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Monday, December 31. 2012Model Railroad Display Update - January 1, 2013It was now one year ago when IRM got the opportunity to save a complete railroad. In this case in HO scale. We made arrangements and carefully dismantled the full basement sized empire and moved it to storage at IRM. That in itself was not a trivial effort and many hours of volunteer work, and driving trips to Wisconsin were involved. What has been done since then? The good news is that we are about 45% of the way to our fundraising goal to construct and furnish a building along the Main Street alignment for the exclusive use of the models. THANK YOU to many donors who have supported this project!! Many preservation sites have a model railroad for the enjoyment of the visitors, young and old, and this would be another step in IRM efforts to broaden and diversify railroad themed displays for the entertainment of our visitors. We have a purpose designed building plan, with proposed interior use plan, and costs and estimates from builders and suppliers. We have designed a period appropriate facade in keeping with the theme of Main Street. We have completed and submitted two grant applications which are pending at this time. Thank you to the many IRM volunteers who have done a lot of this legwork and planning. We are privileged to be able to share the following images from Mrs. Lavonn Olander, taken as her late husband was constructing this magnificent and extensive railroad.  The Benchwork Takes Shape You can see some idea of the extent of the project and that it was built to LAST. Much of the ultimate development of the railroad followed a plan and the benchwork went in first.  Roadbed Soon the surveyors were out in force and roadbed was being installed at a fast pace.  Tracklaying Do not leave out the gandydancers who followed to lay track. It is all well done and features many complex combinations of components and specialwork.  River Scene Detailing of many areas included exquisite scenes, fully detailed such as the above view.  Union Station A very impressive Union Station was included to serve the passenger traffic. Any modeler would be proud to have constructed just one of the diorama like scenes, yet this railroad included one after another. No idea where we should look first. So what is next? This is where you all may help with donations to restricted fund RMRD. We can make this happen, sooner rather than later with your help. We are about halfway to the fund goal of where we need to be to place orders and release contracts for construction. Whether you are a modeler or not this will be an asset to increase the enjoyment and visitor experience at IRM. I firmly believe IRM needs to be more 'entertaining' to the typical visitor we get today, and just as we completed a Childrens Playground area in 2012, this could be the next big thing! Please help with donations to Illinois Railway Museum Box 427 Union, IL 60180
Sunday, December 30. 2012Steam Department Update 12-29-2012It is a "second-hand" update this weekend, courtesy of Phil Cwikowski. I did not make it to Union this Saturday as we had family visiting. Unfortunately, absent anyone who had experience with the tube roller, we were not able to roll more tubes into 1630 but a good deal of other progress was made. On 1630: · measurements were taken to fit the ferrules for the super heater flues. It looks as if we have enough for the firebox but will need to find or make some more for the smokebox; · the flues are now alongside the locomotive ready for refitting when the fire tubes have been secured; · the scaffolding and spare tubes have now been cleared so that we have free access to the front of the locomotive again; · needle chipping of the cylinder covers was completed and primer was applied to protect the cleaned surfaces;
· the valve chambers were checked for sand blast material that could have been carried over from the boiler cleaning. The good news is that they appear clean and free of debris. In other areas: · Major progress was made on the wheel lathe. Air pressure was applied for the first time in decades to release the lock holding the back head. With this done, attempts were made to move the back bead on its slides ........... and it moved!!. This is critical as the back head weighs several thousand pounds and, were it jammed, it would require very heavy equipment to free it. After this the gear for turning the shaft of the back head was investigated and this was also turned. All of this checking is critical as these parts are normally moved under the power of substantial geared motors. Since it has not operated in many years it is critical to ensure that these huge parts are free to move before we apply power as major damage could occur if they are jammed when power is applied. The tricky part is judging the difference between jammed and normal resistance when it is normally moved by a large motor thru substantial gearing !!. · Stu and Bob returned to work on the planer and further progressed the cleaning and reassembly of this machine;
· We gathered the information to calculate the total weight of the new air compressor and motor assembly so that Rick can now identify the vibration isolators that we will need to mount it. So progress on a number of fronts. Hopefully next week we can continue with the tube rolling. Nigel Sunday, December 30. 2012Wood Shop Update - December 29, 2012There was a good turnout yesterday, and very many individual projects were being worked upon. Here are some quick views of some of that.  Tongue and Groove While I was away John Faulhaber led the way to produce over 300 feet of new tongue and groove boards for roof replacement on the Lake Shore Electric 810. Yes, we made that ourselves including the last two steps on our shaper. But these pieces are destined for the outer edges of the roof where there is the tightest radius and they have to lay down as flat as possible around that. The railway solution is what we did today. Essentially making a beveled tongue and groove. Cheryl Lint is helping John on this step.  Priming No sooner than the stock was cut did Cheryl set up and begin prime painting the many boards. Meanwhile, John was breaking down the fences, featherboards, and other tooling so others could use the saw.  Windows The first three new windows for Chicago Great Western X 38 have their two coats of maroon on the exterior, and Victor Humphreys started the finished interior gray enamel. We also fussed some more with the next batch of eight windows for that same car.  Window Post Caps One of the more exciting pieces of news for me was the arrival of newly fabricated window post caps for the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car. The old ones are almost universally rusted out at the bottom or especially in line with the car belt rails. We tried to figure a way to uniformly repair and weld them up, mostly to no avail. So here they are, all new and ready to go. Eric Lorenz is pictured, much as a proud papa would show off his newborn.  In the Car It did not take long to start trying the new post caps and here you can see several posts covered as they should be. Do not be fooled. The car has had such extensive repairs to the carbody, that many of these will need tweaking for the best fit - no two posts on the car are the same. As these go in, it will allow progress in a hurry with installation of the side windows. Who knows where this might lead??  Roof Boards Nick Espevik and Jerry Saunders are planning to add roof saddles and trolley boards to CTA 30, one of our Chicago 'single' rapid transit cars. First step is prime painting a LOT of lumber. That will allow the car to operate by itself over our line, drawing power through a trolley pole.  More Wood Buzz Morisette has some new nice looking Douglas Fir here. He is taking big boards and making small boards. Oh yes, these are for the interior roof framing repairs Buzz has been doing on our ELY private car.  Still Smaller After chopping them to rough length and jointing the timbers, it was time to run them through the planer to reduce the size further. It is pretty much the same drill for any of the woodwork we might need to replace during a restoration. Stock sizes of today just will not fit the bill. Wednesday, December 26. 2012Steam Department Update 12-22-2012With Christmas close it was a small but active team at the steam shop this weekend. The next major milestone on 1630 was achieved as planned.
The last 17 fire tubes were loaded so all except for the 9 that will be installed along with the super heater flues are now in place. Then we moved on to rolling the fire box ends. As with each step, this was initially slow. It is critical that we fully understand the technique and can do it right each time before we start to do it on a large scale. However we made a good start, got more confident as the day progressed, and by end of day the first 15 were rolled. Looking closely at the view below you can see the effect. Comparing columns K, L and M to the adjacent columns, these are now tight in the tube sheet and set at a consistent 1/4 inch projection beyond the sheet.
Once we have proved that everything is watertight the projection will be beaded over. All tube ends in the fire box are beaded to protect the joint from the direct effects of the fire. The rolling requires a team of three and is achieved by first setting the tube accurately with a 1/4 inch extension beyond the tube sheet. The team member in the smoke box then clamps that end of the tube to prevent movement. The roller is then inserted into the tube. Here you can see the construction of the roller. Three small hardened rollers are turned by the rotation of the tapered pin that is inserted thru the center.
The air motor is attached and rotates the central tapered pin.
The rotating pin is slowly drawn into the roller forcing the three hardened rollers out into the wall of the tube slowly increasing its diameter. When the tube is fully expanded against the ferrule and tube sheet the taper pin has been largely drawn into the roller.
The motor is then reversed to free the pin and the process continues with the next tube. In addition to the work on the fire tubes: · annealing was completed on the 16 super heater flues, so these are now ready to load once the fire tubes are secured; · drilling continued on the fire box patch. The holes are now complete on the front face. Once holes are made in the side face it will be finally formed to the mud ring along its whole length. We also took advantage of reasonable, if cold, weather to jack the end of the KCS tender to remove the wood packing that was left between the rubbing plates when it was delivered. This should now be in a condition which will allow it to be shunted so that the box cars of parts can be relocated back by the road to allow access. Nigel Wednesday, December 26. 2012Ely ceiling repair continues in DecemberLeading the repair and restoration on the Ely's observation end ceiling is Buzz Morisette. Here are a few more pictures of the progress in the repair. Please notice the one new roof support installed by Buzz on Wednesday December 5, 2012.  First installed piece Notice the bad condition of ceiling/roof  Buzz installing second ceiling reinforcement w/ jig Week of 12-5-12 Now in two weeks time look at the changes and the efforts that went into improving the ceiling wood supports. These photos were taken 12-19-12. Please compare the progress in those two weeks. Remember it has been relatively mild for this time of year. Buzz has made the most of the "good" weather.  You can see the progress w/ many new roof supports installed  So.. thats how you do it..  Its cold but Buzz continues to work on his plan  More boards installed... Looking Good Buzz With the Holiday's falling on a week day, the progress has been slowed. January will again bring Buzz and friends back to the project. Another PROJECT.... is the Barn 14 fund raising. Do not forget to send your donation in before January 2, 2013 to qualify for that tax deduction on your 2012 tax return. The CNW bilevels, CGW X38 snow plow, B&M 3288 wood diner, CB&Q 3007 Hudson and CA&E 319 interurban will all Thank You for your support. Roger Friday, December 21. 2012New efforts for CRI&P 2524Significant efforts to place back in service Rock Island 2524 have taken place in that last 2 weeks. I along with a new member Paul Cronin, have reinstalled the missing carrier iron, secured the steam line and installed piping and an angle cock missing on the trainline. That just on one end! Paul and I have also found the missing bent brake rod that connects the brakeshoes on the truck to the brake cylinder. Upon repair that too will be installed! As previously mentioned by Bob Kutella, Paul has much experience working on rr equipment. Before retirement he was Road Formen of Engines on part of the Boston and Maine RR. Here then, are two Wednesdays worth of progress preformed by just 2 people.  Rebuilt carrier iron before installation parts from two made into one  cutting out old rusty bolts  Gerry using the torch  Paul admiring the results  Steam line installed Next,the bolts must be tightened  Angle cock and pipe to be reconnected  Angle cock now installed Our ultimate goal would be to place back in service this car for 2013, our 60th anniversary. Who knows with all the special events and guests we might need another 100 seat coach in the train. Maybe.....we even could make more $ with another coach. We will see.... Would any of the Wednesday weekday crew like to help on the interior!! Its quite warm when the sun is out even in winter.  Project almost complete fabricating airline bracket next on the list Again.....donations are still greatly needed for the funding of Barn 14 building project. Roger Thursday, December 20. 2012 |
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Comments
Sun, 07-27-2014 23:15
In looking at the general exterior condition of the Dynamometer Car you would think that it was a total wreck. It is wonderful that it is operational [...]
Fri, 07-25-2014 20:14
I had a blast riding in X-5000 on Sunday during Diesel Days. Brian was great to talk to. It was cool seeing the comntrol board work. I can't wait for [...]
Fri, 07-25-2014 16:47
Shane, Clean rain water is certainly possible. The snag is that you would need a BIG collection and storage system. We are using around 8000 [...]
Fri, 07-25-2014 16:42
John, Yes. Sadly the tender is in poor shape. She should go under cover as part of the new barn project. There will be much discussion around [...]
Thu, 07-24-2014 21:38
Hello Richard In reply to your question concerning RI 2702. The museum is studying the acquisition but no decision has been yet made.
Thu, 07-24-2014 21:29
Hello Chris The 2702 is under study by those interested at Irm. Unfortunately, the possible acquisition boils down to $. First ,who will support [...]
Thu, 07-24-2014 13:01
Hello, is there anyone that I can contact in the Diesel Department about volunteering? I am studying mechanical engineering and I would love to get [...]
Thu, 07-24-2014 00:01
I will commit something to 2702 if I see a specific fund for it. Supposedly the owners made an effort to keep it original, other than removing seats. [...]
Wed, 07-23-2014 19:54
Hi Nigel, I have some suggestions to enhance the experience of steam railroading for museum visitors: 1) In September 2002, I visited on the [...]
Wed, 07-23-2014 00:17
while watching the Diesel Days parade, i noticed a detail on UP 1848 that stood out to me. it was its cab number, i could tell it had a previous [...]
Mon, 07-21-2014 17:48
The hydraulic drawbar on X-5000 works. Its operation was determined Saturday evening and successfully used all day Sunday. The car measured up to a [...]
Sun, 07-20-2014 13:56
2702 would definitely be a project of a massive effort. It has some sort of giant roadside casino sign installed on it. The interior is completely [...]