Illinois Railway Museum Blog

For those of you who do not recognize this, it is one of our newer freight car additions to the collection (and of course needing money, if you can help).  So far the car has been placed on its proper trucks, a coupler replaced, and as you will see below, getting a lot of fix it up and check it out attention.

Air line Bracket Repair

Here the bracket to support the air line and angle cock is being re-welded.  And below - the next two images also show welding bits and parts that had failed or were broken.

Coupler Carrier

Jacking pads on Car Bolster Ends

Grinding to prep for New Weld

Victor Humpreys was part of the productive crew that accomplished a whole lot in a short time.  All this made possible by Henry Vincent firing up Joy 2 and using it to spot the car on 41 track.

New Brake Shoe

Dick Cubbage is the man for the job!  Tight quarters and nearly superhuman strength required to 'drop in' a new brake shoe.

Air Brake Testing

Finally, Dick is testing the air system for leaks and exercising the long dormant brakes.  We are still missing one brake rod - lost in the trucking move?  With that, the car could operate in our demo trains.  For now the brakes are cut out, and the car would serve merely as a long connecting hose between other freight cars.