Illinois Railway Museum Blog

In Memory

Just one week ago long time member of IRM and officer of the organization succumbed to a long and arduous hard fought battle with cancer.  In his memory the CA&E train, led by car 409, displayed black marker flags and black bunting across the front.  Crew members included Randall Hicks and Jeff Obarek.  We will all miss and remember you, Jim

Light Panels

Dave Diaz returned to our shops and helped John McKelvey on seat repairs and then moved to working on the old lighting ceiling panels for Cleveland Transit System 4223.  He did make some good progress and managed to remove several of the light fixtures which were held in stubbornly by a host of rusty screws.

Bending Wood

Bill Peterson, Jeff Brady, and Norm Krentel were quite successful in steam bending some white oak slats for the new roof on Michigan Electric 28.  They used a home made steam generator and steaming 'chamber' to cook the wood for two hours.

More Bill

We return to the popular feature MORE BILL.  Bill Wulfert has great patience and stick-to-it-ness as he continues the painstaking work of repairing and restoring myriad light fixture sockets.  Don't tell him I said this as his fame will make him hard to live with.

There was other work going on including more progress on the CGW X 38 snowplow, and on Chicago Rapid Transit 1024, and Electric Car Department tasks.

This will be a short report today as I met and escorted two members of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society on a tour and with meetings to schedule a special event for them.  The GNRHS is holding their annual convention in Chicago this year for the first time and they will spend Saturday July 27 at IRM.  If you are already a GNRHS member, remember the date and plan to attend.  If not there is still time to join them.  There are still volunteers needed to act as tour docents and other IRM support tasks.