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Friday, August 31. 2012CGW X 38 Update - August 29, 2012This was another productive day for the crew working in the Freight Car Department  Spreading Its Wings Simon Harrison and Dave Rogan are the proud parents of a milestone accomplishment for our snow plow. Pictured here, BOTH plow wings are now operational and can be extended or retracted. At the lunch table we invited any of the volunteers on site to come over and get a chance to operate the wings - many did just that! The wings may move about 36 inches outward, and many may have the misconception that they swing much farther. As we got the plow it was repainted by the CNW into its yellow scheme. But behind the plow wings lives the CGW bright orange from the 1970's. Some say CNW stands for Cheap & Nothing Wasted, - in any case they apparently sprayed all around the exterior but did not bother to open the wings and finish the job.  Roofwalk Jim Leonard continues to wrestle with well rusted nuts and bolts on the roofwalk.  New Flooring Buzz Morisette is making good progress with framing repairs and now is laying down new flooring in the carbody box, between the doors on each side.  Moving Up Simon Harrison is chipping high on the car side, only a few areas left to clean up on the north side, and then on to the finish paint.  Looking Down on the Crew We do not look down on our volunteers, but I had a chance while up on the roof to get this unusual angle of Simon and Dave working just below the edge of the roof line.  Cab Details Modelers may be interested in this shot of the cab roof. It was almost a spotting feature of the CGW (their steel cupola cabooses also had this) that a handrail was installed around the perimeter of that small roof. Most other railroads did not go to the expense.  In the Corner The handrail was supported by eye bolts and at the corner it was rounded. Also this week, a separate crew finished the second coat of new paint on our Borden's Milk Tank Car. That was good. Those of you patient enough to read this far - we would like to extend an invitation to all those members and friends who plan to come out for Museum Showcase Weekend. On Saturday 9/15 about 1:30 PM we are going to do a demonstration of the snow plow wings in action. And ANY of you physically able to get up into the plow, and to its cab (not yet restored) are invited to try your hand at the controls. Of course, first come, first served, and if 50 of you are hoping for this rare experience, well - we will do what we can. Did any of you wonder what it was like to run such a plow, to have the power in your hands to swing the wings, to have bragging rights over your fellow railfans or modelers? Now is your chance for this rare opportunity not available to the general public.
Friday, August 31. 2012Wood Shop Update - August 29, 2012Here are a few shots I got as I passed through the shop this week.  New Letterboard One of the new letterboards has been installed on the north side of Lake Shore Electric 810. When the remaining pieces are done on this side, it will be on to the roof work. George Clark, Gerry Dettloff, and John Faulhaber worked on the project today.  Windows Rich Witt continues to restore windows for the Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36. It is not likely he will run out of work soon!  Seats Our upholstery wizard, John McKelvey, is working on the seats for Chicago Rapid Transit 1797. Plenty of repair work to be done, some totally recovered.  Plane Truth Buzz Morisette was working on the CGW X 38 snow plow earlier but here, he is planing new wood destined for our dynamometer car, MILW X 5000. Sunday, August 26. 2012Steam Department Update 08-25-2012The second weekend of Thomas and temperatures into the 90's predictably led to a slower work day at the steam shop. However we are now seeing more clearly that work is shifting to the new phase of preparing for reassembly. On 1630: · On Monday I met George, the welding specialist from Curtis Boiler, on site and he carried out the welding on the rear tube sheet. · As mentioned in previous, weeks this was the last critical step to be ready for internal inspection of the boiler by the FRA. With this done, Collin spent Saturday morning cleaning and clearing tools from inside the boiler as well as carefully inspecting all the surfaces for any sign of cracks or damage and polishing any rough edges from the tube holes. We can now advise the inspector that all is ready for inspection and hope that he will be able to fit us into his schedule in the near future. · Glenn and Richard did some rework on the safe ends for the super heater flues. Inspection on Monday indicated that a couple of these had been cut from tube that was more pitted than desirable so new ones were made ready for welding to the flues in the next couple of weeks.
· A good start was made on cleaning and preparing the nuts and bolts that secure the super heater elements to the header. This is typical of a lot of work that we will be doing in the next few months. These bolts fit into the header at the top of the smoke box so have a tough life, in the path of the exhaust gases from the fire. To remove them required heating to red heat with the acetylene torch. Now they must be thoroughly cleaned, the threads checked and re-cut as necessary, to ensure that they fit and tighten smoothly when we come to fit the elements.
· Vince cleaned and lubricated and number of the flexible stays ends so we are now well on the way thru that process. · Kevin is back for a few days and continued with needle chipping the exterior of the boiler and support brackets so that we will be able to do a thorough re-paint. He is at Union for several days so this activity will continue during the week. · Mike continued with test fitting of the patch. This is a very tricky exercise, a sort of three dimensional jigsaw. It looks as if we are now close with this test. Once this is done, we will run thru a second test to prove that the principles developed can be applied reliably to and then we can hopefully produce the patch proper. · I worked with Tom on preparations for fitting the tubes to the boiler. This is quite a complex, multistage, operation that you will hear a lot more about in the next couple of months!. The first step of the process is to expand the ferrules (copper rings) fitted between the tube and the rear tube sheet into the holes before the swaged tube is fitted. After working with the various sizes of ferrule that we have been sorting and measuring for the last couple of weeks it is clear that we have nowhere near enough of the most commonly required size. We will determine in the next week if we can get ready made ferrules this size in a reasonable time. Otherwise we do have the right size of copper tube and will need to start cutting about 200 of these little rings !!. Good news, it is now clear that, once you know how to match the ferrule size to the hole, the fitting process can be rapid. After all the measuring and testing I was able to fit the first 5 ferrules in no more than 10 minutes. This is likely to be the pattern throughout this operation. We know that years ago re-tubing a boiler was an remarkable fast process. We will have to become familiar with each of the steps and then try to become efficient but accurate at carrying it out. On 428: · Machining is speeding up on the axle box thrust bearings. The first one is complete and the second nearly so.
Interesting. The attachment to this box looks quite different from the first. This seems to be a common factor with 428. Each part has been differently repaired at different times. Nigel Thursday, August 23. 2012CGW X 38 Update - August 22, 2012 Plow Extra Crew We split the crew today, more on that later. Here Dave Rogan and John Faulhaber are ready to try to open the left side wing on the plow. They had already done some of the prep work and fixed more air leaks, and charged the reservoirs to 50 psi. This had never been tried at IRM and perhaps not been moved during the previous 20 years.  First Movement Many of the volunteers migrated to what we hoped would be a successful trial. We had several working - Dave Rogan working the controls up in the cab, Henry Vincent watching the air pressure gauge inside, others to pass along verbal instructions. IT MOVES!!! We all expected loud squeaking and protests from the hinges, but it was completely smooth and quiet - we almost missed it.  Wide Open Here, Henry Vincent, Buzz Morisette, John Faulhaber, Dave Rogan and Rich Witt beam proudly. To deal with one of the leaks, we removed the whistle valve and capped the air pipe. In the shop Rich Witt dismantled that, and we found the spring inside had been assembled in the wrong position - apparently an artifact from an indifferent mechanic on the CNW.  Behind the Wing There it was wide open, and we peered to see behind what had been cloaked to all of us. The CNW never opened them up when repainting, and the last CGW orange paint remained. Henry and Rich Witt look for clues  Roof Walk Strap Gerry Dettloff fabricated a new steel strap to support the roofwalk. One was missing due to a broken weld and we needed it in place to continue installing interior wood framing on the back wall. The bolts pass through the straps, end wall, and the wood timbers.  Painting I opened this entry saying we had split the crew. Here, Victor Humphreys and Jim Leonard work to repaint the Borden's Milk Car. Prepped and primed last week, it was now time for the first coat of finish paint. In true IRM spirit they continued the painting during the plow wing moving tests. Thanks guys!
Thursday, August 23. 2012LAKE CITY Arrives - August 22, 2012Our newest arrival, the Milwaukee Road LAKE CITY, arrived today at our campus in Union. You will have to excuse the poor images, a product of old man shaky hands and having to use the telephoto feature on the camera. When we heard it was on Olson Road, several walked out in that direction, but I saw no one else taking photos, so these will have to do.  At the Gate We first saw it still on Olson Road but right at Gate 5. How could they possibly make that sharp left turn?  Bending the Corner Halfway around the turn and still moving, I was still quite a ways off. Yet it was moving forward and we know the car could not bend in the middle.  Museum Drive In short order the rig was traveling east on Museum Drive, where it sat most of the day. The delay was due to the large crane being tied up on another job and not on site at Union. We began to understand how they made the turn. We counted 50 tires under that rig, and the rear ones could be steered and turned by remote control from a second operator to the rear of the load. As I left the crane still had not arrived. Sunday, August 19. 2012Steam Department Update 08-18-2012The number of volunteers at the Steam shop was lower this weekend as it usually is during Thomas weekends. However some key tasks were completed. On 1630: · The last of the troublesome smoke box bolts was removed. With the bolts out, I was able to clean up all the holes and test fit new "T" bolts into all of them bar one. The new bolts are now being ordered for 10 of the 11 holes. The 11th requires more work. The smoke box has clearly been reinforced since this one was fitted so a rivet is now positioned that prevents setting the bolt into the ring from the rear. Tom will need to make a special stud that we can fit from the front and secure by welding a nut on the back. However, this repair is now largely complete and ready for when we refit the smoke box front sheet.
· All the flexible stay caps, that were marked as requiring removal, were successfully freed. This requires heating the socket of the stay with a torch before unscrewing the cap. Applying brute force to the socket wrench without using heat to loosen the thread is absolutely not recommended!. Cracking or otherwise damaging the socket would mean that the whole stay must be removed by drilling it out of the inner firebox then rethreading and fitting a complete new stay - several days of work - so it is a big relief that all are now off with no damaged sockets. One damaged cap was successfully removed and will be replaced with our last spare cap. A few more will be ordered to ensure that we have some spares in hand. The caps must be removed and the stays hammer tested where the stay does not have a full length tell tale hole.
Once the cap is removed you normally find rust, scale and debris that must be cleaned out to allow later hammer testing.
Once clean you can get a good idea of how the stay operates. In the center is the ball head of the stay, a long steel rod the other end of which is threaded into the inner firebox sheet The slot in the ball would have been used when the stay was installed to turn the rod and so screw it into the inner firebox sheet. The ball sits in the socket, which is welded to the outer firebox sheet. Screwing the rod into the inner sheet tightens the balled end of the rod against the socket. As with rigid stays, the objective of the flexible stays is to hold the inner and outer firebox sheets together against the full pressure of the water and steam that lies between the sheets when the boiler is in service. The difference is that flexis are used where it is calculated that there should be (marginal !) movement between the two plates as they expand This would strain and potentially crack a rigid rod. The movement of the ball in the socket allows this movement. Tightening the ball into the socket provides a significant, but not complete, seal against the boiler pressure so the cap provides the final seal. This is why there is likely to be some debris in the socket when you first remove the cap.
· Mike continued with test fitting of the patch. · We also started on the exercise of measuring the holes in the tube sheet and matching these to the ferrules that must be fitted before the tubes can be inserted. · Most importantly, it now looks as if we should have good news on the welding by next weekend. On 428: · Machining is now well under way on the thrust bearing surface of the first axle box.
This clearly shows the remains of the old thrust bearing which consisted of mesh (actually old spark arrestor mesh from the smoke box was specified in the UP drawing), which was tack welded to the face of the casting and held in place the babbit which was poured into the recess, allowed to set and then machined smooth. · The overhaul of the pump mechanism for the planer was completed. The next step is to clean and test the hydraulic drive mechanism.
Nigel Thursday, August 16. 2012Freight Car Work - August 15, 2012GOT MILK? This entry and the work have a lot to do with the Thomas Event that starts tomorrow. How, you ask? Every year, for running the Thomas Trains, a large number of passenger cars come out from storage Barn 3 for train service. Through the cooperation of the Passenger Car Collection Curator, Mike Baksic, we 'poach' that empty space for a deserving project requiring a roof overhead to complete the work.  The Crew This year that project was our Borden's Milk Tank Car, BFIX 520. The crew included Simon Harrison, Dave Rogan, Victor Humphreys, Jim Leonard on the roof, and also, not pictured John Faulhaber, Rod Turner, and Henry Vincent.  The Roof Over the years a number of repairs have been accomplished on the car, and it sees regular operation in our various special freight trains. Its first restoration paint job was done for a stillborn movie project many years ago. The upper half of the car was beginning to show its age, light rust starting to show through in several spots.  Going Up in the World Shy as I am, Jim Leonard caught me scaling the ladder to work on the roof area. We decided that in the interests of time to clean, re-prime and re-paint from the black handrail up. Not a full restoration, but it will preserve the condition of the car and buy us 5 to 10 years. Hopefully, those reading this will send buckets of money and we can subscribe to the next open barn space to save this work.  Prime Work With most of the sanding and cleaning done, we released half the crew to continue on the snowplow, while Jim Leonard and Victor applied new white primer.  Ready to Move With the primer applied it was time to protect the work in progress. A switch crew came over and coupled up to the milk car.  Put to Bed The dirty work of sanding was done outdoors, and with still wet primer the car was put to bed on Track 34. It is very satisfying to see the car moving and going inside, even temporarily. And the crew got a cab ride and some training in moving equipment on the property. A fringe benefit you could also enjoy at the end of some of the work days. Want to help? |
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Comments
Fri, 02-27-2015 12:17
The UP sticker could be for a truck trailer. The headlight is neat. However for the accuracy nut, the plow originally had a style of Pyle [...]
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 [...]
Wed, 02-25-2015 22:04
Hey I saw on the home page on the scroll ad for mother's day,is that shelter in the picture new? It looks as if it is right across the mainline by the [...]
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 [...]