Illinois Railway Museum Blog

On Tuesday, Jeron G and I made it out after work, with the goal of trimming the profile of the #4 axle on Milwaukee Road 760. Some years ago the #4 developed some flat spots. We started by removing the brake shoes and installing the cutting shoes. We used full tread and flange cutting shoes so the entire profile is taken down equally. The cost of the shoes was far less than I had expected, only $120 for a pair, so that was a pretty inexpensive way to deal with the problem. Although it was time consuming, it did address the issue. We then ran the loco over to the main line and went back and forth between the tower and the bridge. The first 30 to 40 minutes was just getting the shoes to wear in and seat so the full width was cutting. It was a lot of slow, boring, back and forth moves. We called it a night about 9:30pm. The flat spots were about half gone at that point.

On Thursday, Jeron G, Roger B, and I were out after work again. Jeron got to work with a few more hours of running the 760 back and forth. Meanwhile, Roger started disassembling and recovering some pipe fittings from the 9255. There is an air pipe under the cab floor that was rusted through in a few places, which will be replaced with new schedule 80 pipe, reusing a few of the old unions and such that are still in good shape.

I went and got the Joy 2 to drag the 8537 near an outlet to charge its batteries, and then dragged the BN1 to the nearest crossing to change out a bad battery. The BN1 uses eight 4-cell 25 plate per cell batteries. A few years ago, a bad one was changed out with one that was really old, but still holding a charge. Its all we had at the time, and no budget to fix it. It finally cracked its case and was completely open, literally and electrically. I picked up a like new used battery for $300, that was the same model as the other 7 batteries. Roger and I dragged the old cracked battery out of the box and shoved in the new one in, wired it, and put the loco on the charger after shoving it back in the yard.

We put the Joy 2 away, started the 8537 after its batteries charged enough to start it. We met up with Jeron to see how the truing shoes were going on the 760. The flat spot on the fireman's side was about gone, you couldn't measure it, but just a little visible. There was just a little bit left on the engineers side. Not sure if we'll live with it as it is or go for another few hours, its certainly A LOT better than it was when we started. We called it a night again, Jeron put the 760 away while Roger and I put the 8537 away.

I stayed another half hour to mask off the numbers on one side of Santa Fe 92, to spray some red so the numbers are readable on the sides of the cab once again. If you are a Santa Fe 92 or SD45/FP45 fan, come out on Sunday as the 92 will be leading, as a cab car, the WC 7525 and Coach Train. No pictures this time, actually, I did take one of the numbers being masked, but didn't upload it yet. We'll try to add more pics with this weekends work.

The annual Diesel Days parade of power is looking to be just as busy as previous years with almost 32,000 horsepower in the line up. We'll kick off the day at 10:00am with normal operations, the heavyweight coach train pulled by BN1, 2, 3, and 9908; the Nebraska Zephyr and CNW bilevels, both air conditioned trains, and a caboose train pulled by BN 5383. Later in the day we'll have a few freight train run-bys.

The parade will begin at 1:00pm each day and will have the following lineup:

- Joy Manufacturing Company 2 (Whitcomb 12DM38)
- DuPont 25Ton (Plymouth JDT25)
- United States Army 8537 (GE 45Ton)
- Nekoosa Paper 14 (ALCO S1)
- Commonwealth Edison 15 (EMD SW1)
- Milwaukee Road 760 (FM H10-44)
- Illinois Terminal 1605 (EMD GP7)
- Burlington Northern 1 (EMD F9A), 2 (EMD F9B), 3 (EMD E9AM) and 9908 (EMD E9AM) Coach Train
- Burlington Northern 5383 (GE U30C) Caboose Train
- Southern Pacific 1518 (EMD SD7)
- Santa Fe 92 (EMD FP45) and Wisconsin Central 7525 (EMD SD45MQ-3) Modern Freight Train
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9255 (EMD SW7)
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 504 (EMD SD24) Freight Train
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9911A (EMC E5A) and Nebraska Zephyr
- Chicago & North Western 6847 (EMD SD40-2)
- Chicago & North Western 4160 (EMD GP7R) MoW/Crane Train
- Chicago & North Western 411 (EMD F7A) and Bilevels

Other equipment on display:
- Union Pacific CNW 1995 (SD70ACe)
- Chicago & North Western 8701 (C44-9W)
- Union Pacific UPY 667 (GP15-1)

We'll keep the usual disclaimer of All equipment and schedules subject to change without notice.

Saturday evening after operations we are planning on some photo ops with the CNW lineup, the 411, 4160, 6847, 8701 and 1995. Anyone staying for the photos must have a general admission ticket or a membership.