Wood Shop

A Clean Shop

John Faulhaber is one of several folks who have worked in the past few weeks to help REALLY clean the wood shop area.  As a reminder, the wood shop is closed to restoration work this coming weekend as we are hosting an annual event for us - this time about 100 folks from coast to coast all interested in old woodworking machines.  And we have them!

Patching Steel

Gerry Dettloff is working to piece in new steel and weld it all up on CRT 1797, the next wood L car restoration being done by Tim Peters.  That end plate was pretty much like a lace doily - I suppose you can expect that on a car over a century old!

Another Silver Car

Many of you have read of the exploits of our Wednesday Warriors, a group of fellows who volunteer on Special Projects.  They are largely invisible since they do not attend IRM on weekends, but their work is certainly NOT invisible.  This season they have been laboring on a lightweight smoothside baggage car from the CB&Q.  I think I will go with 983 although there has been some confusion with the number 963.  In this Photo, Paul Gasiorowski has been applying new silver to the north side of the car.  This is a rare photo with the other cars stored in yard five out for last week's showcase operations, leaving us an empty track.

More Paint

Wayne Bates is working on one of the sliding doors as Paul continues east with the paint roller.

Corner Repairs

Meanwhile, Neal Schwingbeck is welding in new steel to repair some wrinkles sustained to the corner.  If any of you saw this car a scant six months ago you would not believe it to be the same piece of equipment now!

Holiday weekends can be tricky, some shop projects on Saturday, and a pretty thin crew Sunday and Monday.

Steps

Jim Windmeier is routing finished edges on the top steps for the project that he and his son have been working on.  In case you do not remember, that would be MANY wooden replica step boxes to ease visitors on and off our equipment more safely.

Software

Ted Anderson (of Pullman Library FAME) spent an afternoon trying to help with software upgrades on a drafting program.  We use that for some lettering and graphics work, constructing documentation records, and preparing designs for bidding and construction.  Thanks, Ted.

The Michigan Electric crew was out Sunday and I managed to complete a few more steps on window replacement for the Sand Springs 68.

Molder

Sort of a mixed bag this week, as it was rainy early on, forcing us indoors, but some other projects got done in our 'repair shop under the sky' later in the day.  To start out we worked with Tim Peters to use our 120 year old molder to profile some wood for new posts on CRT 1797.  Victor Humphreys is removing a test piece while Tim makes some adjustments.

North Shore Window

Henry Vincent was glazing a new window for CNS&M 757, a long running project that provides fill in tasks.

More Windows

Rich Witt and Bob Milhaupt helped a bit on another window project, this one destined for Sand Springs 68.

Retainer

In the Freight Department, we have had some problems repairing and keeping older retainer valves servicable.  Pictured here is one from Westinghouse Airbrake, obsoleted some 60 years ago.  Circled is one version of fittings added to the vent or exhaust port to prevent insects and other debris from accumulating and plugging that opening.  Anyone knowing where some of those might be, we could use a few.  Or if you have one to loan us we would like to make copies for use on our equipment.

Finally, I should note that Gerry Dettloff and Victor Humphreys added a new coupler wear plate to the west end of URTX 26640, essentially completing mechanical work on this restoration.