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Sunday, November 25. 2012Steam Department Update 11-24-2012This Saturday saw continued progress in the Steam shop toward re-tubing 1630. The penultimate bale of 37 tubes was swaged and annealed while the final bale was brought into the swaging area ready for processing. The work done last Saturday on cleaning the rough edges from the dies of the swager seems to have worked well. No further problems were encountered with rough surfaces on the swaged tube ends. Good progress was made with cutting and loading so that, by end of day, we had 96 tubes loaded into the boiler. This time Collin and Jason had the "hidden" role of fitting ferrules into the fire box tube sheet. Here Collin is hard at work fitting ferrules and adjusting the position of the tube to the correct projection beyond the tube sheet.
Overall progress today was very good.
The boiler is now starting to look distinctly full of tubes.
However, we have now decided that it would be safer to fit ferrules to some or all of the front tube sheet holes in order to reduce the risk of leakage. This will require some measurement and testing and may require us to reload some of the tubes. So that will be the main activity next week. Meanwhile Mike, Bob and Tom worked on the final shaping of the firebox patch. Ed and Matt continued with fitting the new pipe work along the boiler. In other areas, Ralph worked on the axle boxes for 428 and prepared the surface of another box for babbit facing using the Bullard lathe. Nigel Sunday, November 25. 2012Wood Shop Update - November 24, 2012I will group all this under the wood shop banner this time, although of course activity encompassed many different projects. We will start with work related to our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  Headlight This is the headlight donated by one of our members and it is now completely restored and painted. Looks good, doesn't it? Now if we had a few weeks of warm weather, it could be installed on the plow.  Mortising Victor Humphreys is standing at the mortising machine as we plunge 3/8 inch wide slots into the stile of the new windows we are making. Not done with all of them yet, more work for the Wednesday crew. These parts are also for the X 38.  Planing Victor and Buzz Morisette are working at our planer to size new lumber for the work Buzz is doing to repair the roof structure in our Private Car ELY. This is an 1889 Pullman product with a long history on the railroads AND at IRM.  Next Steps With the wood properly sized, Buzz moved on to shape new roof ribs (carlines) and here is making a brace to hold them in place during installation.  The Scheme of Things Eric Lorenz was studying newly arrived electrical schematics to work out details of the Shaker Heights 63 PCC car. That car was built as a single car by St Louis Car Co for Minneapolis but when it went to Ohio, they converted it to be able to run in multiple unit with their other PCC's. They made it work, now we have to figure out how, and probably take it back as a single car without the MU feature. We have no other MU cars to run with it, and it becomes more complex and harder to maintain. Many other volunteers were busy, including a crew decorating CTA 6000 cars for the upcoming Holiday Train, and a switch move to bring Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 to the west end of Barn 4, Track 42, for restoration work. That car was built by Pullman in 1898 as car 24 for the Northwestern Elevated and came to IRM in 1958. |
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Comments
Thu, 05-16-2013 21:52
Looking good Bob! I hope to come out soon once I'm done with school.
Wed, 05-15-2013 21:28
I was not around at the time. General discussion suggests that it was "pretty marginal" in a number of areas. Nigel
Mon, 05-13-2013 11:08
"THUMBS UP!"
Fri, 05-10-2013 02:15
No, it will not be necessary to hold any of the work waiting for the plow to be turned, end for end. Weather will be the major factor, but there will [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 19:54
The CGW X-38 plow is really coming to life. Bob Kutella and Vic and crew need to be very proud of your collective efforts. I am very appreciative of [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 15:20
The snowplow looks great! Are you going to apply the door and upper windows befor it is turned to continue work?
Thu, 05-09-2013 09:09
Max, Is there any progress to report yet, in regards to the installation of the poles and overhead wires? Have a good day, sir.
Wed, 05-08-2013 18:40
Thanks for the update! I still don't understand why Commonwealth #5 was removed from service. Do you know why?
Tue, 05-07-2013 09:28
Mr. Kolanowski.....I was just wondering if the Spaulding webcam will be up and running soon for us stay-at-homes. Thanks!2FP
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:04
Max, Has work begun yet on the construction phase of erecting the poles and putting up the wire? Wish I could be there to watch it happen.
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:02
Keep up the good work, Bob. Wish I could be there to help!!!!!!!
Sun, 05-05-2013 18:53
Ah yes, I have made such Jibs myself. If it were me, I would add in each corner an angled piece from the base to the Jib to act as sway bracing. [...]