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Tuesday, December 13. 2011IRM Acquires New Railroad!At the November meeting, the Directors voted to acquire a new railroad, all assets and rolling stock and locomotives. Henry Vincent has volunteered to be the Project Manager for this large new project. Many members have long dreamed of adding a model railroad to our site, to provide an entertaining and new attraction for IRM. Many of our peer preservation organizations have such a feature, and they have proved worthwhile and popular with visitors. This a very large layout in HO scale in the Milwaukee area that was the life work of an exceptional modeler who recently passed away. The estate offered it to us as a donation and it has been accepted. This is the type of project many of us can only dream about, let alone have the resources and help to achieve that dream.  Industry I will offer a short photo tour of some of the areas, and these cannot begin to do justice to the scope and quality of the work.  Engine Facility  CNW Passenger Station  Industry  Skirting Removed  Building Flats  Grain Facility As I said, this is truly a wonder to behold whether you are a diehard modeler or not. But the real work lies ahead. We are making plans and examining options and funding sources to create a public display in a new building. Yes, it is a LARGE undertaking but we think achievable. The first and most immediate task is to dismantle and inventory, document the layout, and move it to Union. And the deadline is to do this before the end of 2011! So if you would like to help please contact the Project Manager asap. Help of any sort, many hands are needed. And of course if you see value in this effort as many of us do, donations to the public model railroad display would be appreciated and welcomed, Tuesday, December 13. 2011News and Views - December 10-11, 2011Lots of activity to be reported, so this will largely be images with only short captions.  Windows I bet you are getting tired of the WINDOWS caption, but it what we are doing right now in the shop. Victor Hunphreys is fitting the glass into the eight new windows for Norfolk & Western 2050  Windows Buzz Morisette is mortising parts for many new windows for the ATSF 1400 caboose.  Windows Ray Schmid is continuing to work on six window restorations for the Michigan Electric 28  Windows Tim Peters has almost completed many new upper sash windows for Chicago Rapid Transit 1797 and he is fitting glass, ready to begin the glazing process.  Door Tim also worked on restoration duties for the motorman's door for the 1797.  Springs On the TMS project, Fred Zimmerman helped cleaning and priming two sets of leaf springs for the truck rebuilding.  Motive Power On a perfectly clear winter day, here is a shot of the shop workhorse locomotive, Commonwealth Edison 4. We rarely get to consider that these creatures work in the background while all the glamor shots are focused on our restored service cars and projects to complete more of them.  Peeking Out The locomotive was used to switch several cars around, and to pull the Chicago and West Towns 141 over the pit area for truck work and side bearing adjustments.  Another View Here is the C&WT 141 a little more eastward with more of it enjoying the clear weather. Monday, December 12. 2011CTS 4223 Update - December 10, 2011 Installation The weather has turned much colder so work in the Barn means hats and coats. But a lot of the parts are going back on the car! Alex Randow seems to be enjoying a private joke, smiling broadly, as he runs a tap into the threaded holes in the side band mounting pads. This serves to clean them out - removing any paint accumulated inside these.  Strike Up the Band Alex, Eric Lorenz, and Lorne Tweed worked to mount each band. These are low on the car sides, and served as rub bands while negotiating the street traffic in Cleveland. There are a lot of machine screws to drive to complete the installation.  Left Side All bands are mounted on the left side. The final finish coat of paint will be applied after they are in place and when the weather warms up, or we can move the car to a warmer shop. More parts, including the retriever ring and retriever now appear on the car.  Windows Yes the inevitable "W" word. Lorne Tweed was cleaning and prepping more of the sash for the side windows. Will it never end? Sunday, December 11. 2011Steam Department Update 12-10-2011A good day with continuing progress on a number of fronts but one major bust from the blog perspective. Note to self - the camera may appear to work but actually works a whole lot better if you remember to put the memory card back in after downloading the previous week's pictures - So not many pictures this week although I thought I had pictures of the firebox tube end removal in progress!! On 1630:
The hoses crossing the picture supply the parallel activity of cutting and driving out the tube ends.
Dennis started work on the smokebox of the Shay. First job was to caulk the new section of the tube plate into the barrel. This required air hammering the join between the tubeplate and the barrel with a specially shaped tool to completely close any tiny gaps between the two plates. That is now done and he will start fitting up the new sections of plate for the smokebox floor.
The bright line between 5 and 7 o'clock between the new tube sheet section and the boiler barrel shows where the plates have been caulked. Bruce and Stu worked on the measurement and machining patterns for the shoes and wedges for 428. This is a critical piece of preparation for machining these parts. Wooden patterns have to be made and fitted to the locomotive frames to prove that, if everything is machined to these dimensions, the three dimensional jigsaw will all fit together with the required tolerances. The trouble with these beautiful old locomotives is that, after years of repair and modification, you can never be sure that the drawings you have are all consistent so that everything will be correct if you work simply from the drawings. Glen continued the reassembly of the Bay City crane. We hit a few problems with the cold temperature and a drain plug with suspect threads but believe the running of the motor in the crane for the first time in 20 years is imminent. Nigel Friday, December 9. 2011BN 9908, more of the same...Here we are again with the update from Thursday nights progress... we had help from Riley Ladd, Thomas Rubeck, Jim West and myself tonight. Riley and Thomas continued on the surface/paint cleanup on the engineers side from the cab all the way back. Riley moved on to the MILW 33C after completing a few more panels and Thomas spent the remainder of the night completing this side. Jim West began painting the floor inside the engine room, starting with some of the trim areas. I continued on the nose repairs, welding two more pieces. One on the door hinge support and the other on the lower left side of the door. I also prepped the opening on the last spot on the engineers side nose corner. A few pictures are below, with more shown here with the most recent being shown first.
Thursday, December 8. 2011TMS Project - December 7, 2011WOW! Lots to see and report on this project!  Truck Repairs Gerry Dettloff works to weld up some of the surfaces on the truck pedestals. With the truck totally dismantled for painting, repairs are being made along the way to renew worn areas and breathe new life into the truck.  Pedestal Liners Several of the pedestal liners were worn, cracked or missing. These should be replaced with new, and we feel we can fabricate new ones to suit. The problem is with sourcing the manganese steel plate used for these wear parts. So, if anyone has a shop willing to part with a few square feet, it would save us the prospect of having to buy an entire sheet, a very expensive sheet at that.  New Tires We said things were moving fast on this project, and were not kidding. Here is your FIRST LOOK at the new tires, now delivered to the machine shop for mounting.  Old Wheels Also in the shop, here are two of the old wheel and axle sets, with the old tread turned down and ready for the new tires. The new tires get heated to a substantial temperature to expand their diameter, are placed on the wheel hubs, and then shrink and grip as they cool. This is a technique and proven process that has been used in the rail industry for over a century. Thursday, December 8. 2011Wood Shop Update - December 7, 2011 Windows Everywhere Victor Humphreys works to get green interior cab paint on eight new windows for Norfolk & Western 2050. You can also see a whole lot of new beading strips that were made, and of course those all get painted before glazing the frames. Some progress was also made ripping, planing and sawing pieces for two more new windows for the locomotive. Work was finished on a new door for the C&NW 10304 caboose and the door installed by Victor.  Cab Parts Pete Galayda has fabricated new parts to go into the cab interior for Charles City Western 300. Now primed, look for them to get the finish gray enamel soon. John Nelligan crawled into the far recesses of the hood and managed to extract a control resistor which proved to be good! Other work in the shop included Rich Witt doing the finish work on two new window frames for the GLEN SPRINGS. Frames have been fit to the openings, tails on the stiles trimmed, bevels cut on the bottom. Rich worked to use a router with a special jig he developed to plow out pockets for the lift hardware. Rich has scheduled surgery for a knee replacement after the first of the year and we all wish him a successful process, less pain, more mobility, and a speedy recovery! |
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Comments
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!!!!!!!
Sun, 05-05-2013 18:53
Ah yes, I have made such Jibs myself. If it were me, I would add in each corner an angled piece from the base to the Jib to act as sway bracing. [...]