Freight Car Department

These BLOG entries are delayed this week due to some largely self induced problems.  Special Thanks to Rod Turner for helping to resolve the issue.

This new acquisition has seen remarkable progress on several fronts since arriving at IRM earlier this year.  The volunteer team set some goals at the beginning of the season and most of those have been achieved!  The north side has been needle chipped, primed, and painted with its first finish coat of paint.  Chicago Great Western in 1950 lives on.  New wood framing has been fabricated and installed inside the box, air piping restored and the pneumatic plow wings are operational!  Floor areas are replaced and repaired, grab irons and handrails replaced and installed, and a steel wall panel that had been torched out has been welded in and replaced.  All in all, an aggressive plan achieved through the hard work and teamwork of many dedicated volunteers who have contributed a day or many days of regular work.  We never turn away anyone at any skill level.  You meet and enjoy like minded individuals, and can learn the workings of the equipment and gain new skill sets, yourself.

New Floors

Buzz Morisette has completed restoration of two floor areas, one which had a lot of rot, one which lived under the oil stove and had been burned through in a fire mishap years ago.  It is now much safer to climb aboard and explore the plow interior.

North Doorway

Jim Leonard is installing new sheet metal below the doorway, the piece had been fabricated by Victor Humphreys.

Maroon Paint

This is the first view of new dark maroon paint on the plow body, carefully matched to CGW color samples.  This pic is spoiled by a sun flash (also in my eyes), but shows that for now, not all the areas behind the plow wings can be so treated.  But with the plow wings retracted, the finished appearance will be correct and complete, and with the wings open you will see circa 1965 CGW orange paint.

First Maroon

This was a really exciting MILESTONE restoration day with six volunteers turning to the task of applying the first coat of maroon paint.  Weeks of needlechipping, wire brushing and priming were the basis for being ready to paint. Victor Humphreys is up in the air and attacking the side of the box.  Yes, it is a dark maroon, and in the shadows, with the sun low in your eyes, you have to look closely to appreciate it. 

Welcome Visitor

Gary Baker was visiting from the Orange Empire Museum in southern California and he quickly pitched in.  Here he is using the needlechipper to scale off many layers of dirt, rust and old paint on the nose of the plow wedge.

Marooned

Victor Humphreys and Jim Leonard are nearing the end of the painting work in the late afternoon, on the north side.

Black Also

Tom Bernacki was out to help, and he pitched in on many tasks.  He got a brush and some black paint and applied it to many areas primed and needing that treatment.  It is all about the details.

As mentioned elsewhere, the plow restoration is ready to show off this weekend at Museum Showcase.  At 1:30 PM Saturday please join us on Track 40 at the east end of Barn 4.  You will see the Russell Plow spread its wings, and be able to participate if you so wish.  If you enjoy the experience, a once in a lifetime rare opportunity, you may help by feeding a donation can with paper money or checks, to help keep the momentum going and the project ON TRACK.

If you cannot attend, please consider mailing in a donation to restricted fund R X 38.

Thanks!

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.

This will be a relatively short update.  We did not have a lot of volunteers, and many probably chose to spend the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day Weekend, with family or other pursuits.  But we did get a lot done.

Rear Wall

This is the rear wall, now nearly done.  Saturday we did some blacksmith work and straightened the metal above the rear window.  It had bowed inward about a half inch and there were sledgehammers swinging and some new words invented.  With the wall straight, we fabricated remaining window framing, primed it, and installed it, as seen here.  You can also see some of the bodywork and filler that has been applied to smooth out weld areas, where the missing metal panel was welded in below the window.

North Side

On the north side the goal is to have some finish paint applied very soon.  But needlechipping remained to be done in some fairly inaccessible areas.  Maybe that is why it was saved until last.  Look up under the small roof overhang behind the plow wing, half is cleaned up.  By days end, all had been chipped as well as the short notch wall behind the plow.  Of course that meant we got to charge up the air system and move the wing out, and then back in.  Obviously a railfan effort of fun, but we 'needed' to do it.

Front Anchor

On the front nose of the plow is a massive anchor casting and that is used to mount a front coupler when needed for ferry moves.  There really is no springing or draft gear in the traditional sense, merely a very stout pin to hold the coupler in place.  What you see could interfere with good snow removal and the air pipe and hangers often got damaged or bent in severe situations.  So it was made largely removable for winter operations.  There is also a train air pipe down to the coupler mounts, and when the coupler was removed, that pipe has a universal joint and the drop leg is swung back and over the plow roof, to rest upon it, in front of the cab cupola.  In the background, note the passenger department roof repairs underway on DM&IR 84.

Surely you modelers will want to include this detail on your masterpiece.  Walthers made a model of the Russell Plow in HO scale and while out of stock, they can be found on E bay.  This detail is not included on the model.  A little kitbashing and adding details and you will have a very credible model of the real thing, only found at IRM in Union IL.

Rare Visitor

I will digress strictly from the snow plow report, here, to show a rare visitor to Barn 4.  The Nebraska Zephyr is receiving a detailed inspection and some repairs in preparation for the upcoming excursion trip.

And in the Freight Car Department we completed a two and one half week blitz to repaint our Borden's Milk Car, BFIX 520.  We sanded, primed, and applied two coats of finish enamel to the top half of the car, as well a some washing and cleaning, and a repaint of the black handrails and grab irons.