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Sunday, May 29. 2011Wood Shop Update - May 28, 2011It always seems to generate a lot of interest when a project is active and you can see work being done. Case in point is the Cleveland PCC, CTS 4223, which has taken enormous steps forward with the painting of the exterior.  Interior Trim The car is now back in Barn 4 and Eric Lorenz is fitting interior sheet metal moldings under each of the standee windows. Part of the plan is to soon start installing glass in the many openings in the car body.  Will it Fit Here is the tie in to the wood shop. A plywood template was made and Eric checks each opening so we can assure that when new glass is cut, it will fit the openings.  Jack Block Yes that is an odd caption. For Michigan Electric 28, Jeff Brady is repairing a large block of wood to be installed in the roof framing where a smoke jack will go through.  Brass We continue to clean and polish brass window lifts for the Sand Springs 68 as a sort of fill in task. They sure do shine, but it takes a fair amount of time to get this far. Once clean they receive a coat of clear lacquer, and then we will start to install them.  More Brass John Fenlaciki continues the seemingly endless task of restoring windows for CA&E 451. These are brass sash which must be cleaned and then clear coated, latches made to work, and new rubber weatherstripping installed at the bottom. In spite of doing all 'his' work he showed me some of his magic, by cleaning up the worst crud off of three of the SS 68 latches. Thank you, Jon.  Passenger Car Shelly Van Der Schagen and Mike Baksic were in the wood shop, working on the latest seat frame for the Santa Fe heavyweight car. Thursday, May 26. 2011Wood Shop Update - May 25, 2011For a change of pace I will shake up the order in which I usually report things this time.  Fast Work Last Saturday I mentioned about an upcoming project to extend the north (west) end of our Electric Trolley Bus line. Less than a week later the grass and topsoil has been removed, and new crushed limestone sub grade spread and leveled. The Thomas Event entry area will certainly look different this year.  All about Wood Rich Witt is constructing a new fixture to be used on the Glen Springs windows and behind him Victor Humphreys is sanding panels for the new station door. These are a bit tricky to be fit absolutely the best way we can.  Passenger Department John Mc Kelvey has been doing a lot of work all related to his particular expertise in upholstering. This week he has repaired and reupholstered a chair back for the INGLEHOME. Seen here, he is cutting the new fabric.  Welding Mysteries Gerry Dettloff is helping out on the Lake Shore Electric 810. Much of the structural woodwork has been repaired on the north side. Now he is pulling down the tie rods within the side framing, one at a time, and welding threaded extensions on them. The existing ends were so corroded and rust thinned as to be useless. Hmm, he seems skeptical of my new camera. Sunday, May 22. 20112011 Mainline Tie Project Patrick Loading Tie
Bundles onto the Flatcar. March 11 So what does it take to get the job done? This process began last year with the purchase of the 750 brand new ties to be installed. All of which were delivered by truck and unloaded on the property.  Inspecting Track and Marking Bad Ties. March
11  Unloading Tie Bundles on the Mainline with the Burro. March
11 Needless to say there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground to make the job difficult. With the ties all on the ground, the lengthy process of placing each tie in the exact location where it was to be installed began. Mostly, this involved the tie crane and an operator working eight or nine hour days over the weekends.  New Tie Bundles Set Along the Mainline. March
11 With only our small core group of volunteers, and without the necessary equipment to do the actual replacement ourselves, we hired a railroad contractor to truck in their own equipment and swap the bad ties for the new ones. This took a solid week for the contractor to finish the job and then the cleanup of all the material was left to us.  Tom setting out new ties at Johnson Siding. April
11 At this point the race was on to clean up the railroad before the operating season gets into full swing. During this time all of the old ties were collected with the tie crane and placed in one large pile near Johnson Siding where they will eventually be picked up taken away by another railroad contractor.  Old Tie Pile at Johnson Siding. May 11 With the wood picked up we focused on gathering all of the steel scrap which took the form of 2,800 spikes from the tie job, hundreds of old tie plates and other track material left on the line from years past. This could only have been done quickly and efficiently with our Burro crane and its electromagnet.  Picking up Scrap with the Burro Crane. May
11 That brings us to today. The next steps will be to get rid of our huge tie pile at Johnson Siding, and surface the railroad. Surfacing the railroad will be done in house using our ex Amtrak production tamper purchased a few years ago. Contracting an operation such as this would cost the museum another $40,000 and that does not include regulating the railroad afterward to finish the project! All of the work done in house by the Track Dept. easily cuts the total cost of the project in half and in this season alone has already saved the museum roughly $50,000. The alternative to any of what we do in house involves renting and trucking in equivalent machinery and paying contract wages. Work will continue throughout the season to tamp and dress the line working between operations and special events. Follow up maintenance on all of our machines and sorting materials from the line will take many more weekends of work.  Tom H. working on
the Burro Crane in January 10 None of this could be done without the dedication of our Track Department working odd hours in all sorts of conditions. Thanks to all who have helped on this project including Frank DeVries, Tom Hunter, Bill Lygiros, Patrick Shea, Jeron Glander, Mitch O'Brien, Bob Olson and Adam Robillard. Also we must thank everyone who supported the work including, but not limited to, the Operating Department granting us track time, Dave Diamond in the Buildings & Grounds Department, and anyone I may have missed.  Mainline at Night
08 More Track Dept. photos from Frank Devries and Adam Robillard can be found in the Member's Photo Site here- http://www.irm.org/gallery/Members-Photos Sunday, May 22. 2011Wood Shop Update - May 21, 2011This entry will be short since almost three hours of the day were spent with members of the OWWM group. That is short for Old Wood Working Machines. We are again hosting their annual meet - for the seventh consecutive year! We had few members of the planning committee on hand - from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois and time was spent surveying the improvements and changes at IRM and planning some of the activities to be held in September. This is a loose knit informal organization, with website, that has visited us often, conducting clinics, demos, and any manner of other activities for 2.5 days each year. They have been very generous in helping to support our wood shop. If any of you guys are really interested in old such machinery, contact me for more information; but beware, any machine made after 1970 is considered TOO NEW! While we were walking around, we noticed some white lines painted on the grass near the Thomas Event entrance gate. This is the proposed new paving and construction for the west end Electric Trolley Bus loop. It will be exciting to see that take shape. But back to the Wood Shop - - -  Raising a Panel Victor Humphreys is shown "raising a panel" for the new station door. That is where the inserted panel in the door openings have a raised center field. The operation is called "raising the panel" although in practice it is the surrounding areas that are lowered. John Faulhaber and Victor worked on those tasks in the morning.  Panels in Place Victor is checking the fit for two of the panels in the new door frame. These must be made to float or fit somewhat loosely in their grooves to account for seasonal expansion of the wood. We saw them for a fairly snug fit and then hand sand to fine tune for each opening. When all are in place, they will be inserted as the frame is glued and assembled. Friday, May 20. 2011CCW 300 Update - May 18, 2011Project Manger Pete Galayda supplied some nice pics of recent work on this steeple cab locomotive.  Arc Lights The locomotive uses arc headlights which John Nelligan has adopted as a project. Here are the original jacks and a restored set.  Welding Gerry Dettloff pitches in on a LOT of projects where his special skills are needed. Here he is welding a repair on the pilot of the CCW 300.  Paintwork The welding is complete and the parts cleaned up. Pete Galayda is applying primer to the raw metal. It will not be long before shiny black enamel is applied to finish this area. Friday, May 20. 2011D 13 Update - May 18, 2011From Pete Galayda, here is an image of recent work.  Letterboard The D 13 is a TM dump motor that Gerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber have been working on for some years. Amazing - it runs and appears most years in our July 4th Trolley Pageant. They have been doing a lot of work on one of the cabs, and this happens mostly in the summer season when weather allows. Here, John is up on the ladder fitting a new piece of letterboard, while Gerry helps from below. Thursday, May 19. 2011Wood Shop Update - May 18, 2011 Panels Victor Humphreys measures carefully for the panels that will be made for the new station door. They have been glued up and fabricated in recent weeks, and now is the time to make sure they will fit. By end of day, all four were cut and planed, ready for the next step.  Roof Boards When is a rainy day a good thing? Answer: on a Wednesday, preventing Tim Peters from maintaining outdoor plantings and lawn at his home - and chasing him into our wood shop. Today, Tim was custom making tongue and groove stock to repair rotted roof boards on CRT 1797.  Design You have seen photos here of Rich Witt serving in the capacity of engineer in our design department. He continues ably in that purpose, here on new windows for the Glen Springs. And he caught some details previously missed, including the fact that the left side and right side window lifts are not symmetrical to the centerline of the sash. Who would have thunk?  He Has Brass Before Simon Harrison could continue restoring brass window latches for the Sand Springs 68, Henry Vincent helped repair some problems with the 1934 DELTA drill press we were using. Once back in service, Simon continued the task of removing old lacquer and decades of oxidation and tarnish. Our century plus old 16 inch jointer required some maintenance and it is running much better now, thanks to Rod Turner and Tim Peters. Dave Diamond and the B&G crew continued on the Depot Street repaving and are digging and installing power conduits and manhole vaults. It just keeps getting better and better. Inspections continued on the electric cars with our father and son team from the Hicks family doing their thing on one of their favorite CA&E wood cars, the 319. And the crew working on the NP 230 baggage car continues to make progress with a lot of gray primer applied to the north side when it quit raining and dried off later in the afternoon. |
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Comments
Sun, 05-19-2013 22:13
Hello again. I had an idea that was (somewhat rudely, mid-sentence) dismissed in talking to a museum volunteer a few years back, but here it goes [...]
Thu, 05-16-2013 21:52
Looking good Bob! I hope to come out soon once I'm done with school.
Wed, 05-15-2013 21:28
I was not around at the time. General discussion suggests that it was "pretty marginal" in a number of areas. Nigel
Mon, 05-13-2013 11:08
"THUMBS UP!"
Fri, 05-10-2013 02:15
No, it will not be necessary to hold any of the work waiting for the plow to be turned, end for end. Weather will be the major factor, but there will [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 19:54
The CGW X-38 plow is really coming to life. Bob Kutella and Vic and crew need to be very proud of your collective efforts. I am very appreciative of [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 15:20
The snowplow looks great! Are you going to apply the door and upper windows befor it is turned to continue work?
Thu, 05-09-2013 09:09
Max, Is there any progress to report yet, in regards to the installation of the poles and overhead wires? Have a good day, sir.
Wed, 05-08-2013 18:40
Thanks for the update! I still don't understand why Commonwealth #5 was removed from service. Do you know why?
Tue, 05-07-2013 09:28
Mr. Kolanowski.....I was just wondering if the Spaulding webcam will be up and running soon for us stay-at-homes. Thanks!2FP
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:04
Max, Has work begun yet on the construction phase of erecting the poles and putting up the wire? Wish I could be there to watch it happen.
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:02
Keep up the good work, Bob. Wish I could be there to help!!!!!!!