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Sunday, April 29. 2012Permanent CollectionIt has been a long standing tradition that pieces of equipment at IRM have been placed on what is called the Permanent Collection List. I cannot for sure tell you what it means specifically. Having the membership vote to place something on that list also means only a vote of the membership can remove something from that list. Presumably (by me) that means a piece of equipment is regarded for long term preservation at IRM.  Dave Diamond Photo Over FOUR DECADES ago we acquired a wood bodied gondola, Chicago & Western Indiana 1185 (circa 1913), which is unique to our collection and has an interesting historical story to tell. It is the ONLY freight car on or published roster to have been built by Haskell & Barker. However no member support was forthcoming and only $300 of donations in total over 41 years. Mother nature has taken its toll on this car and at this year's membership meeting the consensus was that this car is not listed as part of our PERMANENT COLLECTION. This is a hard decision to make but clearly this is beyond our resources to save any longer. I do not think it can be RESTORED at any cost, but a REPLICA could be built using some of the parts at an estimated cost of $60,000. As it sits it is a hazard and there is some question it will hold together enough to be moved on its own wheels. So do not be surprised if this car 'goes away' soon. This state did not happen in the last two years or five years, or ten, so do not ask me why I did nothing about it. I suppose many will read this as an obituary and in a way it is. We celebrate our victories and mourn our fallen comrades. There continue to exist many wood bodied freight and passenger cars sitting outdoors year around in various states of repair or disrepair. What can we do to assure this does not happen to more of our collection? If we do not have the labor or funds to work on them immediately, the simple answer is that we MUST raise funding to place them inside the next Barn Building to be built. Placing them under roof will serve in effect to arrest over 95% of any continuing deterioration and buy time until the 'next generation' may devote time and energy to them. Please donate to INDOOR STORAGE SPACE for either of the above departments or to the restricted fund for any individual favorite car.
Sunday, April 29. 2012Model Railroad Public Display - April 28 , 2012The project has seen considerable work being done more or less behind the scenes. To give a short summary of the progress, below is an approved concept sketch of what the front of the building might look like.  Facade We have settled on a site, three lots, on our Main Street alignment, and developed a pretty good description of the building specifications. It is envisioned as a steel framed permanent structure with clear span of 50 x 70 feet. Those specifications have been sent to many possible contractor bidders and prices have been coming in. There is the building of course, but also the other things that go along with new construction. That includes, site preparation, electrical, concrete work, mechanical and heating, specialty windows and framing, the masonry work, storm water remediation, insulation, finish site work and grading, etc.  Interior We have also developed a very preliminary Space Use Plan for the interior space. I stress that this is preliminary and many good ideas are on the table. But of course, the next step is to get the building. It looks this will run between $125K and $150K so donations are urgently needed to accumulate funding. We will not go for a building permit and place orders until we know we have enough on hand to pay for that. As a reminder, donations may be specified to restricted fund RMRD. Sunday, April 29. 2012Steam Department Update 4-28-2012A rather brief update this week, not because of lack of progress but because I spent most of the day in the rules and safety sessions so was not directly involved in the work in the shop. While this was a day away from the shop for a number of us it is essential that we have a team able to control movement of equipment and these sessions are critical to ensure that this is done safely. Work progressed steadily on 1630: · Collin, Eric and Jason made good progress on cleaning and preparing the tube sheets. Both front and back tube sheets have now been extensively cleaned and checked. The good news is that no signs of cracking have been found. Work is progressing on smoothing and preparing the holes to take the new tubes. This will take several weeks to complete but good progress was made today. · Dennis, Bob and Mike continued building up of the mud ring ready to for fitting of the corner patch. Over the next couple of weekends this will move out of sight as the section inside the firebox is built up and the rivet holes on that face are rebuilt. · Plans are in place to do the thickness testing next Saturday. This weekend we were marking out the points at which measurements will be taken. Each section of the boiler plate work must be measured to assess its minimum thickness which then forms the basis of the calculation for the form 4. Clearly each part of the boiler is only as strong as its weakest point so the calculation is based upon the thinnest point found in each section. Measurement points are identified in a random pattern across each plate with a focus on the areas likely to be weakest such as the belly. Here the guys are cleaning off and marking measurement points ready for next weekend.
Nigel Friday, April 27. 2012CNW or CGW 285 Which is it? Work continues Bondo Bill  Bare metal  Joe wirewheeling  Cleaning trucks  caulking windows  Rusty vestibule Thursday, April 26. 2012Wood Shop Update - April 25, 2012 Rapid Transit Restoration To change the order of things a bit, I thought you would all like to see the west end of Chicago Rapid Transit 1797. Tim Peters has been working on this end and now it appears to be complete, shiny paint, all the extras installed and in place.  East End And here Tim is being helped by Victor Humphreys as new end panels are getting installed. Sharp eyed viewers here may notice that this car was moved to a new spot over the weekend, and is now on Track 42. Tim is rapidly approaching the point where the majority of this car exterior is done, from the roof down to the bottom of the car sides. Do not worry, Tim is not one to take a rest and most of the car interior still needs attention.  More Herald The Great Northern 70104 hopper also shifted its spot. Victor set up a relocated scaffold and I managed to transfer the remaining artwork to the car side and started on the white lettering. You will note the guide lines for adjoining letters and border. Why am I so slow?  Art Work Bill Leider is restoring lettering on an early photo mural showing Pennsylvania Railroad steam. The item was damaged and if you read these entries regularly, Henry Vincent has constructed a frame and mounting backer. Bill is a talented graphic artist and he is painstakingly touching up damaged areas.  Windows What would shop work be without WINDOWS? Early in the morning we reassembled and glued up one of the clerestory windows from the Sand Springs 68, and Victor here is sanding a repaired window sash for Boston & Maine 1094.  Beading Whenever new sash are made, and in many cases when sound sash have to be reglazed, the small 'beading' must be recreated. You simply cannot go anywhere and purchase the correct cross section and in matching specie of wood. Victor and I fabricated something over 100 feet of this small mahogany molding for some of our Pullman car windows. In this case it resembles a quarter round with 5/16 inch radius but is cut assymetrical with two differing straight sides.  Rear Bench Seat The worker bees for Cleveland Transit 4223 were not idly watching the other work, although many of them continued to receive the safety review and training. But Lorne Tweed has cleaned, primed, and painted the sheet metal box for the rear seat in this PCC. |
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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
Tue, 01-19-2021 20:11
Dear, IRM The N and W 611 is coming to the IRM 2021 NHS. OK IRM.
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
Wed, 01-06-2021 10:14
Good job on coach updates January 5, 2021. Sincerely, Ethan A.
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 [...]