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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. Tuesday, February 21. 2012CTS 4223 Update - February 18, 2012Apologies since it seems the volunteers doing the work can accomplish results faster than I can post entries here.  Tracks Lorne Tweed is working on the smallest of the track parts, an insert with steel spring leaves behind it. Needless to say many of those are about destroyed by rusting, so here he is dong 'blacksmith' work to try to remove some bad ones.  Back in the Carbody The mild winter weather continued so Lorne Twee is assisting Eric Lorenz with installation of more of the new car interior wainscotting panels below the windows. Very nice! Tuesday, February 21. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 18-19, 2011 Glazing Buzz Morisette has glazed several of the new windows he built for ATSF 1400 caboose. They are a thing of beauty. Here he is wrestling with clean up of the gooey butyl rubber compound we use in place of traditional glazing putty. That old fashioned glazing putty hardens and shrinks, falls out and fails over time. This stuff has stood the test of time, maintaining a flexible watertight seal for several years. But it can be troublesome to work with.  Final Coat With much of the cleaning behind him, Buzz is ready to add the final coat of gray interior paint to the windows.  Steam Department Nick Kallas was visiting the shop, and Victor Humphreys is showing him the complicated joinery for a new window for Norfolk & Western 2050. The steel plate beside the new wood parts is a 'new' discovery in the past week. The finished wood window gets a fairly heavy sheet of metal placed over its exterior.  More Windows Dan Fenlaciki helped glue and square up two more new windows for Illinois Central 3996 Diner. Six are now so assembled.  Track Department Could that caption be wrong? No, Marcus Ruef delivered new lumber for the wood shop crew to make up new decking for two of our four wheel track cars. Those guys just do not like to work in comfort - it has to be either too cold or too hot for them to really enjoy themselves. So our wood shop sawdust guys will do the cutting. |
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Comments
Fri, 02-27-2015 11:44
Mike, Yep. We always like to think she may have been operated by Casey ...... but we will never be sure. Nigel
Fri, 02-27-2015 11:42
Zach, At this time we will not be offering "Take the Throttle" on 1630 this year. The issue is that, after not running for a number of years, we [...]
Fri, 02-27-2015 09:34
I am curious as to whether or not you will be offering cab rides on 1630 this coming season. I understand you did not offer any last year, as it was [...]
Sun, 02-22-2015 11:15
IC201 was featured on the IRM calendar 6 or 7 years ago, and at that time I, too, searched for it on the equipment roster. It has an interesting [...]
Sat, 02-21-2015 02:55
in my opinion, i think the steam roster, wait... no, whole roster page needs to be updated.
Thu, 02-19-2015 11:16
Sam, Ooops!. Now that is something I had not noticed before. For sure we have IC201. I walked past her just yesterday in barn #9. I had not [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 18:48
Hello Philip Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, the 1630 will again be running in 2015 baring any unforeseen problems. The continuing projects [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 13:59
I really love seeing the 1630 returning to its former glory. I first got to ride on it more than 25 years ago and it left a great impression on me. [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 03:31
speaking of electric cars, i haven't heard any updates about Michigan Electric 28. what has been done since its last blog post?
Mon, 02-16-2015 23:26
The tag shows the date of the last seat reupholstering. Chris & Dan Buck have assisted with the 3rd rail beam project for 1797. In Chicago, it's [...]
Mon, 02-16-2015 19:53
A beautiful restoration. Can't wait to see the car in the spring. A true labor of love - can't even imagine the hours that have been spent on this - [...]
Sun, 02-15-2015 21:52
Howdy! So glad you folks are at work. I can't wait for spring so I can get there in person. The website will have to do for now. Here's a [...]