Wood Shop

There was a lot going on, as on most weekends, so this will stay with the pattern of many news items.

A Caul

Ray Schmid and Jeff Brady are working on a very large caul for the Michigan Electric 28.  A caul is a form, usually used for bending sheet material, or somehow aiding in making complex forms.  In this case full sheets of the new roofing material will hopefully be wrestled into shape.

The Motormans Seat

More progress on the newly re-upholstered seat cushions for TM 972.  Victor Humphreys is working on the two motorman's seats.

A Nickle Seat

Dan Fenlaciki is working on mounting brackets for a bench seat near the end of the car, one that the old heads refer to as a 'nickle seat'.

More Step Boxes

The Step Box Boys, Jim and Tom Windmeier, were back at work, adding reinforcing blocks and other finish work on a dozen replica stepboxes.

One of the highlights of the summer occupied most of our time Satuday and that was a dedication of the IRCX 1277 tank car and the completion of the restoration of the UTLX 17222 tank car.  A special train was operated with the tank cars and two rider cabooses for guests representing Texaco Chevron who sponsored the work with a generous grant.

Other work in and around the Barn 4 area included work on the CA&E 36 truck including rebuilding a brush holder in anticipation of getting this truck under the car.  A new planer for the wood shop was ordered, and delivered in the same week.  This will expand our capabilities to allow a greater range of restoration work to be done.  We moved the URTX 26640 boxcar the old fashioned way.  Other equipment precludes using even a small locomotive, so out came a couple of pinch bars and strong backs to coax it about five feet further east.  And of course more air brake work in the ongoing maintenance and repair of operating cars.

I am a bit late getting this on line, as most of these pics were taken 7/18.  And as with many of of the recent blog entries, a lot of topics are covered, so I am going to leave it titled as WOOD SHOP, even if not 100% accurate.

Step Box Boys

Jim and Tom Windmeier (father and son team), have adopted the moniker of Step Box Boys, as they work toward manufacturing a dozen or so wooden replica stepboxes for use at IRM.  There is some really nice woodworking going on here.

Seat Hardware

Frank Sirinek and Dan Fenlaciki are attaching the yokes and hardware to one of the newly re-upholstered seats for TM 972.

Progress

Here are the same pair working inside the car to mount that above walkover seat back in the frame.  As you can see, they are homing in on completing the installation of most of these seats.

Cauls

Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady wrestle a sheet of plywood through the table saw.  They are cutting formers for a large bending caul which is being assembled.  That caul will then be used to bend and form sheets of new roofing overlayment for the Michigan Electric 28.

We also managed to do a small amount of painting and lettering on URTX 26640, wrestled with some air brake problems on CGW 601 caboose, took delivery of a new woodworking machine, saw Gerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber painting new roof boards for the TM D13, and noted progress on CRT 1797, being restored by Tim Peters.

We also witnessed a manufacturer demo of dry ice CO2 blasting to remove paint and accumulated dreck from a variety of materials.  To me it seemed too aggressive for some more fragile materials and yet not strong enough to handle several old coats of paint on other, heavier pieces needing cleaning.

Although titled as wood shop news, I will start with work on the URTX 26640.  John Faulhaber and I managed to do some more lettering work on the car (never ending) and Victor Humphreys put the final coat of orange paint on the last of the four corners.

Then we went over to UP 3786 to take measurements regarding coupler replacement.  This has turned out to be a tricky job, and perhaps no way to do this 'in-house' with IRM volunteers and tools.

Here are two images by Gwyn Stupar.

Having Fun Yet?

Lots of fun trying to take apart stuff so that more stuff could be taken apart.

Parts

But on to the wood shop area - sort of.  Somehow the guys working in this area seem to have made a new acquisition.  We have 'acquired' responsibility for reupholstering all 58 seat cushions in the TM 972.

On the Bench

Here, Victor Humphreys and John Faulhaber are fastening the yokes and mechanism in the shop, to one of the walkover seat backs.

In the Car

Next, Victor and John venture into the car in the blistering hot weather to mount that to the seat frame.

Have a Seat?

And finally a shot of the first two done, NICE huh?  Before we all wilted, five sets had been installed.

New Roof

And in keeping with the above TM theme, we caught Gerry Dettloff prime painting many new thin wood slats destined to be a new cab roof on TM D 13.

New Drop Sash

Here we see Rich Witt and Fred Zimmerman glazing a new drop sash window for car CA&E 409.  By the end of the day they had done three windows, cleaned hardware, and we had one installed in the number 2 end of the car.

Other wood shop activity saw John Faulhaber making new roof saddles for one end of the D 13 (TMER&L) as he and Gerry Dettloff work to replace all of that on one end of the differential dump trolley.