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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
Fri, 08-18-2017 00:52
Hi John T, We would love to have a copy of your Ohio crane information. Please contact Mark Secco concerning anything about rail bound cranes. Thank [...]
Fri, 08-11-2017 00:05
Randy, The 543 was never in that paint scheme. It'll likely be restored to the zebra stripe scheme whenever it does get restored. Jamie
Thu, 08-10-2017 17:46
If you ever get the money to repaint this engine, I would hope you would repaint it to have the big letters Santa Fe instead of the small print. [...]
Thu, 08-10-2017 10:38
I would like to know if these MR #649 and #542 were part of FEVR excursion in Nebraska? Awesome to have them to be part of IRM collection!
Sat, 08-05-2017 23:30
They need to restore Milwaukee road 33 and 37c along with the 3 Milwaukee road f units hey have
Wed, 08-02-2017 20:01
It was supposed to be restored and sat behind the NS Altoona shops for the better part of two years, waiting for that to happen. We finally had it [...]
Tue, 08-01-2017 02:42
those 2 Milw cars would actually look good behind one of the Milw F7's or the E9's.
Sat, 07-29-2017 22:02
I just donated to the Save the 800 campaign. Should the campaign fail, I would like my donation re-directed to ATSF FP45 #92 please. Please tell the [...]
Sat, 07-29-2017 13:14
I see Conrail 4601 has finally arrived. I suspect a cosmetic restoration and getting donations to put it in a barn are in order?
Sat, 07-29-2017 01:51
It was restored at Altoona before coming to Union from the Essex, CT area. BTW, is or was it going to be restored as a Virginian engine? or kept as a [...]
Fri, 07-28-2017 11:54
It appears to be the E33 that IRM aqquired a year or two ago.
Thu, 07-27-2017 14:06
What is the 4601 locomotive parked in front of the diesel shop?