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Saturday, January 31. 2015Catching Up on January 2015 in the Passenger Car DepartmentSunday, January 18th: Work continued in the 1st Exhibit Car on the railroad china display. Present were Jon Habegger, Michael McCraren, Mark Gellman, Jim Windmeier and Paul Matchett. Patrice Connelly was also there to offer advice and assistance.  Patrice Connelly is in conference with Jim Windmeier - Photo by Michael McCraren  Jon Habegger, Paul Matchett and Mark Gellman discuss one of the displays - Photo by Michael McCraren  Our tribute to Fred Harvey and station lunch rooms - Photo by Michael McCraren Sunday, January 25th: Brian LaKemper reporting - Roger Kramer was working in the Pullman Car John McGloughlin squaring up an opening in a wall which will have a large patch put in. Brian Patterson, Brian L. and and another person were focused on moving ahead with the Lackawanna 556's interior repaint. Brian P. did some wire wheeling and Brian L. went along after him sanding the nearby primer to prep for priming the area where the baggage racks are located. Brian L. also removed the excess fare signage on the wall, uncovering some original paint underneath which had not faded. It seems that the last time the car's interior was repainted, the car was needed in such a hurry that the sign frame was put on before the paint had dried, as the frame was stuck to the underlying paint. Later in the afternoon Brian P. and Brian L. helped the Electric Car Department move Sand Springs 68 into Barn 6, and put UP 3786 into Barn 11 where Sand Springs 68 had been, and managed to make enough space in Barn 11 to hopefully fit one more piece of equipment indoors. Paul Cronin was working on some steam heat components, and Brian L. went through the Milwaukee Road Dynamometer to make sure there were no new water leak issues, and no freeze damage to the car. Friday, January 30. 2015A few Smokey Hollow shop pictures
As the winter continues with it's first big snowstorm looming the shop forces are again working on the museum's favorite steamer, the 1630. Here are just a few of the many maintenance projects begun on the engine.
 Nigel, Jerry, Christian, and Derick are again installing the air tank on the enginemans side of the loco.  Here Nigel and Jason are removing part of the cab floor. Notice the large openings in the location of the firebox door. December and part of January were devoted to the removal and inspection of the stoker motor and its components.  You can not see them but there is a line of rivets installed  Notice all the piping that is required to bring the 428 back to steaming condition. Friday, January 23. 2015Work resumes on Lackawanna 556Last Saturday, the 40 degree weather brought out four volunteers to continue the paint upgrade in our Lackawanna coach. January 17th, the crew of Mark Hoffmann, Rick Serenda, Derick Nipper, and myself sanded then primed the area where the baggage racks once occupied.  Area above masked windows once occupied by the baggage racks  Rick Serenda pauses before resuming the removal of old paint  Ready for primer  Mark Hoffmann is ready to prime that area while Rick looks on.  Last Saturday, I started removing the last of the baggage racks.  Mark is tapping off a few windows before he begins priming  On Monday, Austin helped me remove the rest of the racks  He and I moved all the disassembled racks from the interior to tables inside barn 3  Looking west you can see the primed baggage rack area  Bob is removing more old paint on the wall Monday, January 19. 2015Diesel Shop update from January 17, 2015This weekend was spent mostly cleaning up the shop while we had the opportunity. Over the past few months, and quite often during the last several weeks, the electric car guys have been using the track 22 bay to prep, prime and paint the 2000 series rapid transit cars. That has severely limited the times we can do other work with their priming and painting and the requirement for respirators while they're doing that sort of work. Anyway, we were able to move about a dozen pallets of stored material from the isles of the shop. The 20 EMD 645 power assemblies from the Dresden Nuclear plant, several pallets of electrical contactors and parts, the original air compressor from 803, and a couple pallets for miscellaneous parts were moved into one of the two storage units assigned to the diesel department in the new storage building. Jim West began sorting parts on three other pallets, stacking many cummins engine parts into a crate.
We'll continue with this sort of work over the next weekend or two, as well as move a few locomotives around after the 2000's are moved out. The 9908 will be coming into the shop to continue the rotted steel replacement around the cab sides and get the nose door changed out for the one we traded at Spencer last year. The 411 will come in to have its cab restoration and painting completed. We're always looking for new volunteers, please contact Me, Roger B, or Eric Z if you want to help out in the diesel shop.
Sunday, January 18. 2015Paul Cronin is the Passenger Car Department CuratorWe want to welcome Paul Cronin to the Passenger Car Department. He officially took over as curator on January 1, 2015 when Michael Baksic retired.  Paul Cronin - New Passenger Car Department Curator - Photo by Shelly Vanderschaegen Paul has been a volunteer at IRM for seven years and has moved here from the east coast where he had a career in railroading from 1966 to 2011. Michael Baksic joined IRM in 1995. He was appointed Passenger Car Department Curator in 1998 by Nick Kallas. Mike plans to continue to volunteer at the Museum but will not be here as much and plans to have more fun. In other news, in December, Michael Baksic, Ray Mormann, and Michael McCraren began working on the wiring in the Birmingham diner parked in Yard 5. The railroad china disply in the 1st Exhibit Car is still going coming together but slowed a bit with the colder weather in December. |
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Comments
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
Thu, 08-27-2020 09:53
I worked seasonally on the Cadillac & Lake City while the B-71 was in Lake City, MI, beginning in 1970. My primary job was steward/waiter/car cleaner [...]