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Sunday, October 31. 2010Wood Shop and Other News - October 30, 2010I sent a lot of time on my back under the Sand Springs 68, continuing to repair and trace wiring with Victor Humphreys, so there was not a lot of opportunity to take pictures from there.  Visitor During the work, a friendly and personable visitor stopped to talk. Paul Parks actually knew something about the car and its history in Oklahoma. And he stayed on to assist in some of the work, cutting tape, handing tools, and aiming a very large flashlight. Above, he awaits the interior lighting as Victor raises the trolley pole.  Sanding Tim Peters worked away on the CRT 1797 wooden L car, in the shop, sanding on some window panels from the sliding side doors.  Side Doors And Eric Lorenz was on hand, continuing to work on the side doors of CTS 4223. This week it was to install the trailing black rubber nosing on the four door leafs. Thursday, October 28. 2010Wood Shop and Other News - October 26, 2010First, there was a surprise visit by Kirk Warner who was passing through town. Very good to see him, hope he can get back to help us soon.  New Trim John Faulhaber is cutting some stock for new trim for a passenger car, B&M 1094. This is a new request and the crew got right on it.  How to Do It Rich Witt made good drawings of the cross sections and pored over catalogs to try to find cutters that would produce the profile. They are on order by now.  Feel the Pane Randall Hicks continues to plow ahead on the tiresome job of sanding old finish off of CA&E windows and it must seem to be a never ending process. Other items of interest, is that Victor Humphreys again helped on the Sand Springs 68, painting reflectors for the front and rear running lights, and helping Henry Vincent and I on more wiring work. We have completed the car lighting segment and are now puzzling over a very difficult schematic for the passenger signal bells. Most cars at IRM have those disabled so as not to drive motormen stark raving mad once young passengers discover their function. Victor also began the first work on our wagon top boxcar, B&O 374065. The Wednesday Special Projects Group continued to make good progress on the CB&Q 993 baggage car; and began new work on the NP 230 baggage car. Won't that look sharp in the two tone green used on the North Coast Limited? Monday, October 25. 2010A small Olympus speedbumpwell, mike got down and inspected the car this past weekend, and he saw the same stuff i saw, with one distinct difference. since his inspection was focused more on mechanical that mine, he noticed that the trucks did not have any pedestal liners in them... OOOOPS! seems no one had noticed that yet so now we face one of two choices, with decisions to come soon. One we move the car on a flat car, and fix it here, This will add crane costs on both ends and the time and effort to install the pedestal liners once on property, a looong term issue since it would require jackng the entire car up again to install them Two we have the repairs made at St Louis, which will add to the cost of repair for transport, but would make the car "roadworthy" and faster for turnaround at IRM. The preliminary cost extimate is in the $4-5000 range for all eight wheels The cost differential between the two possible solutions is the issue, and the Executive Director is investigating that answer. i prefer to have the work done and over with, so we can begin to make the display and other preparations on the car as soon as it gets here. Mike agrees but we both await the answers regarding cost. So the end result, is that your donations, both past and future, will be put to extremely good use. It is also nice to report that the Olympus now has a donation site on the IRM website, for those of you that are inclined to help us. Thanks again for all the support thus far, and we hope to have an answer soon.
Monday, October 25. 2010Wood Shop and Other News - October 24, 2010 Painting Jim Windmeier was back on the job yesterday, sanding, priming, and doing other finish work on his project to produce replica stepboxes. This is really high class workmanship.  More Nosing Eric Lorenz was out another day, and was continuing to prepare and trim new rubber nosing for the new doors on CTS 4223, our Cleveland PCC car.  Nice Job Later in the day, Eric had applied that new nosing to the four rear doors on the car. It really makes a visual difference and prepares another area of the car to receive more finished paint.  Repairs Part of the Museum work is to maintain and repair any and all of the cars in our operating fleet. Dan Mulvihill was working on electrical contacts and arc shoots (used to contain and direct arcs created when the contacts open or close). This was on the Illinois Terminal 415, one of our most used trolleys, and which sorely needs a rest for more in depth renewal. In the previous BLOG entry by James Kolanowski he managed to get and post an image of the CNS&M 354. The car was a city car which saw service in the Waukegan area, and some duty on city streets in Milwaukee. I would guess it has been 15 years or more since seeing operation at IRM. A substantial restoration was completed by Jeff Brady decades ago, but the purpose here was to get the car running again, to evaluate any defects or problems, and to thoroughly inspect the car. There are some issues, and some will require some money to correct, but this is a very imporrtant first step to hopefully add another car to the regular operating fleet. Sunday, October 24. 2010Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway Company 354
The C&ME 354 operated today on the carline for some testing. Here we see 354 on track 41 west after changing ends. I think this is the first time I've seen this car operate at IRM, although it has been used some time in the past.
Sunday, October 24. 2010Wood Shop and Other News - October 23, 2010 Careful Fitting Tim Peters is fitting some replacement wood blocks and pieces to CRT 1797. This is a powered wood L car from Chicago that is occupying most of Tim's time.  Nosing Around Eric Lorenz is trimming some new rubber nosing sections that are destined for the new doors on CTS 4223.  Chapter Two Again, Victor Humphreys pitched in to help me along with the electrical work on the Sand Springs 68. Faithful readers of these entries will remember last Wednesday that we got the first of the interior lighting circuits operational for the first time in 55 years. By noon Saturday, the second circuit worked and is shown here from the car exterior, brightly lit.  WOW In the afternoon, we tackled the third and final circuit. It needed a little fiddling, but in the end all the lighting now works on 600 volts DC feed, as god has intended it. Joel Arendt came into the car to check on our work.  Rats Nest Those that have ridden the 68 since it first ran five years ago, may recall seeing a collection of temporary wires and jumpers running in the car. Their purpose was to feed ordinary 120 volt AC into some of the lighting circuits, with them isolated from the rest of the car, and thus they could be plugged in when the car was stationary to provide working lights. All of that is now a thing of the past, the car interior much more orderly. This image shows SOME of the old and temporary wiring that has been removed. |
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Comments
Tue, 06-13-2017 15:09
IRM is planning on painting the BN E Unit they have now (the one in the passenger scheme) into a CB&Q. Idk if that's what your referring to as [...]
Tue, 06-13-2017 09:07
Did I see a Santa Fe Blue & Yellow GE setting near Barn 4 a couple of weeks ago? If so, what is the story on that unit?
Mon, 06-12-2017 22:56
i think what he means is to give the Executive units some detailing while retaining the Executive Colors, because if you haven't noticed, some of the [...]
Mon, 06-12-2017 19:47
BN1 and BN2 represent the executive fleet well on their own, BN3 was used far less and was 9919 much longer. Another CBQ E unit is a bit excessive at [...]
Sat, 06-10-2017 00:31
I honestly am not a fan of repainting the BN-3. There are plenty of BN E9AM's out there that don't need full repainting. Now I understand it costs [...]
Wed, 05-31-2017 13:59
According to the schedule posted yes. This can all change at any time due to mechanical failure without notice.
Fri, 05-26-2017 11:01
Steam Dept. Crew: You guys are heroes to a lot of us out in the hinterland!
Sun, 05-21-2017 08:14
Yes, the plan is to have CB&Q 9976 available as an alternate silver locomotive for the Nebraska Zephyr should 9911A be unavailable for service. Since [...]
Tue, 05-16-2017 13:08
Question. Will there be steam operating on either June 17th or 18th? Will be visiting from the state of Washington and was just curious. Thanks in [...]
Tue, 05-16-2017 11:36
You mean Burlington Northern #9908 will go back to being Chicago Burlington & Quincy #9976 ?
Mon, 05-15-2017 14:41
Will there be a rain date just in case?
Tue, 05-09-2017 00:35
so, will 992300 have the welded windows cut out? because after seeing a 1977 photo online, it had the windows there.