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Thursday, December 29. 2011Wood Shop Update - December 28, 2011The holiday spirit was all around us and the smell of sawdust filled the air as a few souls put their other activities on hold and came out to work in the shops. Tim Peters continued on his monumental quest to get new windows made for the Chicago Rapid Transit 1797. While Randy Hicks stopped by to consult on his work for the CA&E 36, we caught this odd image of a new window sash defying gravity. Actually Tim modified a commercial jig to drill angled mounting holes in the sash. If you have been following these entries for some time, you may remember seeing a more elaborate home made contraption over a year ago, which was used to do a similar task for CRT 1268 windows. Roger Kramer, John Faulhaber, and Rich Witt made a lot of progress yesterday on our job to build nine new windows for Illinois Central 3996. Rich and John set up the various jigs and featherboard on the table saw and Roger and John continued to process the pieces. Altogether 36 pieces of stock were handled. The blanks were ripped to size, a roundover beading created on the table mounted router, and the rabbet cut on the table saw to accommodate the glazing. Rich laid out the needed mortise slots on the stiles, and Roger squared off and cut all the top and bottom rails to length. A good days work! I have been working to build a new jig for window work, to square and size rails on any of our new window projects. It is a bit of a challenge to make this out of hard maple, essentially to machinist tolerances, and to envision the needed adjustments and flexibility to handle whatever the future holds in store. Rich Witt helped out by patiently listening to my tale of needed functions and closely examining some of the seven pieces seen here, and contributing suggestions and tips. Wednesday, December 28. 2011
Steam Department Update 12-26-2011 Posted by Nigel Bennett
in Steam Department at
19:27
Comments (0) Steam Department Update 12-26-2011A few of us have managed a couple of mid-week work sessions over the Christmas period. The significant visible progress is that Eric and Chris did a great job on cleaning out the interior of the boiler on 1630. After all the cutting of tubes there was a mass of debris in the boiler that they spent most of Monday clearing with brushes, rods, magnets and vacuum. Thanks to their efforts we now have a good basis for preparing the surfaces for inspection. A step that we need to carry out soon is the sand blasting of the firebox tube sheet. We have the sand blast equipment, breathing helmet and supply hoses BUT - no really suitable breathable air pump. If anyone has access to a suitable pump - (oil-less, about 10 c.f.m. at 5 p.s.i.) please let me know. Otherwise we are facing a cost of about $1000 for such a pump. I had the chance to photograph the firebox with the defective corner cut out: .............. and the piece removed: Interesting that it is very much in line with the problem suspected by the specialist who attempted the temporary repair in May. This was that, when a replacement tube sheet was fitted (believe in the late 1930's), it may have been fractionally narrow and pulled into place by the rivets causing stress cracks in the corner. Looking now at what is the inside (water side) of the corner you can see the welded joint between the "new" tube sheet (on the right) and the original firebox. This runs thru the last rivet hole on the left in the top row. Sure enough you can see that the tube sheet is fractionally set back from the original firebox side. The crack that resulted can be seen running from the second rivet in the top row. (They look a lot worse now as a good deal of metal was ground away from the other side of the plate when removing the rivets). These cracks would have formed over many years as water worked on the weaknesses caused by the stress in the corner of the new tube plate. The other major work in these sessions was unplanned!. Initial testing of the swager disclosed several problems. The large dies that actually compress the pipe proved to be jammed. Several of us spent a day removing, carefully cleaning and polishing the guides and refitting these. Sounds easy but each weighs about 100lbs and they are linked by 4 inch long 1 1/2 inch steel guide rods that must be a tight fit - but not jammed!. Good thing there were not too many around to hear the language on the occasions when we put them together, found they still jammed, and had to get them apart again!. Still, they are now back in place ......... and it is clear that there are also issues with the air control valve. So that is the next step. Nigel Bennett Friday, December 23. 2011
New Railroad Update, December 22, 2011 Posted by Robert Kutella
in Model Railroad Display at
05:24
Comments (4) New Railroad Update, December 22, 2011A lot has happened quickly on this subject. A lot of IRM member help has developed as well as local model railroaders who have joined the effort. In many ways this a sad or gut wrenching effort to saw apart what was years of effort and fine work. I will follow this with a set of photos showing some of the work, but not a lot of prose. The pics speak for themselves. Al Reinschmidt starts the process. Henry Vincent begins the ceremonial first cut through a layout section near the door. Wally Unglaub works along the west wall. Henry Vincent and Barb Lanphier engage in some strategic planning over lunch. This part had been constructed around a building support column. This area is now empty but was filled with layout sections two days earlier. Bob Kutella and Henry Vincent (red hat visible) pop up inside one the spectacular sections of mountain scenery. Bob and Henry work their way out of the mountain. A lot of time was spent on hands and knees.
Thursday, December 22. 2011Season's GreetingsI would like to thank all the members and friends of IRM that have contributed support over 2011. Your time and donations are what make projects work! That goes for the Freight Department and the Wood Shop where I spend most of my time, and for any project or activity on our campus. There are major projects in almost every department that are close to being completed and we have every reason to expect some exciting announcements and developments in 2012. If you have been reading these BLOG posts you know what many of them are. THANK YOU, but the work is not done yet - we appreciate your continued support. It may not be politically correct but it is how I was raised and part of what I am, so - - MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sunday, December 18. 2011
CTS 4223 Update - December 17, 2011 Posted by Robert Kutella
in Cleveland Transit System 4223 at
11:09
Comments (2) CTS 4223 Update - December 17, 2011Sometimes you work for weeks and wonder what progress you have to show for it. Sometimes all that prep work comes together quickly and shows gratifying results. Such is the way of restoration work. The crew got busy early with Rod Turner on the ladder and Eric Lorenz working from the ground. New threaded inserts had to be installed to allow the marker lights to be installed - we hoped. Eric was up on a ladder most of the day, here wrestling the right rear marker into place. Meanwhile Alex Randow was working to mount several other items. This one is a fold up step to access the roof, here mounted on the side behind the exit doors. There are only three of these to scale the height, and not much to balance upon if you were the unlucky guy that had to climb up there. This is another of the items installed by Alex. Once up all the steps you were considered lucky to grab this rung and haul yourself upright. Woe be to you if it was rainy or snowy. Now to see what the opening paragraph was all about. Here is the rear end of the car with most of all the accessories and parts installed. Rear windows, retriever bracket and retriever, two rear marker lights, two rear stop lights, and the three rear bumpers. It looks like a complete car!! |
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Comments
Thu, 01-21-2021 19:44
Hello Jack Yes, the buffers have been installed but the canvas curtains cost about about 1500 each to purchase. Thanks Roger
Wed, 01-20-2021 07:46
is there a eason a lot of passenger cars have no diaphrams on them? i see several have the buffers installed
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:20
Hello Jason. Your comments are very much appreciated. Yes, there is much hard work that goes into all our restorations and maintenance here at the [...]
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:13
Hello Jack Yes, It will be one of our most impressive cars that we have at IRM when its completed. Thanks for the pat on the back! Roger.
Thu, 01-14-2021 21:05
Those cars look great so far guys! Man I wish I had the time to volunteer and become a member at IRM that looks like so much fun especially with how [...]
Tue, 01-12-2021 16:30
the pawnee is looking great a pat on the back to all involved
Mon, 01-04-2021 12:31
Hello Jack Happy New Year from IRM. To my knowledge there was no damage from the minor ice storm that we had in late December, 2020. Some [...]
Sun, 01-03-2021 20:12
the museum area had lots of ice storms in area did the museum get a lot of damage
Thu, 12-24-2020 13:27
roger, Thank you to all of the Passenger car department volunteers. The #109 is going to be a great car when all done! Ted miles, [...]
Sun, 12-06-2020 08:46
Hello Ted We havenot finished lettering the 975 but we are well on the way. Look for a few blogs from me now that the wearther is colder and the [...]
Sat, 12-05-2020 18:36
i watched crew replace switch by diesel shop on dec 5. its good to see museum have equipment to do job and save money
Fri, 12-04-2020 14:56
It has been a long time with no news; have you finished lettering the Southern Pacific locomotive? Please post a picture. Ted Miles, IRM Member