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Tuesday, February 28. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 25-26, 2011Despite the title of many of these entries, remember that while the Wood Shop DOES make a lot of sawdust, there are three distinct shop areas contiguous to the south wall of Barn 4. You will see a lot of activity and work not necessarily sawing wood!  Track Department We completed making new decking for the track department as Victor Humphreys is stacking and inspecting the finished pieces.  Windows Does that caption sound familiar? Tim Peters is somewhat hobbled, but he continues to work on the Chicago Rapid Transit 1797 project.  Light Socket Bases A man whose skills know no limits, Tim began modifying and reworking porcelain light sockets to be 'correct' for use in the 1797  Doors Here is a little side trip to show some work being done on our Kansas City PCC car. This is a regular effort, I just happened to catch some pics this weekend. Mike Stauber is working on one of the door leafs, removing paint and figuring a way to repair the rusted out sections.  Lights On the other side of the shop, Frank Sirinek was cleaning and inspecting the glass diffusers or covers for the ceiling lights on the Kansas City PCC.  Still More Lights There are a LOT of lights in the Kansas City PCC car and on Sunday, Frank was still at it. He has moved to a different work table. Did he wear out the one yesterday or just wanted better light?  Steam Victor Humphreys is making adjustments to a special clamping jig as we just assembled a new window for the fireman's side of Norfolk & Western 2050. This is an odd shape sash, and fabricating it was made somewhat tricky with the lack of right angles.  Glass OK, this is not exactly a new subject, it is WINDOW glass. Ray Schmidt has been cleaning this art glass panel for the Michigan Electric 28 for a lot of hours. There were an estimated three coats of paint on this, applied when the car was used as a cottage. And of course, that was applied to the textured side of this pressed glass.  Clear Sailing Here is better idea of the glass panel, destined to be in a paired window upper sash arrangement. By day's end it was either so sparkling clean, or Ray simply gave up on more cleaning. It was placed in the waiting restored window frame and glazing proceeded.  LSE 810 We cannot leave out George Clark and his work on the Lake Shore Electric 810. Recently reported was the work to prime and paint new siding, and here are two metal parts, a door track and side rub rail that will soon be finish painted and installed. Tuesday, February 28. 2012CTS 4223 Update - February 25-26, 2012 Electrical Eric Lorenz and Lorne Tweed are going over an electrical cabinet that lives below the front dash at the end of the car. The old one is in pretty sad shape and a lot of the framing and cabinet work will need new parts fabricated. This step is all part of the work needing to be done and getting wires pulled, before installing the new glass windshields and painting that area.  Innards Here is a better look at the switches and fuse blocks that live in the above cabinet. Sketchy schematics, lots of cut wires, missing elements and fuses. Did I mention it was dirty?  Windows Of course we need to mention windows in any such BLOG entry. Alex Randow works on these pretty regularly and he is checking the growing pile of completed sash. 17 large sash and 18 small sash are now complete.  Panels Alex also worked on cleaning up several old panels and trim work needed for the car interior. These represent items in good enough shape to re-use, and as explained previously, several items need to be re-installed before the side window areas can be completed. Note that these now shine like new metal, you would not have thought this possible if you examined them before his work. It did not happen by accident.  More Windows Keith Letsche walked in Sunday and volunteered to do more window sash. This project is mostly a Wednesday/Saturday crew and this unexpected work only adds to and advances the work. Thanks, Keith. Sunday, February 26. 2012Steam Department Update 2-25-2012There was a relatively small turnout this week but some key progress was achieved despite the fact that several people had to leave early for the Soiree and other commitments. On 1630 much of the day was spent on woodwork. It was clear from the dust production last weekend that much more effective sealing was required to allow cleaning of the tube sheets themselves. (To do this the gun must be aimed directly at the sheet and therefore the tube holes). Thru Rick's efforts we now have ply sheathing in place on both tube sheets. This allows Collin to blast directly on the tube sheet without too much escape of debris into the shop.
This shows the sheathing at the front end. Hidden progress is that the rear tube sheet is similarly sheathed in the firebox and the front tube sheet was actually blast cleaned behind this sheathing yesterday. With this in place we should now be able to complete the cleaning fairly quickly. Another job that we started to progress was the inspection and preparation of the super heater flues. These were sandblasted by an external contractor and are now thoroughly clean. However, you can clearly see the rough cut ends resulting from cutting by the torch or rotating tube cutter.
Each must be inspected for excessive pitting and then painted with the Apexior boiler coating.
Then the rough ends must be removed using the large band saw. The method and set up was established yesterday and the first tube cut.
This will now be a continuing task to do the same to the remaining 15 tubes. Once all are done we will bring in a specialist to weld on new material to bring them back to the required length ready for refitting. In other areas, Tom continued machining parts for the piston valves on 428 while Stu, Bob and Ed were cleaning the hydraulic pump for the planer. Refurbishing this machine will significantly simplify the machining of large components such as axle boxes.
Nigel Bennett Thursday, February 23. 2012Silver Pony Update Riding Piggyback Please earmark your donations to restricted fund R1108 Roger Thursday, February 23. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 22, 2011The sawdust and sparks were really flying yesterday and we would like to thank the many new volunteers helping on project work. As with anything it is important to establish hierarchy and assign meaningful (?) job titles right from the beginning. Do not take me too seriously, no one else does!  CTS 4223 The Cleveland PCC saw new volunteer Dave Rogan (APPRENTICE) return to help install interior panels with Simon Harrison ( newly promoted to APPRENTICE MANAGER). ASSISTANT INTERIM WEEKDAY PROJECT MANAGER Lorne Tweed oversaw the assignments  CTS 4223 Al Reinschmidt returned again and 'volunteered' to resume restoration of the window tracks. Lorne looks quite delighted to have a new volunt- - - (victim) while Al is seriously considering his prospects.  On Track For once not WINDOW tracks, but instead new decking for two of our four wheeled track carts. Dick Cubbage and Victor Humphreys are cutting long planks to size.  Stacked Victor surveys the planks stacked on one of our shop carts. A seemingly simple process but one that occupied two guys for a few hours. There are a LOT of pieces.  A Door Buzz Morisette was working on repairs to an interior door for what I was told is for Illinois Terminal 233. The bottom rail was mostly rotted away and a new piece of mahogany will be made.  LSE 810 George Clark continues to prepare, prime, and paint new siding for Lake Shore Electric 810. Weather just a little warmer will see a crew working in the barn to install these.  Resistance Pete Galayda met no resistance as he continued to ready a headlight resistance box to install in the Charles City Western 300 locomotive.  Truck Work Gerry Dettloff is fitting a keeper rod behind the head of a new hardened pin in this truck. The truck is from TM 972, part of the work for our TMS Project. Sadly, the next image in this sequence is not posted. The acetylene tank was empty and I migrated to other tasks, before the cylinder was replaced.
Tuesday, February 21. 2012TMS Project Update - February 18-19, 2012It really is amazing to witness the work on this project. It is significant on so many fronts - engineering, machining, metallurgy, and the massive amount of less than ordinary GRUNT WORK.  Assembly Jeff Brady is dry fitting and assembling some of the completed levers and rigging in the truck. That is correct - enough of the new bushings and pins have been fabricated and heat treated to see how it goes back together. He is inserting the new pin into a lever nicknamed a 'dog bone' due to its resemblance to such doggie snack treats.  The Dog Bones Here is a closer look at the dog bones and how they fit into the truck. There are two of these in each quadrant to next receive the brake head castings, which in turn hold the brake shoes.  Boring Each of the many parts in this truck receives attention. This once bent brake lever has been heated and straightened, as seen by the gray discoloration on the casting. The old deteriorated bushings have been removed with a hydraulic press. Here the lever is on the drill press table and about to get its holes reamed to receive the new bushings. As I said above it is truly amazing, doing this on a wish and prayer with old tools and a lot of hard work and commitment from the volunteers. |
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Comments
Wed, 04-11-2018 11:28
You mention in the header that you would like to have the Electroliner operational by its birthday. Was it?
Sun, 04-08-2018 20:03
As a child, IRM was always my favorite place to visit. Well, other than grandma's house next to the Geneva Sub. It's been many years since I now [...]
Wed, 04-04-2018 16:01
Those temporary walls could be constructed in a way that allows their reuse after the phase is done to close off the new phases.
Tue, 03-27-2018 03:08
Why did the smoke box cover on the shay need to be replace Do?
Mon, 03-26-2018 16:29
It never ceases to amaze me of the diligence and passion of the current mix of volunteers associated with IRM in 2018. Back when I was a active [...]
Mon, 03-26-2018 11:10
Awesome paint job Jamie!!! I never would of thought with the Rock Island history this locomotive in this scheme would of been preserved. Thanks for [...]
Sun, 03-25-2018 23:56
The Hick's blog lists it as Fruit Grower's Express FGEX #55407. Arrived in Union June 2016.
Sun, 03-25-2018 20:51
Good job on the diesel update 2018. Sincere, Ethan A.
Sun, 03-25-2018 20:45
Good job on the steam update 2018. Sincere, Ethan A.
Sun, 03-25-2018 00:12
Bill, The 1990 Roster has the PFE #68428; this may be the reefer that we saw moved. It is a rare car and deserves a paint job. Ted Miles, [...]
Fri, 03-16-2018 11:10
It would be rather difficult to operate an 11,000 Volt AC locomotive on our 600 Volt DC wire.
Thu, 03-15-2018 05:57
Good job steam update. Sincerely, Ethan A.