Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I think I am making some progress on my (camera) image problems and they MAY be a thing of the past by the weekend BLOG report.  Here's hoping.  There was much activity and here are more than normal images to give you a taste of the progress.

Quarter Round

Quarter round molding is used for many of the restoration projects and it simply is not available in the wood species and sizes we often use.  Paul Cronin and John Faulhaber are carefully slicing finished pieces on the tablesaw, you can see several completed pieces on the saw apron.  These will be used on new doors for the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.

Speaking of Doors

John and Paul then went to the table mounted router to create a roundover profile on all the rails and stiles needed for two doors.

Rabbeting

They then went on to create a rabbet in the same pieces, to serve as a notch or shelf for holding the glazing.  Then they went on to square all the end cuts and size the pieces to length, before we did the layout work and marking for plunging mortises into six of the pieces - next time.  We wish Paul Cronin great success and good luck as he prepares for knee replacement surgery next week.

Fast Work

Last week, Eric Lorenz exhumed many parts from storage and sorted out the puzzle of where and how they all are placed into Cleveland Transit System 4223.  This week over half of them had been cleaned up, dents hammered out, and Dave Rogan and Simon Harrison had one side primed before it was time to clean up and head home.

Speaking of Puzzles

Buzz Morisette continues the work to repair the ceiling in the rear compartment of the private car ELY.  This is quite a patchwork of different shaped and different purposed woodwork!

Steelwork

Victor Humphreys is shown with new caboose side grab irons.  Our volunteer  'fabrication vendor' is the ironwork magician Mike Alterio.  The curves and length are now correct and the next step is to prepare the anchor attachments and to weld them into place.

Motor Work

Dave Rogan and Henry Vincent are puzzling over some tricky disassembly on our 100 year old General Electric AC saw motor.  The armature and bearings are now apart for cleaning and we hope to not find a lot of problems other than hardened grease and oil which can be cleaned out.

Tack Molding

Rich Witt was completing the very careful finish work on the last two pieces of new tack molding for Lake Shore Electric 810

Fares Please

Norm Krentel seems quite delighted at this old fare register.  It came from one of our sister museums out east and we hope is destined for Michigan Electric 28.

Roofing

Norm and Jeff Brady were busy cutting new roof panels for the ME 28.  A lot of work goes on in our heated shop areas over winter.  You can see woodwork, mechanical work, steel and ironwork, and painting on projects ranging from Freight Cars, Trolley cars, Passenger cars, MOW equipment and Shop Machinery - all in one day.  What a show - won't you help?