Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The big news was the progress and activity on our Cleveland PCC car.  At one point yesterday, there were SEVEN volunteers working on this one project!

So, at this point, we would like to welcome Alex Randow, Mike Willer, and Ed Grzesik to the crew and thank them for coming out and helping with the work.  At one point the car actually got crowded and some work went to other areas in the barn.

Rear Anticlimber

Mike Alterio repaired one of these channels last week, and was setting up and measuring for some needed work on the second one.

Roof Ladder

I am calling this the roof ladder, but more like three pieces of grab irons to be mounted to the roof, after painting and priming.  Alex Randow is cleaning this up, and it was really a good job when he finished.  Then he moved on to complete cleaning the rear bumper that was repaired last week.

Marker Lights

Alex moved to the shop and began cleaning some marker light assemblies that will be painted.  A total of four markers and two stoplights are being worked on.  Mike Willer joined him after lunch.

Sign Box

Lorne Tweed was cleaning and removing old paint from the inside of the front sign box.  It got primed later in the day.

Door Boxes

Alex Randow had sanded and cleaned the boxes and covers housing the electric door motors, front and rear.  Here, Lorne is prime painting the rear ones.

Window Trim

With all this activity in full swing, Eric Lorenz was kept busy answering questions and supplying parts to be worked on.  But he managed to find time to install interior trim pieces under the standee windows on the north side of the car.

Glass

Then Eric got up on the ladder and began installing new glass in the openings he had just prepared.  These really make a great visual impact in the appearance of the car.

Front Dash

Ed Grzesik is a welder by trade, building heavy machinery.  Here he is making repairs to the front dashboard area of the car.  Plugging holes, welding patches, and grinding them smooth.  Mike Willer was cutting new pieces for the patches and Ed had them tacked in before you had time to turn around.

So with all this activity you can see a lot of progress on installation of window and interior areas, that had to wait for years for most of the exterior paint job.  But of course this means money is being spent for parts and supplies.  So, the commercial - donations would be very welcome to restricted fund R4223 to assure that milestones are reached and goals met.