Wood Shop

Priming

In the prior BLOG entry we mentioned that work was continuing on our MILW caboose and the roof might get painted on Wednesday.  Yesterday Buzz Morisette was out again and was helped by electric car guys Frank Sirinek and Dan Fenlaciki.  More sanding and prep work completed, see the above image from Jamie Kolanowski.  Sunday night he worked late and completed priming the body.  Now that is FAST WORK!

On the Button

On one of my favorite projects, Bob Sundelin again volunteered most of his Sunday.  Here he is fussing with recalcitrant passenger signal buttons on the south side of the Sand Springs 68.  We found a few problem buttons and amazingly located one shorted set of wires.  At days end 8 of those 10 buttons had 'rung out' satisfactorily and had been repaired.

North Side

But wait, you say.  You had been working on that same system on the north side of the car.  Sunday saw the installation of the motorman's BUZZER and the battery power so all of that side is DONE, complete with working buttons producing the irritating buzzer BRAPPP.  Here they are, most of the trim and woodwork reinstalled.

Step Box Boy

Jim Windmeier was in the shop sanding and painting his beautiful step box replicas.  I bet he could sell those, but with all the hours he and his son have invested in them, I bet no one could afford the price tag.

Truck Swap

In the afternoon I noticed that our TM 972 streetcar had been lifted ever higher using a set of air jacks.  The car's St Louis EIB truck was rolled clear and a temporary shop truck was being rolled under the east end of the car.  Frank Sirinek takes a short sit down break before the shop truck disappears under the car.

Signage

Last week saw the Buildings and Grounds Department erect another of the historic signs that IRM has worked to acquire and restore.  In this case it was the sign (almost more of a monument) that stood for years in Mc Cook Illinois at the EMD factory.

Window Engineering

Rich Witt is doing the engineering and layout work to manufacture a new passenger car window for the B&M 1094.  With operating season over this year, we benefit from an additional day of Rich's time in the shop.  Of course a lot of questions since the sample frame to copy proved not to be square or uniform in dimensions.  And we will have to devise a non symmetrical beading profile to accommodate the expected use of 3/16 plate glass in the new window.

Seats

Dan Fenlaciki was sanding down the old finish on a seat 'cushion' from the Vera Cruz 19 open car.  Frank Sirinek has been squeezing in some attention to this car, making repairs and refurbishments, along with his other major projects.

We are just about ready to start the repainting of the the MILW 01984 caboose after the crew has spent weeks sanding and doing body work.  The caboose has been in our Barn 2 paint shop thanks to Jamie Kolanowski.  So, this coming Wednesday it looks like we are planning and staffed to get a shiny new coat of black on the roof!

Work continued on the electrical system in the Sand Springs 68, primarily to complete the passenger signal system.  A button is provided on each window post to allow the passenger to signal the motorman of his upcoming stop.  We made up and installed a new wiring harness in loom, to run from one side of the car to the buttons on the other side, running under the floor.  The old wiring was in very poor shape and this will be a reliable replacement.  Of course that meant groveling under the car for over an hour, feeding and stringing the new cable, and removing the old one.  The upside is that the car underbody is much cleaner, as pounds of Oklahoma grit and dirt is something I wore home.  By days end all 10 buttons on the north side of the car were completed and operating to delight of some members who stopped by to visit.  A lot of the car's interior paneling, curtain boxes, etc have been re-installed, after having to remove them to work on the wiring.

And we closed the day with a planning meeting to work out some of the details to order materials and make about 650 feet of new tongue and goove roofing slats for the restoration of the LA coach by the ETB department.

It is hard to imagine how much work goes on and how productive the volunteers are compared to the early days at Union.  Any one of the above topics would have been a major undertaking in those days, without shop space and tools, yet they all proceed apace simultaneously.

We are still making some progress on the auxiliary electrical systems on the Sand Springs 68.  In keeping with the date, there were more tricks and one treat.

The Bell System

No, not the telephone company, but the passenger signal system that is installed (mostly) in the car.  We have been struggling to develop the schematic and thought we had that figured out.  First, pushing any of the buttons would not work any bell or buzzer.  (Note that the finished car will have buzzers, but for this testing we were able to rig up a circuit using a doorbell ringer.)   Later, they worked fine, ALL THE TIME, would not stop ringing.  The symptoms indicated that one or more of the bell buttons, or the wiring, had a short, so you could not interrupt the circuit.

Bob Sundelin contributed another of his volunteer days to the effort, and brought along some pretty fancy test equipment.  It seemed to confirm a short somewhere in the system, but we were not successful in interpreting the readings to pinpoint the problem. 

Back to the old fashioned way.  Note that two weeks ago the car interior was basically complete and assembled.  Now, seat boxes have been opened up, wall panels removed, trim off where needed, all three curtain boxes on the north side removed, and we were still not able to find the problem.  So we began removing more trim and exposing the buttons and wires feeding them.  There are ten buttons on that side of the car - wisely we had isolated the other side in our search for the short.  That cut the number of possibilities in half, yet we had to expose number 8 out of 10 before something obviously suspicious was found.  We inserted an insulating card between the offending contacts.  PRESTO, the bell started ringing on demand as a button was depressed.

Of course nothing is ever that simple.  Some of the buttons exhibited intermittent contact or just plain refused to make contact at all and complete the circuit, those may have to be replaced.  But the thinking part of our analysis was confirmed.  Above, see Ray Bellock and Bob Sundelin pushing buttons and making a racket.

More Paint

Jim Windmeier is becoming a Sunday morning regular on his step box project.  Here he is applying the first coat of Pullman green to the box bodies - and you can see the top step plates painted silver.

There was lots of other work going on in the Barn 4 shops and barn area, despite clear indications that winter is coming.  It was really 'cool' in the barn.  Jeff Brady and Dan Fenlaciki were seen installing another roof panel on the Michigan Electric 28, more maintenance and other inspection on North Shore 714, and the list goes on.