Sunday, November 24. 2013Wood Shop Update - November 23, 2013Eddie Pszczolkowski and Victor Humphreys are rabbeting the glass space on eight stiles to be used in making new cupola windows for our Pennsylvania bobber caboose. Everyone simply calls it the bobber since it is our only four wheel wood caboose, but for those purists the number is 476199 By the end of the day Victor is checking over the completed set of stiles, for the rabbet and also for the tricky tenons which are now done. Eric Lorenz is sanding some wooden rings which will go on the porcelain ceiling light bases for the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car. Bill Peterson painted all eighteen almost as fast as Eric finished touching them up on the disk sander. The ceiling lights in the 4223 are held in place with square metal plates mounted above the ceiling panel. The fixture, ceiling panel, and metal plate make up a sandwich which is fastened with a set of four screws. The previously painted metal plates had Bill Peterson running a tap through all the holes to 'chase' the threads of any debris. Fred Zimmerman is sanding down seat back sheet metal for Kansas City Public Service 755, another of our PCC cars. This is a good example of one of the many ongoing projects that get chased indoors with winter weather. Work has continued all through the summer, but I do not get over there for pics. Bill Wulfert is restoring some hang on destination signs for our Chicago rapid transit cars. Anyone got a steady hand? We need to touch up some lettering where the porcelain has chipped away. Tim Peters is fabricating new turn of the century metal roof mounted sign boxes for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. Two are needed and almost all of this has to be made from scratch, including cobbling parts for the mechanism for rolling the signs. Buzz Morisette seems to be enjoying making new roof parts for the dining room in our private car, ELY. This saw had been down for maintenance for a few weeks and now seems to working reliably. Sunday, November 24. 2013
Steam Department Update 11-23-2013 Posted by Nigel Bennett
in Steam Department at
13:39
Comments (0) Steam Department Update 11-23-2013Wow!. The Winter temperatures have certainly arrived with a bang this year. This time last year we were happily moving tubes in from the boxcar. This weekend anything outside was done quickly and in heavy clothing. At 20 degrees with a strong wind most work was done inside. However, we did manage to ensure that the drop pit pump and anti-frost heating are working and move the Sullair into the shop so that it should start if required. On 1630: · Matt and Jim produced new washers for the water connections between the tender and the injectors. The filters baskets were passed to Dennis to work on the brazed surfaces. Hopefully the combination of these two actions will provide a long term fix for these connections that have tended to leak for some years. · Rick made good progress on fitting the sheet metal screws to secure the radius pieces of the sheet metal on the back head. Once this and a couple of other jobs are done we should be able to paint the firebox in the cab. That promises to be great fun working around all the pipes and fittings!. · Eric did some hours of laborious needle chipping to remove paint from the driving wheels. Kevin did a lot of this some months ago. Now that the locomotive is in a different position, the rest of the wheels can now be cleaned off ready for painting. · Ed and Bob remade the copper pipe connection for the steam heat line; · Matt refitted the reflectors to the gauge lights. These should now be a lot brighter; · The last of the three air tanks below the walkway was removed for painting. In addition, I worked with Collin and Matt to remove the small equalizing reservoir from under the cab floor so that it can be hammer and hydro tested. This is small but a real pain as it is surrounded by a bunch of pipes that run just below the cab floor. In the photograph below you can just see the end of the reservoir in this view under the cab on the engineer's side.
Here Collin is squeezed between the locomotive and tender working on the nuts that secure the reservoir to the back of the locomotive. Anyway, after much cussing and tricky maneuvering, it was extracted. By end of day, I had successfully hammer tested and primed it. · Jerry made good the insulation on the fireman's side, that was removed to fix the leaking lubricator line. He then started on the lagging of the firebox side sheets. These are unusual when compared to all the other insulation. As they need to be removed annually to inspected the firebox side stays, the insulation is attached to the sheet metal rather than the boiler; · Dennis continued work on the sheet metal for the smokebox. · Cameron and Brian worked with Tom to machine the new stud. In other areas: · Phil prepared the bolster of the Shay by removing the last loose spring locator. Once Dennis welds in the new locator we can start planning to put the bolster and springs back into the truck. · Tom completed machining the first wedge for the axle boxes on #428; · Brian and Cameron continued drilling the brake hangers for #428; · Cameron worked on the moulds that are required for the casting of the babbit bearings for the cross heads; · Bob and Ed worked on preparing the oil system of the planer for filling. The challenge is the best way to get debris out of the system before filling it with the approximately 80 gallons of oil with which it will operate; · Brian brought in the replacement switch for the forklift and this was fitted. So it was a successful weekend as we continue to work thru the Winter maintenance tasks. Next weekend will provide a good opportunity to work off the effects of the turkey !. Happy Thanksgiving Nigel Thursday, November 21. 2013Wood Shop Update - November 20, 2013Still not as many photos as I had hoped but I am fighting the meds and the health issue they are supposed to take care of. Time for a BLOG post now since a doctor canceled the appointment for today - leaving me some time. I had mentioned in previous BLOG entries that the new ceiling in our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow was proceeding and showing good progress. So finally, here is a pic of the work. Victor Humphreys and Dave Rogan nail up one more board. I should point out the ceiling in this area runs all the way from the rear wall of the plow to the control cab cupola. That is a lot of wood, and as you can see, they have passed the halfway point. Dick Cubbage and I are working out a plan to build a new seat box/tool locker for the cabin at the rear of the plow. There are clues, pitifully few that show its location. So if anyone can help with a pic of the inside of these snowplows when they were still in service - we would really like to see it. It does not have to be from a fancy camera, or only of a dead on view. Buzz Morisette is running some new douglas fir through our jointer - this operation will produce one straight and true side. The timber will be planed and cut down and will find its way to the new ceiling in our private car, ELY. We want to extend a wood shop welcome to Rick Serenda (right) who has joined us on this Wednesday. He and Bill Leider spent most of the day priming new post caps for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. These were fabricated a few weeks ago by Tim Peters. Meanwhile Lee Regione was applying the first finish coat of paint to the inside of the ad card panels for Cleveland Transit System 4223. Fellow volunteer from the Wednesday Special Projects Team, Joe Luciani, helped Paul Cronin and they made good progress on a set of eighteen new windows for the passenger coach department. Those Wednesday guys really like to stay busy. Jon Fenlaciki and Rich Witt worked on a tricky small block of wood for seats in our Indiana Railroad 65. New research has shown that the seats in the car now are not quite perfect for the seats as when the car was built. The plans are to reupholster all the seats, so now is the time to make these blocks and otherwise tweak the seat frames to make them perfect. This little inch thick six by six block of wood had to be sanded to create scalloped hollows. One down, another 18 to go. And as usual lots of other projects had workers. John Faulhaber placed another coat of canvas paint on the roof of the Lake Shore Electric 810; and Gerry Dettloff and Jim Foraker worked on modifications and repaiirs to trucks for the car. One truck is now virtually complete and will be cleaned up, primed, and painted. John Nelligan and Pete Galayda are working on the wiring for our steeple cab locomotive, Charles City Western 300. |
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Comments
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]