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Friday, June 29. 2012CGW X 38 Update - June 27, 2012 Hosing Around Jim Leonard and Dave Rogan worked at making up all the remaining replacement hoses for the wings on the plow, with help from Rod Turner. The heat wave continues and we better get used to it - forecast between 92 F and 97 F the next seven days. Anyone want to go up on the steel roof and start needle chipping?  What is a NORBITT NORBITT is marked on the porcelain base of the ceiling fixtures inside the plow and we need one more. Also on this is lettering showing it to be a product of Crouse Hinds. Can anyone help here?  Headlight The existing dual headlight is fairly modern for this plow, but the plan is to use it as a stand in until the possibility of acquiring a Pyle National headlight materializes (with appropriate funding). As can be seen, several parts are missing or damaged, although we do have the two special sealed beam lamps.  Badge This is nameplate badge for the headlight and amazingly, TRANS-LITE is still in business and may be able to furnish the needed parts! But of course the price could run toward $300. Anybody know of any such parts for sale or trade from another museum or even salvaged from a junkyard or railroad?  North Door This does not exactly fit the title here, but just to fool you, and to avoid a new post with only one pic, Victor Humphreys completed the first coat of finish paint on the north door of the B&O wagon top boxcar.  Windows Every report needs to talk about WINDOWS. Buzz Morisette is painting new sash for the AT&SF 1400 caboose. Yes folks, he made all those in the wood shop. And earlier in the day, completed installing the last three temporary plywood window blanks for the X 38. Wednesday, June 27. 2012Russell Gone Wrong - June, 2012 Russell Wreck Walter Parks has generously shared this dramatic photo of a wreck for a Russell plow that happened in Ruso, North Dakota. It must have been quite a ride, and a tribute to the design and construction of the plow that there was not more damage apparent. As we have said before, the operator of a Russell Plow had to have a strong backbone and steel himself for any mishap. And work often in an environment of sub zero temperatures. Gee, that is a lot of snow! Which is of course the reason for posting this now with our area in another heat wave, could be 100 F plus tomorrow. Tuesday, June 26. 2012John Mc Loughlin Update #2The "John's" vestibule finally had progressed into various shades of red primer. Let's celebrate! After much priming and surface preparation, the job was finally complete and ready for topcoat.  Roger spraying  Almost done w/ spraying The following pictures are the results of my efforts.  The master at work  A lot of paint supplies  Mixing more paint Another view  WOW Pullman Green  Nice and shiny Tuesday, June 26. 2012Barn 4 Shops - June 20-23I am very tardy getting these few pics up and posted, but I just had little opportunity to wear my 'reporters' hat lately.  At the Controls The BIG STORY was the continued progress on Chicago Rapid Transit 1797. Several volunteers have pitched in and are involved. The exterior of the body is nearly complete, with the recent addition of the lettering on the car, letterboard and gold numbers. It looks great. So, now work is starting on the electrical and control systems. First, the air compressor was examined and able to be freely spun by hand. Step 2 was to hook up a 600 v 'stinger', and the compressor ran and pumped air. Step 3 was to work on wiring so that the compressor could be run as intended, with the trolley pole up and the air compressor governor in the circuit. All that was accomplished in short order. Then on to the reverser, and finally that seemed to work and sequence properly. Next was the line switch which needed a missing overload trip relay. WOW - they were moving right along. By the end of Saturday, the pole was up, 90 lbs air in the pipes, and Tim Peters (above) was at the controls, sequencing the contactors in the group switch. All of the above are steps needed to get to that point. The motors brushes have been removed so there is no chance of the car lurching along during this testing and troubleshooting phase. Amazing to me there is no provision for a motor cutout switch to isolate the motors!  Inductance Coil Al Reinschmidt was working on a new core and repairs for a roof mounted inductance coil destined for Cleveland Transit System 4223.  TMS Truck Two Mike Stauber and Frank Sirinek are hard at work repainting the second truck for the Milwaukee (TM) 972 project.  Floored Rich Block was on site and he continues the work on getting a new floor installed at one end of our long running CTA 4000 project. There is a fairly complicated process of underlayment and reinforcing mesh being installed to replace the totally rusted out Keystone Flooring panels which are no longer manufactured. Next will be to mix and pour a lightweight concrete product, MASTIPAVE. Sunday, June 24. 2012Steam Department Update 6-23-2012The dog days of summer continue. Many people have vacations or other better offers so turnout at the shop is lower than usual. I had to leave in the early afternoon so hopefully others things were achieved later in the day. Anyway, I think we turned a corner this weekend. We have just about completed the stripping and measuring and are now working on repair and rebuilding tasks. Work focused on 1630: · Jeff, Collin and I measured the radius profile of the back head to provide Bob the last data for the form 4 calculation. I need to finish a few more diagrams to identify exactly where measurements were made on each part of the boiler and Bob has a mass of calculations to complete and document but we now have all the physical measurements to complete the documentation; · the holes for riveting the patch into place have now all been prepared;
· Jeff and Collin marked all the points where we need Dennis to make good small marks in the tube sheets before fitting the tubes; · The big exercise now getting under way is the repair and safe ending of the super heater flues o Phil sand blasted the material that will be cut to provide the safe ends;
o all of the flues were inspected and those with an existing weld too close to the end were identified and cut to ensure that there will be an adequate length of clear tube at the end for expanding into the tube sheet; o each flue was marked up with the position into which it will be refitted (the spans vary a little so from here on all the measurements and amounts to be added will be specifically calculated to fit the tube to it chosen location); o a start was made on cutting the small diameter safe ends for some of the flues.
Bob and Ed worked on reassembling and firing up the rivet furnace. It was test fired during the afternoon so hopefully we are now ready for riveting 428's cab.
Glenn inspected and lubricated the boom hoist mechanism on the Bay City crane. As the most frequent operator of that crane I have a vested interest in this activity. The boom hoist has always been very tricky to engage and disengage smoothly so any improvement in this area will be a major benefit. Don't forget the Steam Department benefit next Sunday. You can still order tickets but will need to pick them up on the day. Nigel Sunday, June 24. 2012The Newest Attraction - June 2012Dave Diamond is our General Manager - Facilities, and he is exceptionally productive in maintaining the campus, and at recruiting volunteers for new projects. Saturday was our annual Chicago Day special event and what could be better than the new billboard?  Riverview Dan Marquardt supplied the image and assisted in getting it converted to electronic format where Dave was able to get it 'printed'. The B&G crew had done the prepwork to the billboard previously and made it happen in time for passing cars to see the work. WELL DONE! The ride shown reminds me that it might have been the water ride where you sat in a large inner tube and had a small gasoline motor to propel it around. When time was up, a large fence type boom traversed the pond to rake you into submission along the dock. And it released the next wave of those floats to have their turn at fun. What was the NAME of that ride? Waterbugs??
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Comments
Fri, 08-11-2017 00:05
Randy, The 543 was never in that paint scheme. It'll likely be restored to the zebra stripe scheme whenever it does get restored. Jamie
Thu, 08-10-2017 17:46
If you ever get the money to repaint this engine, I would hope you would repaint it to have the big letters Santa Fe instead of the small print. [...]
Thu, 08-10-2017 10:38
I would like to know if these MR #649 and #542 were part of FEVR excursion in Nebraska? Awesome to have them to be part of IRM collection!
Sat, 08-05-2017 23:30
They need to restore Milwaukee road 33 and 37c along with the 3 Milwaukee road f units hey have
Wed, 08-02-2017 20:01
It was supposed to be restored and sat behind the NS Altoona shops for the better part of two years, waiting for that to happen. We finally had it [...]
Tue, 08-01-2017 02:42
those 2 Milw cars would actually look good behind one of the Milw F7's or the E9's.
Sat, 07-29-2017 22:02
I just donated to the Save the 800 campaign. Should the campaign fail, I would like my donation re-directed to ATSF FP45 #92 please. Please tell the [...]
Sat, 07-29-2017 13:14
I see Conrail 4601 has finally arrived. I suspect a cosmetic restoration and getting donations to put it in a barn are in order?
Sat, 07-29-2017 01:51
It was restored at Altoona before coming to Union from the Essex, CT area. BTW, is or was it going to be restored as a Virginian engine? or kept as a [...]
Fri, 07-28-2017 11:54
It appears to be the E33 that IRM aqquired a year or two ago.
Thu, 07-27-2017 14:06
What is the 4601 locomotive parked in front of the diesel shop?
Wed, 07-26-2017 17:53
Since your archives list no E mail address or any other form of contact I am sending this here. Over the years I have been given a huge amount of [...]