Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Even though there is a wide diversity of subject matter in this post, I am lumping these together in my Wood Shop category since the extreme heat resulted in volunteers looking for work indoors and out of the sun.  But to begin - -

A Baggage Car

NICE!  CB&Q 993 basks in the hot afternoon sun after reaching COMPLETION by the Wednesday Special Projects Group.  This group of midweek warriors have completed restorations on six cars in the last dozen years!

CTA 30

Jerry Saunders continued to lead a team of volunteers preparing CTA 30 for re-painting.  The car body has been scuffed and flaking paint removed and it is nearly ready for the priming.  I do not know how Jerry, Eric Zabelny, and Fred Zimmerman worked in that heat outdoors, in the sun.  But we encouraged them to take frequent breaks and drink a lot of water, which they did.  Tough guys that they are, they claimed the heat did not bother them.

CCW 300

Those of us who are wiser (and older) took refuge in our shops.  Pete Galayda is working on new hood running boards for the Charles City steeple cab locomotive.

Station Door

Victor Humphreys has applied primer to both sides of the new wood door custom made in the shop, for our depot.

CAE 36

Rich Witt was quite content to continue on repairs to a window for CA&E 36, in our cooled shop.  Sanding was completed and then the task of applying white primer began.

Brass Polishing

Simon Harrison and John Faulhaber took some more turns at restoring brass hardware for the Sand Springs 68.  Here they are seen working on the first two seat handles for the car.  These are new castings which need to be smoothed and worked through the polishing and finishing steps.  We ordered new felt 'bobs' and these were quite effective at getting to the interior surfaces.

Production

Production at the end of the day included two seat handles and another four of the window lift assemblies.  These were then cleaned and clear lacquer applied for protection.

This is another example where volunteers can learn and master old crafts and techniques.  Our shops have a collective experience not matched and which are not found in commerce today, in many cases.  What would you like to learn?