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Thursday, February 9. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 8, 2011Here is a quick tour of some of the work we saw going on in the Wood Shop yesterday. You may notice the recurring theme of WINDOWS - good work in the shop during the winter, and we never seem to run out of them.  Fitting John Faulhaber has been under the weather lately but we welcomed him back and promptly put him to work on fitting the frames for the new windows for Illinois Central 3996.  Beading Buzz Morisette continued making new windows for Santa Fe 1400 caboose. Here he has manufactured small quarter round to be used in holding the glazing, and is painting them.  Odd Design Victor Humphreys (pictured) and I worked to resolve the odd angles and many parts for new windows on the front of the cab for our Norfolk & Western 2050 locomotive. These are really different and seemingly no parallel edges. Tough work when there are only 'shards' of an incomplete original to work from.  Metal Sash Simon Harrison continued cleaning the aluminum sash for our Cleveland Transit 4223 PCC car.  Hardware Roger Kramer cleaned and primed several pieces of hardware destined for our Pullman FLOYD RIVER. I believe this car has examples of open section berths, once so common, and found in a few of the cars in our collection  Bushings Tuesday, February 7. 2012TMS Project Update - February 4-5, 2012A lot is happening very quickly on this project. As reported previously the next step is to do repair and rebuilding work on the dismantled truck now in our shop. The immediate focus is on the pins and bushings which hold together brake rigging, the slack adjusters, etc.  Pedestal Liners Before we get into the details of that work we were pleased to note that an entire set of new pedestal liners has been fabricated and delivered. These are wear parts to allow the journal boxes to slide vertically as needed, when the car is in motion.  Engineering Jeff Brady has been busily engaged for some weeks as the truck is dismantled, taking careful measurements, and tabulating the needed new parts.  Schematic Jeff created this schematic to help keep track and identify the complex connections and pieces. Note that there are 78 bushings and 26 pins, needed for EACH truck assembly!  Pressing Task Greg Kepka was pressing out the old bushings from the various rods and levers. It was somewhat disconcerting to hear screeching and clanking like breaking glass as the rusted old bushings broke free and became loose.  Links Here are some of the links, old bushings, and newly loosened bushings that Greg was working on.  As the Rod Turns Rod Turner was turning new alloy steel rod to size in the small lathe.  Some Like It HOT Here is the new small furnace/oven for heat treating newly fabricated pins and bushings to case harden them. Four of the new pins are on the bench in front of the oven, having undergone their particular version of a trial by fire. Tuesday, February 7. 2012CTS 4223 Update - February 4, 2012 Wainscotting Work continues. Perhaps the most visible and exciting thing to happen was delivery of new fabricated panels for the interior of the car. Eric Lorenz went to work quickly to start installing them. These are the panels which go below the windows and are pre-painted the correct interior color. Why now? Well, the puzzle of the car construction as designed by the builder requires these to be installed, to allow window post caps to be installed in the interior, to then allow installation of the window tracks, and ultimately the windows.  Finished Windows Alex Randow began the day stripping masking from many of the sash which have by now been cleaned and clear coated.  Back to Cleaning Alex pitched in on a few other tasks then went back to never ending job of cleaning the aluminum frames on still more sash. Tuesday, February 7. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 4, 2011 Planning Gwyn Stupar, Victor Humphreys, and Greg Kepka are working on a project to produce new cab windows for Norfolk & Western 2050. We initially tried to trace the frame outlines on flimsy cardboard, used those to create working drawings, and now this crew is tracing and cutting thin plywood templates. After those were made, they climbed up on the running boards and into the cab to confirm size and shape. The result is some minor edits to the drawings, which should make these window just right.  In a Jamb Buzz Morrisette has made all new jambs and sash trim for the 14 new windows he is making for caboose ATSF 1400. He painted the red finish color on all those pieces and on most of the new sash.  Clearly Then Buzz and Frank Sirinek cut twenty eight pieces of glass for the project and washed and cleaned those.  Sharp Buzz is looking over a new machine recently donated and added to our shop arsenal of tools. It is a mechanized saw blade sharpener, I think able to take up to 20 inch diameter blades, and it has several settings to allow it to file different positive or negative hook angles on the teeth. Anyone want to give it a run? Sunday, February 5. 2012Steam Department Update 2-4-2012Progress in the Steam shop continued steadily over the last two weekends. Jeff has continued the shop reorganization to the point that many of the large parts are now arranged on the East side while still allowing plenty of space to work on the super heater flues when they return. He is now moving on to the machine shop which, when complete, will free up a lot more space around the wheel lathe. Bob and others made use of the space around the wheel lathe to work on getting this operational. The McCabe was refitted to its modified timbers, which allow it to be lifted on the pallet jack. Thanks to Bob Kutela for his help and use of tools for this. The modified timbers will allow us to move this machine, although moving what we estimate at about 6 tons will never be easy.
The trouble with this machine is that it needs a lot of space around it when it operates but is used only infrequently. However, what it does, in smoothly bending heavy boiler plates, is critical It was used last weekend in a first test for bending the new corner patch for 1630's firebox. This successfully demonstrated that we have the dies of the machine correctly set up to make the critical curve.
On 1630 substantial progress was made on the boiler cleaning. · Having successfully tested the breathing system and sand blasting equipment, the next major job was to minimize the flow of dust into the shop. The last time this was done the locomotive was pulled outside but we certainly do not want to wait for Spring to do this !! · Collin and I closed up the boiler with tarpaulins and set up ducted extraction from the chimney. With fans on the footplate we can establish a flow from back to front and "most" of the dust is pumped out of the door.
· The first blasting was very successful. We largely cleaned the critical firebox top and side seam areas in about 20 minutes. Glad to say it all looks good and free of any sign of cracks so far.
· From this exercise we learned that the blast medium we were using works well, so we can order in a large quantity for next weekend. We also learned that, while the ducting works pretty well, the missing firebox corner creates a significant leak that will need to be plugged next weekend. Collin was very comfortable in the boiler with the new breathing system ..... the rest of the team, outside in the shop, were less comfortable than he was!!. · Cleaning of the boiler interior can now be moved forward quickly. Getting the super heater flues back from sand blasting is proving problematic. They have been ready since New Year. Snag is that they must not get wet and need to be collected weekdays or early on a Saturday morning. Each time we have set up a crew to take the truck on a Saturday, the weather has turned cold ...... and the truck does not operate reliably is really cold weather. In other areas a good deal of machining was progressed for 428. I am now away on business for two weeks so no update next week. However, as the trip is to the UK, I may actually see some working steam next weekend. Nigel Bennett Friday, February 3. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 1, 2011 Weatherstripping I resisted titling this image with the ubiquitous WINDOW caption. But Roger Kramer is installing weatherstripping on some of the nearly finished shop made windows for the GLEN SPRINGS  Photos Henry Vincent is project manager for our proposed model railroad display and he cannot wait to get to work. He has hand made frames for many of the pictures from the layout in Milwaukee and they now provide 'shop art' in our new addition to the shop space.  Painting Some view painting as a necessary evil at best, but it is a critical step to restoring and preserving equipment. George Clark is painting the first coat of finished orange on new siding for Lake Shore Electric 810.  Repairs Henry Vincent is discussing a repair to a baggage wagon tongue with Victor Humphreys. It looks they are enjoying this too much for words.  A Chiseler Last weekend Jon Fenlaciki caught me in the act of fitting new mortise and tenon joints, paring wood carefully by hand with a chisel. Not really news, but here I am - guilty as charged. |
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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.