Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I suppose many of my regular readers here are wondering where the report for this week is.  I will try to explain.  Departing from the usual format, the commercial comes first.

I have spent a substantial number of hours this week, going over donation reports and constructing our own ledger sheets.  Other departments are doing the same.  GOOD NEWS!  It is looking from our unofficial tallies that we are very close to reaching the funding goals for Barn 14.  That does not mean the donations should stop.  To my knowledge no single piece of equipment has its own restricted fund balance high enough to pay its own way in 100%.  But each department realizes the importance of this opportunity and other funds can legitimately be applied to the project to reach full funding.  There have been unspecified donations to the project and in the past the Board of Directors has 'shared' that out to five departments.  Each department has received donations for indoor space for their equipment and that may be applied to one or more cars under their umbrella.  And finally, each department has other donations not specifically for one car or project.  That may also be partitioned to get the most cars inside the quickest.

The final thing to mention is we are working to an estimated cost of the project, and we should not be surprised if the bids come in and the total rises marginally.  I would consider a good, really good, estimate to be within 5%.  So you all have the chance to continue your remarkable support of any particular car or locomotive, any particular department fund, and know it will yield results soon.  For the rest of us, we are anxiously awaiting the confirmation from our Financial Department that our unofficial numbers are accurate.  On to the news.

Tenons

I always like to start the reports with progress on the Chicago Great Western X38 snowplow.  Why not?  It is my department project and my team.  Here, Dave Rogan is trimming just a whisker of thickness from a door stile tenon.  Our motto is you can always take more off but not moron.  Hmm, that did not come out quite right, but I am giddy with the prospect of the Barn.

Assembly

Dave, Jim Leonard and Rich Witt are assembling and fitting the parts together for the second new X38 door.  The first door fitting is complete and it was assembled and put into the press after gluing.

Roof Parts

This view shows Victor Humphreys and John Faulhaber with a pile of new lumber on the cart.  It has just gone through the planer and is destined to become many feet of tongue and groove millwork for the new roof on Michigan Electric 28.

Ripping

The wide lumber is ripped to two inch wide slats before being ready for the shaper to do the T&G milling.  These are LOOONG boards and a dedicated crew of five ran them through the table saw at the rate of one cut every fifteen seconds or so.  Seen above are Victor, Buzz Morisette, Jim Leonard, Jeff Brady, and Dave Diaz.

Paint

Dave Diaz also painted a whole slew (is that the technical term?) of window post caps for Cleveland Transit System 4223.

More Tenons

Henry Vincent is at the small band saw trimming tenons on a new bottom rail for the door work on Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.

Cut Fit and Repeat

That is the sequence on any wood work project, perhaps more so when you are patching in new wood for a repair, such as this work for CA&E 36.  Henry is touching up the thickness by hand sanding as he fits, and then perfects the fit.

Round Top Window

We continue to move ahead on two new windows for Boston & Maine 1094.  Here, Rich Witt is working on a masonite template for the top shape of these windows.  It will be critical to using that to guide two routing operations, establishing the needed cross sections.

A Better Look

Buzz has a good eye and a careful hand and this final version of the template is being checked by Rich.  Smooth!

Roof

Gerry Detloff is applying the first piece of new tongue and groove wood slats to the roof of Lake Shore Electric 810.  We made those only a few short weeks ago and despite the cold temperatures, Gerry was out in the barn nailing them on.

And as usual a lot of other work went on.  One that comes to mind was making a new wood piece for the awning on the Frisco Decapod in the Steam Shop.