Wood Shop

CE 4

This weekend, with help from longtime member and hardworking volunteer Dick Lukin, we applied lettering to one side of the cab of our electric workhorse locomotive.  Of course the piece is parked inside Barn 8 which suffered storm damage (see related posts) and that made the work tough.  No way to even run an extension cord for a drop light from three buildings away so we labored on in the dimness.  I had to post this poor pic to prove the work done.  Imagine taking a pic of a black subject in a dark building and maybe you will understand the blur.

Depot Door

With help from Tim Peters, there was some progress on the parts being made for a new depot door.  It looks like the next steps will be to plunge the needed mortises.

Another Door

Speaking of Tim, the heavy rains Sunday morning drove him away from other life pursuits and here he was, working on an end door from the next project.  You guessed it, a wood el car, Chicago Rapid Transit 1797.

Tending Their Knitting

You might guess knitting classes were underway, but Frank Sirinek and Dan Fenlaciki were tieing new bundles of virgin wool yarn to be used for waste packing in our cars and motor bearings.

Steelwork

George Clark has stripped the bad siding from the second side of LSE 810 and he is now laying out and drilling the needed holes in a custom made Z section of structural steel.  You will note the badly deteriorated sill on the car behind him.

CAE 409

The second new signbox box wood sash has been installed on the CA&E 409 and Frank Hicks is engaged in applying the final coat of red paint.

CAE 451

Jon Fenlaciki continues on the task of removing side windows from the CA&E 451 and restoring them to their brass finish.

Door Painting

Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady pause for a photo op in the new shop addition.  The now completed baggage doors have been moved in and they are getting set to spray paint the primer coat on these.

409 Signbox

John Faulhaber and Rich Witt make some fine adjustment cuts on the new 409 signbox sash, otherwise completed in the preceeding few weeks.

Caboose parts

Buzz Morissette is tinkering with some small trim and window sill parts for the MILW 01984 caboose project.

Battens

Summer employee Mark Osiecki is in the new shop addition space to stay out of the rain.  He is painting the new station battens produced in our woodshop.  Carl Ilwitzer was also engaged in a similar task at the other end of the room.

Unexpected Help

We got some unexpected volunteer help Wednesday morning.  Steve Binning of St. Louis, Eric Starr, and Marilyn Starr are stripping paint in the late afternoon on an interior panel removed from the Shaker Heights 63 PCC car.

There were a lot of projects being worked on yesterday, I think I will just lump them here in a Wood Shop post.

Lamp Innards

The last ceiling lamp fixture for the Sand Springs 68 seemed to have some damage.  A little tricky to do, but we got it dis-assembled enough to make repairs.  The coiled wire in the image needs to be re-soldered to the outside of the copper lamp cup.  It did not happen yesterday since the correct tools were not available.

Bird Nests

George Clark is almost done stripping off the old siding from the Lake Shore Electric 810.  The nests behind this section seem to indicate there were some hitchikers along the way.

Depot Door

Thanks to Jeff Calendine from the steam shop, who stopped by the woodshop and volunteered to help mill slots in the new rails and stiles for the depot door project.

Two Divided by Three

What to do when you have two new doors to be worked on, and three volunteers?  For the ME 28, they all crowd in on one of them!  Left to right, Norm Krentel, Jeff Brady, and Dan Fenlaciki

451 Hardware

Jon Fenlaciki has almost singlehandedly taken on the task of cleaning and fixing all of the brass sashed windows for CA&E 451.  The heavy rains in the afternoon put a damper on that, so he switched to cleaning and remounting window hardware for the four new drop sash.  They are all brass covered with layers of paint and years of oxidation.  But Jon knows the secret ingredients to bring back the luster - Brasso and Elbow Grease!

We had to switch gears today, from the planned work, due to some pretty impressive morning thunderstorms.  So, inside to the shop!

Do You Do Windows

Thanks to Dick Lukin who came out to work in the shop today.  Here he is working on the sign box frame and several new window sash for CA&E cars 409 and 460.

Another Door

We also began cutting parts for a new depot door, mentioned in earlier Blog entries.  Victor Humphreys is gatthering the completed blanks for the rails and stiles.

Roof Details

Roof Details

These are two views of some of the roof details on Sand Springs 68.  Work continued to replace a clerestory window in this area, a side window replacement, and two of the remaining light fixtures were mounted.

Drop Sash

Rich Witt was laboring to complete more drop sash, newly made for the CA&E 409.

Steam Team

And Bob Milhaupt was out working in the steam department.  He came by the wood shop to have us splice a repair into a leather drive belt for a threading machine.

Platform

Let us not forget Ed Oslowski.  He and Ray Bellock were both in Barn 4 working to complete details on CNS&M 749, prior to its dedication and unveiling on June 19.  You will not want to miss this event.

Sign Box

Rich Witt made a rare Sunday visit to the shop and fit all the thin beading strips needed to mount the glass.  Then later, he proceeded to begin applying the first coat of finished red paint, since this is slated for CA&E 409.

George Clark was working on the Lake Shore Electric 810, I managed some more repair work on the SS 68, Kevin Tudor and family glazed two windows for the C&IM coach, and we also did a clipper lacing splice on a leather drive belt for the steam shop.

As much as I hate to post an entry with prose only, I just seem to have had no time to stop the work I was actually doing to take pics yesterday.  You can see work on the new windows for IC 9792 on the Hicks Car Works site.  Thanks Randy.

Other work in the woodshop/Barn 4 area included Rich Witt essentially completing the new sign box sash for CA&E 409, Frank Sirinek glazing four of the new windows for CA&E 451, continuing work on CCW 300, the ever present Henry Vincent helping as always on shop maintenace and repairs, and Randy Hicks doing CAE 319 window restorations and hardware cleanup.

We walked down to our erstwhile 'paint shop' to inspect the CA&E 319 and noticed some misses on the south side of the car.  I was told a second coat of grey is to be applied there.

Victor Humphreys continued outdoors after the morning rain, working on the URTX 26640 roof and door track painting.

The bulk of the day was doing maintenance and an annual inspection on caboose ICG 199458.  Thanks to all who helped, especially Gerry Dettloff.  A number of defects were noted and repairs will be made pending ordering of new parts as needed.