Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I am going to post these to a new General Category since the work covered so many diverse projects and areas.  Weather was clear but HOT, yet there was a good turnout and much getting done.

Public Improvement

Here is a view of our main intersection at Central and Depot.  B&G is undertaking MAJOR work all along this area.  By the start of the day two new precast concrete vaults had been sunk and put in place.  Just as with many infrastructure improvements anywhere, a lot of work will be hidden below the finished paving.  There are new manholes being installed, lots of underground electrical conduits and wiring, new concrete curbing, drainage improvements, and so on.

More Poles

Our line department, led by Max Tyms, has installed a new steel line pole at Central and the crossing of the car line route.  I believe this is some of the work needed for new overhead for our Electric Trolley Bus line.

Glass is Coming

Eric Lorenz was busy laying out and cutting new templates for glass for the CTS 4223 PCC.  There are many sizes and shapes needed, and not all of them conform to record drawings of the car as built.  So each unique piece must be carefully drawn on a template, cut out to allow for the rubber gaskets used to mount them, before placing an order to have glass cut.

Roof Work

In Barn 4, Norm Krentel and Walt Stafa were up on the scaffold, fitting and continuing the work for a new roof for Michigan Electric 28.  In this shot they are working at the front of the car.

Other work was seen on a number of projects.  Jon Fenlaciki continued restoring brass sash for CA&E 451.  John Mc Kelvey was busy reupholstering seats for CNS&M 757.  North Shore 714 has been repainted and has been pulled out from inside Barn 2.  The Electric Car Department with Buzz Morissette was starting on the lettering and heralds for the car.  Specifically the red background field for the heralds on each side, was laid out and masked, with red paint about to be sprayed as I was leaving.  Joel Arendt was installing new trolley poles on one of the CA&E cars, and Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber worked on our PCC fleet.

Tricky Cut

We started out the day needing to make a very tricky cut on a piece of new letterboard for the D 13 dump motor.  This piece has almost nothing square about it, having various combinations of six angled or beveled surfaces.  We pondered the problem, conjured up a solution, and constructed a special jig.  As usual it took longer to make the jig to outsmart the saw, than to do the cuts.  John Faulhaber was happily grinning with the result, clever guy that he is, after he made the cut.

Assembly

The big project for the day was to do the final assembly and glue up of the new station door.  It turned out to be quite a job with a dozen interlocking pieces.  Rich Witt and John Faulhaber are placing the final stile.  That door is HEAVY!

In the Press

Finally it was moved to the glue press, squared up, and the clamp tightened.  There are still some finishing steps needed, but a real milestone in this project.

Buzz Morissette did some shop repairs and maintenance, and Rich Witt continued with a special jig for the Glen Springs windows.  Roger Kramer brought in some more wood for those windows, one new top rail was cut and the engineering laid out for four more stiles.

But it was FINALLY a fair weather day which begged not to be wasted.  Rod Turner and Henry Vincent moved five cabooses from the Barns over to Track 41 where they will receive their annual inspections, prior to being released for service this year.

Victor Humphreys helped with the station door and then moved on to paint trucks on the MILW 01984 which is very close to being completed with the repainting project.  Maybe another full day of work, will do it.  And John Faulhaber and I moved on to the work on the B&O boxcar, beginning the task of cleaning and priming the sides and ends.