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Monday, March 29. 2010Wood Shop Update - March 27, 2010Frank Sirinek and Rich Witt are proudly displaying the new sign box sash for CA&E 409. Rich did most of the woodworking and Frank finished the painting and glazing. By the end of the day it had already been installed on the car! Rich Witt began at once on the next window project, this time a door drop sash for the CA&E 450 series cars. First step was to take measurements and create a drawing to proceed. Buzz Morisette continued his fine efforts on ten new windows for the MILW 01984 caboose. After long trips to Barn 11 to check the fit, he decided to use our century old jointer to shave a bit off the width. With the fit satisfactory, it was on to the bench to apply primer. Buzz sure gets a lot done and makes the most of his time out at IRM. I wonder how he does it? Tim Peters has made new gutters for the CRT 1268 using new sheet copper. Here is a side by side of one of the few originals and the new fabrication, which included forming a folded over lip and rolling to shape. Here is the first prototype of a 'pilot model' for new saddles for CA&E 451. The old one Tim Peters is holdng can be seen to be 90% rotted and missing. I think there will be no entry here for March 28. I have come to rely and appreciate guest photographers in the last recent weeks but no such help yesterday. And a lot of the shop remained nearly empty with the large attendance at the CTA fantrip. But work continued by the ME 28 crew, the passenger coach department was on hand to continue seat work, and to lend me a hand milling more battens for the depot project. Oh, and one other thing - a lot of folks were working on the CA&E cars including the 409 and the 460. As I was leaving, I saw a three car set of steel cars rounding the ess curves on the car line! 431-460-409 Sunday, March 28. 2010
Track Dept Weekend Report Mar 27, 28 Posted by Adam Robillard
in Track Department at
23:02
Comments (0) Track Dept Weekend Report Mar 27, 28Saturday Report --- The day's primary project was the joint effort with the Signal Dept to get the very large Corwith Tower lever machine into our Spaulding Tower. This proved to be no easy task. The entire lever machine is roughly 20 ft in length and weighs nearly 9000lbs... The signal dept can report further on its future but our part was the heavy lifting with the Model 50 Burro crane to get it into the lower level- through the doorway. Tom Hunter ran the crane and after a few test lifts near Barn 9, we lifted the machine near the station and ran it into the Tower very slowly and carefully. We were successful in getting it in the building around 2PM and hit lunch. Lets hope that machine never has to leave the tower again! After lunch, the crew of Tom Hunter, Tyler Hunter, Frank Devries, Jeron Glander and myself, Adam Robillard split into a few groups. Jeron and Tyler ran to Napa and picked up new fuel filters for the Burro crane and along with Tom Hunter replaced the filters in the crane and fueled up the machines in yard 11. Jeron did some wonderful electrical work on the Amtrak regulator and also broomed a yard track in Yard 10 to test the functions. All which appear to be working well. Nice job Jeron! Meanwhile Frank and myself were at Track 24 pulling the bad vibrator motor out of the Switch Tamper and prepping the install of the new one Tom had stored in his garage. We managed to get the new motor in and wired up but it hasn't been tested yet. That's for another day. The next project was to relocate
the brush trimmer that has been stored in one of the electric
carbarns. It cannot be left in the open near the public beginning next
weekend so we needed to switch it back into Track 24. Tom and the gang
took the EJ&E 585 motorcar to retrieve it only to have the entire
machine derail on the Yard 6 lead.... Call in the Model 50! While
Frank, Tom & Tyler took time to rerail the cutter, Jeron and I
headed onto the carline to weld traction bonds. The portion of track
we surfaced over the last few weeks revealed three joints with broken
or non existing bonds. Some quick work with our stick welder resolved
that problem and the two of us went back to Tk24 to clear all the
machines out of the Barn. When the cutter was rerailed, now well after
dark, we shimmied it into the back of Tk24 and switched everything back
in the Barn. We called it a night around 9PM. Wow, what a day. Sunday, March 28. 2010Snowflake Special Report 03/28/2010The Snowflake Special was today and it was great! The equipment used was a 6 car train made up entirely of 2200s, the oldest in the fleet. We traversed parts of every line, traveled in every subway and visited some rarely seen yard trackage. We started at Rosemont northbound for our first photo stop at O’Hare, then headed back south. We pulled into Foster middle track (former Jefferson Park yard) for photo run-bys at Jefferson Park and Addison. Then into the loop and out to 63rd St. lower yard. A rare opportunity for a passenger train. At that point we headed back to the loop for our lunch stop. After lunch we went on the Orange line for a photo opportunity at 35th/Archer. Afterward we headed down into the State St. subway and up to Howard, then to Skokie Shops. The CTA was kind enough to park a pair of 5000s for us to see as we entered the yard. After some switching, we headed down the Skokie test track. The CTA guys thought that this was the first passenger train to ever go down the test track. Don’t know if that is true (there have been a LOT of fantrips dating way back), but it sure was a highlight for us. We headed back to Howard for a restroom break and to do a few loops around Howard yard, then up to Linden to loop that yard also. Then it was back down toward the loop, then over parts of the green, pink, and finally blue line for the trip back to Rosemont. Of course the afternoon was littered with photo stops including a thrilling one where our train paced a revenue train southbound into Belmont. Thanks to our CTA crew it came off without a hitch and the collection of photographers at the south end of the Belmont platform was incredible. What a great way to spend a day as I’m sure the approx. 280 passengers will attest to. David Harrison did a great job getting the ball rolling and working with Bob Heinlein and the CTA came up with a great routing plan.
The trip was a fundraiser to get the 2000s inside the next barn. The good news is we are about half way there! The challenge is that they still need donations. Please consider donating to the “2000s Fund” as they are the only Chicago Rapid Transit equipment in the museum’s collection that is still stored outside. Great job David, Bob, Richard Schauer coordinating ticket sales, today’s IRM volunteer car captains, our fantastic CTA crew who made sure the day went smoothly, and most of all those of you who supported this trip with such enthusiasm that we had to put an additional 2 cars on the train to accommodate everyone who wanted to ride. The museum and the 2000s THANK YOU!!!!! Sunday, March 28. 2010PART TWO - Wood Shop Update - March 24, 2010From the camera of John Nelligan, here are some more images of the shop work producing new battens for the depot. I will present this as a short photo essay, not to bore you with a lot of text. Rich Witt, Henry Vincent, and Bob Kutella install a set up of fences and featherboards for the table saw. Three pics here showing Pete Galayda, Henry Vincent, and RIch Witt ripping 14 foot long boards into the correct width for the battens. The next step was to plane the strips to the needed thickness and here, John Faulhaber is feeding our old faithful Boice Crane planer. Bob Kutella, Rich Witt, Pete Galayda, John Faulhaber, Henry Vincent, and Victor Humphreys all worked a long day and are shown here behind a stack of nearly 1100 feet of blanks ready to be fed into the shaper for final profiling. Saturday, March 27. 2010
Trolley Bus Dept Update - 03/27/2010 Posted by Ray Piesciuk
in Trolley Bus Department at
19:42
Comments (2) Trolley Bus Dept Update - 03/27/2010After spending the morning filling the last of the Snowflake Special ticket orders, Richard and I decided that we would make some inaugural runs for 2010. We took the Edmonton 181, the Seattle 4020 and CTA 9553 out for a couple trips each. Mike and Tom Morrow were in from Michigan and Ohio respectively for the Snowflake trip tomorrow, so they rode along. Tom runs trolleybuses.net and has been very complimentary in his treatment of IRM in the world of trolleybuses and Mike has been a great supporter of us for many years. It was great to see them again and to have them along on the first trips of the year. Next weekend Richard and I plan to finish up measurements of the last few pieces for the roster, then video our overhaul of a retriever. This will give us a permanent record of the procedure for our archives, and we will be able to share this info with Sandtoft (England – home of another Edmonton BBC) and perhaps other museums. Sorry no pictures, I just shot video today. |
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Comments
Tue, 01-19-2021 20:11
Dear, IRM The N and W 611 is coming to the IRM 2021 NHS. OK IRM.
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
Wed, 01-06-2021 10:14
Good job on coach updates January 5, 2021. Sincerely, Ethan A.
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