts to be fabricated that were missing from the second chair, but i think they will be great when they get back. I havent had a chance to thank Adam much for his financial help so let this be a small note of appreciation to him , as well as Kevin Brown and all the other folks that have made donations large and small to the set.

Thomas weekends approach, so we will be busy doing all the proep work for that event, as will many other departments.

As always, we have need for docents. We would like to open more cars for guests, but will need to have folks on site to monitor them.

And as always, we could use any donations possible. We dont have any real restoration budget, and much of our department funds were allocated to the new barn to get equipment inside, so help is always appreciated. If you have a specific piece of equipment you can make donations specific, or you can make an online donation to the department.

http://www.irm.org/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=35

se you soon and have a great summer!