Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Thanks to two 'reporters' we will see below that the winter weather has not slowed down volunteer participation and activity in the wood shop area, and also note, despite that being its name, a variety of work gets accomplished there.  First, with thanks, from Rich Witt:

Back In the Saddle

We have probably used that caption before, but here Frank Sirinek is proceeding with new roof saddles for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 451.  The saddles have been cut, sanded, primed, and are now getting their first coat of black enamel.

Cage Work

Pete Galayda is working to clean up, and restore steel parts for the resistor cage for Charles City Western 300.  The hoods on this steeplecab are crammed full of equipment, and not much room underneath the carbody, so the resistance boxes were mounted on the running boards beside the hood and enclosed by a steel cage.  These are some of the bars used to construct that.

In the Lab

Meanwhile our resident 'brain' is continuing the engineering and design calculations necessary to restore the electrical systems on the CCW 300.  Here, John Nelligan is 'figgering' values for some of the seven resistance banks.

In the Dumps

No, John Faulhaber is not so discouraged - he has made good progress on making new wood parts for D 13, a dump motor from the Milwaukee Electric.

Windows

Rich Witt continued finish work on two new window frames for Boston & Maine 1094, a wood passenger car.

Well - -

And Victor Humphreys had a badly deteriorated step well from wood caboose ATSF 1400.  He is working with Buzz Morisette on this car, when time is available.

Welcome

And a warm welcome to new volunteer, Simon Harrison, hailing originally from Leeds, UK.  We hope he enjoys the experience - there is a lot to learn and to share.

Fay It Isnt So

And from my perspective the best is saved for last!  This image is from our junior cub reporter, Tim Peters.  On January 13, he succeeded in getting the FAY molder sticker back in service.  This 129 year old machine is running new tack molding for our CTA 4000 series steel L cars.  Getting this machine back in service is a technical triumph and milestone in our woodshop activities.

Fitting the Mold

Here is an edit with some late breaking news from Tim.  The above pic shows the newly made completed tack molding profile along side a section of the old well rotted molding previously removed from the cars.  It looks pretty close to me!