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Thursday, January 30. 2014
January 25th - Another Cold and ... Posted by Pauline Trabert
in Passenger Car Department at
19:21
Comment (1) January 25th - Another Cold and Snowy Yet Productive DayWork continued on the second exhibit car. Kevin Kriebs sanded all day in the vestibule between the two exhibit cars to take off the high spots. Later Mike Baksic primed all the bare metal exposed by Kevin's work so that the area is ready to paint. In the second exhibit car entryway a storage closet door which was not properly seated was taken down and metal pieces were removed in preparation for shaving off about 3/8" from edges of the door so that it will fit better. Work on this will continue next weekend. Mark Gellman removed a cabinet (which wasn't needed) from the furnace room of the second exhibit car. While Mark was doing this, Mike Baksic measured and cut holes on each side of the furnace for air vents to allow better airflow. Jon Habegger took pictures in the second exhibit car and the Ely to show progress, then he helped Shelly Vanderschaegen finish up odds and ends in the second exhibit car. Mike McCraren continued working in the Pacific Peak. He was sanding in the morning and priming in the afternoon. Buzz Morisette has continued work on the Ely dining room ceiling. One really cool thing he has done is to leave notes on the tops of the boards he has installed so that when the roof is rebuilt in the future the crew will be able to read what needs to be added to the carline where the ceiling is now shimmed. Buzz also noted when bringing up the carline that the roof is coming away from the walls. There are obvious cracks and separation indicating a new roof is badly needed. Buzz has epoxied the areas for more strength but this is a temporary solution. Donations specified for the Ely restoration fund will help make a new roof possible. Thursday, January 30. 2014
Continuing window mfg in woodshop Posted by Roger Kramer
in Passenger Car Department at
13:40
Comments (0) Continuing window mfg in woodshopIt has been soooo cold at Irm this winter that many of you Blog readers probably figured activity was at a minimum. Well, your pretty close to being right! BUT, where there's heat there's progress. Even when it's 5-10 degrees outside it's almost "toasty" in our heated facilities. The car shop, office, exhibit cars and woodshop along with the Steam shop are locations where work continues even in the coldest of conditions. Randy Hicks in his blog site has documented his progress on the CA&E wood equipment using the woodshop as a work area. I have been out a couple of times in January and here's a few pictures of those visits. Here's a couple of pictures of the progress in the continuing makeup of the Villa Falls mahogany window frames.All 18 frames fitted ready to be glued. Thanks to Bob, Vic, Rich, John, and Paul for their expertise When completed there will be 18 exterior, custom made, window frames mfg and assembled this winter seaon. Depending on time, I have purchased enough wood to cover the mfg of 8 more frames. The Pullman sleeper needs 32 so we are 6 short. The wood costs for each frame is about $50.00. If you would like to help us cover the additional costs of 6 frames please send you donations to Restricted Fund... Villa Falls. Thank you Paul and Roger using the table saw to trim a section of ash for the mfg of new window sills for the RI 2612 At the end of last Saturday Tim, Buzz, and Bill are enjoying some fruitful conversion Yes, Bill and Buzz had just come in from the colddd outside Will It ever warm up??????????????? We all hope so. I 'm sure you do too so you can again visit Irm. Remember the new display barns in your donations. It will happen!!! It just takes time. This year ol' 1630 steam will be running. Watch for the dates. Thanks Roger Kramer Sunday, January 26. 2014
Steam Department Update 01-25-2014 Posted by Nigel Bennett
in Steam Department at
16:03
Comments (14) Steam Department Update 01-25-2014Well, I am glad to say that the continuing atrocious weather seems to have increased the determination of the steam shop volunteers. We had an excellent turnout on Saturday and made good progress on some items that have been holding us up for a while. On 1630: One large team focused on preparing the cab for spray painting. The edges of the cab sides where there were signs of blistering in the paint were all needle chipped. This revealed a few areas where Dennis will need to make good some holes and cracks. Nothing too major but we do want to get this thoroughly sound before we paint;
The arm rests were removed from the window frames … and identified another job. The wooden base of one of them looks more like sponge than timber. That will need to be remade; A section of the inner cab lining on the fireman’s side proved to be corroded thru. This was cut out, the rust and scale removed from between the inner and outer sheets and the whole area primed. Dennis can now weld in a new section of sheet metal;
The cab sides were rubbed down ready for painting.
A big area of concern has been preparing the frames and wheels for painting. Ideally it would have good to have blasted the grease and oil from these using the high powered steam cleaner. Unfortunately the extreme weather is against this. There are serious doubts around the practicality of using the steam cleaner in the shop and the obvious concern over how long it would be before there is any chance of moving outside again. Jim, Jerry and Vince decided to try the liquid degreaser that was obtained for the Shay truck. This proved very successful.
One or two passes with subsequent washing off using a small pressure washer took large areas of the frames and wheels back to bare primer that we had never seen before. We are unclear whether these areas were not previously painted black or if the top coat was so badly adhered that it came straight off with the grease. However, it is certainly clear that the method is getting back to a sound and grease free surface.
Hopefully a second session next weekend, with a more powerful pressure washer to do the final washing off, will bring much of the lower part of the locomotive to a suitable condition for painting. Jason finished testing all the cab gauges and also trained Phil in this operation.
One of the gauge faces is much worn. It raises a question of how it was originally painted. All the black lettering is indented, even the fine detail of the maker’s name.
On the Shay: Eric and his Dad worked steadily thru the job of fitting the long bolts thru the frame and truck pivot casting. By end of day, all six of the bolts were properly fitted. Nuts are noticeable by their absence !. Tom did not make it to Union because of the weather but a telephone discussion indicated that supplies of 1 inch nuts were likely to be in the container. Ah Yes!. That thing sitting out behind the 3 foot snow drift at 10 degrees in a gale !. Nuts will be for another day; The bolster was turned over and Eddie cleaned the other face to allow it to be primed.
In the shop in general: Stu and Bob finished painting the planer, which Phil and Jane had progressed over the last week. Unfortunately it was not possible to reassemble the valve block and test the machine. The distorted face of the valve block has been surface ground to ensure that it will seal but was in Tom’s car in Chicago. They then worked on rebuilding the lubricator for another of the machines. Phil has now made a big difference to the storage area and is planning what to do with the adjacent areas.. So overall a pretty successful day. Nigel Tuesday, January 21. 2014
January 18th Exhibit Car Progress - ... Posted by Pauline Trabert
in Passenger Car Department at
11:23
Comments (0) January 18th Exhibit Car Progress - Is It Spring Yet?The rear of exhibit car is looking very good. Mike, Kevin, Mark, and Shelly worked on tasks to complete the car's interior. Kevin Kriebs used a wire wheel to start on the west vestibule of 2nd Exhibit Car. Shelly Vanderschaegen and Jon Habegger cleaned main room of the car. Curator Mike Baksic and Mark Gellman worked on east end of the car. They installed 4 new air vents for the air conditioning system, and wall molding on north exhibit wall. It was another snow day Ely update Jan 2014 from Buzz Morisette: Emergency roof repairs done sometime in the 80’s(?) made the roof watertight but were not quite a restoration. The dining room ceiling has now been properly repaired and re-framed to match the original curve of the roof. Wood backings to mount the original light fixtures, removed during roof repairs, are also back in place. Next step is to replace the conduit and wiring to those light fixtures. Shelly is starting to strip the fixtures for restoration. The Baltic Birch plywood purchased last year is primed and ready. Looking for warmer inside work I refinished the Mahogany corner bead that will go in last. Not all of it was there with ceiling work done over the years so new trim needed to be milled. Victor Humphres of the Freight shop located some Honduran Mahogany stock for us and I ran off about 30’ of the replacement trim. The picture below shows front to back new, refinished, and original finish trim. Sunday, January 19. 2014
Steam Department Update 01-18-2014 Posted by Nigel Bennett
in Steam Department at
12:21
Comments (6) Steam Department Update 01-18-2014What a year!. Another Saturday somewhat disrupted by the Winter weather. There was a reasonable turn out at the shop but a lot of people left at lunchtime as the rate of snowfall increased. For those of us that stuck it out, the snow did cease by evening and the slither down US20 to the expressway was what we are becoming used to. It was definitely a day for work inside the shop and the absence of some key people and parts meant that testing of the paint sprayer could not proceed. However work progressed in a number of other areas. On 1630:
Matt primed the area of the engineer’s side walkway that was cleaned off last week; On the Shay:
In the shop in general, some significant reorganization was achieved:
So overall a successful day despite the weather. Nigel
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Comments
Tue, 01-19-2021 20:11
Dear, IRM The N and W 611 is coming to the IRM 2021 NHS. OK IRM.
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:20
Hello Jason. Your comments are very much appreciated. Yes, there is much hard work that goes into all our restorations and maintenance here at the [...]
Fri, 01-15-2021 10:13
Hello Jack Yes, It will be one of our most impressive cars that we have at IRM when its completed. Thanks for the pat on the back! Roger.
Thu, 01-14-2021 21:05
Those cars look great so far guys! Man I wish I had the time to volunteer and become a member at IRM that looks like so much fun especially with how [...]
Tue, 01-12-2021 16:30
the pawnee is looking great a pat on the back to all involved
Wed, 01-06-2021 10:14
Good job on coach updates January 5, 2021. Sincerely, Ethan A.
Mon, 01-04-2021 12:31
Hello Jack Happy New Year from IRM. To my knowledge there was no damage from the minor ice storm that we had in late December, 2020. Some [...]
Sun, 01-03-2021 20:12
the museum area had lots of ice storms in area did the museum get a lot of damage
Thu, 12-24-2020 13:27
roger, Thank you to all of the Passenger car department volunteers. The #109 is going to be a great car when all done! Ted miles, [...]
Sun, 12-06-2020 08:46
Hello Ted We havenot finished lettering the 975 but we are well on the way. Look for a few blogs from me now that the wearther is colder and the [...]
Sat, 12-05-2020 18:36
i watched crew replace switch by diesel shop on dec 5. its good to see museum have equipment to do job and save money
Fri, 12-04-2020 14:56
It has been a long time with no news; have you finished lettering the Southern Pacific locomotive? Please post a picture. Ted Miles, IRM Member