Wood Shop

There 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.

I would like to introduce Mr. Paul Cronin.  Paul grew up in Boston and did  volunteer work for the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine when he lived out east.  Fast forward to today when Paul has relocated to our area in the Midwest.  He is now becoming a regular volunteer in our shops on both Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we are happy to have his help.

Priming

Paul started the day by applying primer to the new tack molding for Lake Shore Electric 810.

Windows

With the tack molding finished, Paul moved on to add the first coat of deep rich maroon finish paint to three new windows for our Chicago Great Western X 38 snow plow.  He seems willing to tackle almost any job, and is a careful and thorough worker.  To end the day, Paul helped me a bit planing and sawing a new front panel for a wood toolbox.  WELCOME ABOARD, Paul

Windows Again

Speaking of windows, we got some more done, this time for two new front windows for the CGW X 38 plow, these to go in the elevated cupola cab.  Some tricky fitting, depending on how lucky you are, and then gluing.  Victor Humphreys has squared up the frames in the glue press and applies one last squeeze with the handwheel.

Paint Removal

Ray Pollice was on hand to do some more of what is becoming his specialty.  He is removing layers of old paint down to bare shiny metal, and he really does a GOOD job.  This piece is a handhole cover from the table saw that Henry Vincent has been working on.  Ray also did three more items for the motor and drive set up on this saw.  Thank you, Ray - stop by anytime!

End Beam

Tim Peters has moved on in full swing to his THIRD all wood elevated car, this time the Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  One of the next things to address are structural issues, and in particular the car needs its wood end beam replaced by a new one.  First step, make a paper template showing size and shape, and the locations of multiple holes.  Next he transfers that to a rigid piece of thin tempered masonite, as shown here.  I expect it will not be too long before the sawdust will fly.  That itself is not a trivial task as the first step is to move and setup the first cuts on a massive 12x12 timber salvaged last year from the demolition of a feed mill in nearby Huntley.

For several of the last few years, we have had a tradition of a pot luck volunteer Christmas Party.  If has grown from a handful of folks to a larger and larger group every year, many departments attending, and sharing good cheer.  I bet there were over 45 attending this year.  So without further ado

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Setting Up

Just as the party grows larger, so does the work of setting up the wood shop, putting away the projects, and a substantial cleanup.  A big thanks goes out to all the committee members and helpers, especially Pete Galayda (shown here) and his wife Jan.

Line Forms at the Rear

"Go to the dust collector and take a left."  There were ample food dishes and deserts to sample and no one went hungry.  It was set up buffet style and a long line quickly formed.

Windows

But that does not mean no work was done.  Before the serving started, Jim Leonard and Dave Rogan were prime painting the three new windows for our CGW X 38 snowplow.  We finished the woodworking on them last week and they gathered little dust.  After lunch, they were dry enough to flip over and the other side is also prime painted.

New Work

The wood shop serves all and any department and all types of work.  John Faulhaber is leading the way to make a lot of new material for the Lake Shore Electric 810 traction freight trailer.  We selected and purchased the lumber a few weeks ago and here John is doing the layout work on a large plank, destined to become new tack molding.  There is enough stock to also make almost 350 linear feet of specially profiled tongue and groove pieces for the roof.

The Jointer

Dave Rogan and John Faulhaber start the process by creating a straight and true edge on each piece, running them through our jointer.  Jeff Brady is in the background working on new sheet metal window post caps for Michigan Electric 28.

Tack Molding

After jointing and ripping several pieces, the crew here is doing the profile work for a drip lip.  Jim Leonard, Dave Rogan, and john Faulhaber have set up the saw and are guiding the twelve foot long pieces through the process.  That is longer stock than we usually process, but we want to minimize the number of joints on this stock when installed on the car.  We made 96 feet of material, sanded it and Jim got primer on one side before leaving for the day.  Not bad production for an afternoon when everyone had a full belly and wanted a siesta more than anything else!

Saw Work

Henry Vincent is far enough along restoring separate parts for the new table saw, that he was able to apply some shop green finish paint.

Our FIrst Car

Jon Fenlaciki has been working to restore a window for Indiana Railroad 65.  Now in the final stages of glazing, I am confident it will soon resume to its rightful place on the car.

We had a very busy day in the Barn 4 shops with projects, left and right, old and new, and a very large turnout of volunteers.

The Rack

The biggest surprise was the sudden appearance of shelves and steel for new storage racks in the shop addition.  I do not know of many that had a hint that this was going to happen so quickly.  But many turned to the task and very quickly some impressive racks were assembled.  Here, Tim Peters in inside one of the racks on his knees, while Pete Galayda, Simon Harrison, and Henry Vincent assist.  I LOVE the way this place works!

Control Cabinet

Across the aisle, Lorne Tweed was engaged on a new control cabinet for below the front dash for our Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  Most of the cabinet is a new fabrication, and Lorne is proceeding to add all the switches, fuse blocks, relays, the stuff that makes up a complicated control system.

Ceiling Panel

Simon also returned to the task of restoring the first ceiling panel for the 4223.  A lot of sanding and cleaning, and it is now ready for a coat of primer.

Spaulding Tower

Dave Diamond brought over a piece of badly deteriorated window sill from the Spaulding Tower - and this is one of the GOOD ONES!  It is a constant battle of maintenance and restoration for the many buildings now on campus.  Rich Witt and Dave Rogan are doing some headscratching to try to figure our how we can make some more of this.  It is of course an odd custom shape but we think we can do it.

Post Caps

Jeff Brady is working on newly fabricated window post caps for our Michigan Electric 28 interurban car.  Most of the old pieces are so badly rusted that the bottom few inches resemble a lace doily and they could not be saved.  The new sheet metal caps require something over thirty holes and countersinks to be drilled into EACH ONE.

More Ceiling Work

Buzz Morisette is really concentrating as he bandsaws a new piece for his restoration work on our private car ELY.  Victor Humphreys continues to work on our B&O wagon top boxcar despite weather that is not ideal.  He removed a steel threshold plate on the floor inside one door, and we scouted for some 12 gauge steel plate to fashion a patch and get it welded in.  And there was a lot of work done for our CGW X 38 snowplow, enough perhaps to group those on another BLOG ENTRY.

As usual there was a lot of activity in all of our shops and barns.  Here is just a short peek at what was happening in my area.

Wagon Top

Victor Humphreys continues his steady assault on repairs to our B&O 374065 box car.  He puts a lot of mileage on while 'commuting' from the shop to the car located on track 40.  This is a piece of wood to be used in floor repairs.  Victor wrote a very nice article in the latest RAIL & WIRE.  Please heed it and help support the work using fund R374065.

Windows

Every winter the shop becomes filled with window work.  Eric Lorenz has been working to replace rubber gasketing and bottom bumpers on the sash for Cleveland Transit System 4223, our PCC car which is an ongoing and active project.

More Windows

Yes the shop is officially named the wood shop, and we DO make a lot of sawdust.  Tim Peters seems perplexed after he was walking by and we asked him to inspect some of the new windows being made for the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.