Illinois Railway Museum Blog

As we set to work in the morning it was raining so we moved into the wood shop.  Dave Rogan, Rich Witt, and I manufactured about 50 feet of special profile molding (two different shapes) to act as stop jambs for the window and door openings.  The rain stopped so everyone shifted gears and went to our 'outdoors' shop space.

Floored

Buzz Morrisette was fastest on duty and he continues to cut out damaged flooring and to replace the heavy boards.

Visitor

Mr. Hans Bolt was visiting IRM from Switzerland and we showed him the plow work in progress.  Dave Rogan is explaining the mechanism for moving the plow wings.

Priming

Victor Humphreys set up ladders to work in tight places once we opened the plow wing.  He wirebrushed all the areas needlechipped of many layers of old paint, and then set about applying primer.

The Edge

It is pretty easy to see large flat areas of the side that are cleaned and ready for paint.  But there are a lot of odd details still needing attention.  Dave steadies the ladder while Victor gets to the upper rear edge of the wing.

Working not Watching

There is always some task ready for attention.  When Victor did not need a ground man for the high painting, Dave Rogan set up a needle chipper and began to attack the steps under the rear door.  Dave also did some work chipping the cast steel door threshholds during 'intermissions'.

QUIZ

Here is your quiz for the day.  The rear truck has casting marks indicating it was originally for the New York Central.  Interesting, but not unheard of for rail equipment to have had their trucks swapped for any number of reasons or maintenance.  But look at this image.  To the right of the bolster pocket there is a raised part of the casting, with a hole in it, and a slot behind that hole with a sheet metal retainer of some sort.  There is one on each side of the bolster pocket.  Does anyone have an idea what their purpose was??

We considered that these are freight car trucks.  Parts of the NYC ran from third rail but no reason to attach any kind of device to pick up current for a freight car, and unlikely there could have been any need for an inductance box or other device to be hung there, to trigger signal indications.