Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Wood Beam

George Clark is fitting a large wood beam to the new structural Z shape destined to replace corroded members on the LSE 810.  Big stuff, and a lot different from puttering around on bookends in your garage.

Also in the wood shop, Henry Vincent fitted remaining items for the new planer, including a lockout plug, a ductwork transition, and the flex hose and grounding.

Caboose Brakes

Meanwhile, out in the sun, we worked to resolve air brake issues on caboose CGW 601.  Fred Zimmerman is monitoring brake cylinder piston travel.

The Operator

Rich Witt was the 'designated driver' and here he is operating the test stand to apply and release the brakes.  We ended up changing out both the service and emergency portions of the control valve under the car, and the brakes do apply consistently now.  But release is painfully slow, and we have basically run out of ideas where to look for the problem.  Any air brake guys out there wanting to pitch in and look this over?

Mike Alterio was working to build missing parts for a coupler carrier on caboose UP 3786; Joe Luciani, Lee Regione, and Fred Silverman helped with installing brake shoes (thanks to Jamie Kolanowski for ordering and getting these parts) on four wheels, and we did more reserach on what might be needed to install a new coupler on the west end.