Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Another post crossing category lines, and sorry for the poor photo, but it is what I got.

Truck Work

The motor truck was in fact removed from the 36 and here our crew reassembles and mounts motors and related parts before shipment.  Greg Kepka, Joel Arendt, Dan Fenlaciki, Warren Lloyd, Stan Wdowikowski, and Nick Kallas are in this shot.

Other freight department continued with prep work for adding a MILW herald to our URTX 26640 car, and two more windows fitted and ready for gluing for the IC 9792 caboose.  AND - thanks to Richard Schauer for invaluable help in removing the east coupler from URTX 26640.  Just one of the steps along the way to repairs and completion.

Window Moldings

We will start of this entry by welcoming Bruce Plaxton back to the shop areas.  Here he is working on new window moldings for the dozen new windows destined for the CA&E cars.  When the cars from the Trolleyville collection first arrived at IRM, you would trip over all the folks coming out for a look see or to help.  Where are all you guys now?  To be sure, a lot of work is being done, but as usual more help would ensure continued results.

We also did some shop work on a new signbox sash for the CA&E 409 and for new windows for IC 9792 caboose.

Then, to help fill out this entry here are a few pics more properly from the Electric Car Department.

Spring Time

Yes, the calendar says it is spring time, but here the IT 415 is up on jacks and the truck pulled to change out a broken leaf spring.  A pair of new springs would be the proper course of action but funds are lacking.  So a patch job was done, using an old salvaged leaf spring assembly.  That will place the car back in service - for a while at least.

CAE 36

By mid afternoon the CA&E 36 was spotted on Track 41 for a truck swap.  As I understand it, the Cleveland RTA swapped the motor truck on this car for one from another Trolleyville car, to get the 36 running for demo purposes on their system.  The plan is now to place this car on a shop truck and send the motor truck now below it to the east coast to trade for the original which was under the car.  When that arrives at Union, the process will be reversed to again have the correct motor truck underneath.

Lots to show and tell for this entry including a variety of other work going on at IRM.

By the Numbers

It is always exciting to see a restoration project nearing completion.  Tim Peters is applying the numbers to CRT 1268 and it involves some careful hand painting.

Letterboard

Tim has already completed the application of RAPID TRANSIT to both letterboards of the car, it is really looking sharp and the lettering sets off thousands of restoration hours spent on the car.

New Window

John Faulhaber was helping Henry Vincent install one of the new shop made windows on CNS&M 757, while Frank Sirinek cheers them on.

Mortising

Later on John Faulhaber volunteered to plunge eight more mortises for new windows for caboose 9792.  And still later he was working with Gerry Dettloff to cut and fit a template for new roof saddles for TM D 13.

Sanding

Rich Witt was on hand and continued his fine work making a new signbox sash for CA&E 409, his second one for this project.

Scrollwork

Frank Sirinek has been making roof repairs and other doing other work on the Vera Cruz 19 open car.  This is some of the fancy filligree scrollwork now found on the dashes of this open car.  For now Frank plans to keep it in the red livery for this coming operating season, perhaps painting over the CP&SW lettering.

The Number

And here is the number which appears in one spot on each end.  All of this needs to be documented, and then scaled, sized, and reproduced in drawings or with decals to be ready after the re-painting proceeds.

These posts by me may slow down for a while as I remain hobbled from a fall last week.  But here are a few shots I managed to take yesterday, in between sitting around off my legs.

Window Trim

The ever faithful Dick Lukin was out in the shop and worked on painting some CA&E finish red on almost 200 feet of new molding or window beading that will retain the glass in the new window sash previously made.  He actually looks like this is FUN!

Old Seat

Buzz Morisette is working on some old seat cushions we need to send out, related to our efforts to reupholster the seating in the TM 972 streetcar.  No, this set is not from that car, but still part of the 'project'.  The frame has been put back to a semblance of working order over the last two weeks by Victor Humphreys, and as you can see the cushions have been found, although in dreadful condition.

Window to Progress

Or a better caption might be Progress on the Windows.  Buzz has just applied another coat of finish paint to several of the new sash for the Milwaukee Road 01984 caboose.  This is really fine new work, a shame folks do not know the effort and many steps to get to this point.