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Wednesday, July 4. 2018Number 5 is AliveThe steam department accomplished a major milestone July 3 when the J. Neils Lumber Co was fired up for the first time since 1999! The FRA inspector was out watching the first fire up checking on any repair issues that that show up. There were a couple of minor problems but they will be addressed and repaired before the next fire-up. Here are some pictures of the event.  Moving the engine to the fueling facilities  The front of the Shay with a new number plate painted by J D.  The Shay is sitting next to the 1630!  Pouring water and loading coal into the tender at our steam servicing facilities. Not many museums can boast two operating steam locomotives. We can !  July 3rd was the fire up date and there was a big contingency of steam volunteers to watch it get hot.  These guys sure put in a lot of volunteer hours to make this engine FRA ready. Much praise to all of them!  You can just see a whisper of smoke coming out of the stack.  Here Brian Davies is turning the blower valve and smoke begins to appear from the stack. That was a pretty site!  The FRA inspector talking to Erick and Jason.  Look up folks! She is a steaming!  Turning a valve and make sure everything works.  The Steam dept curator Tom Schneider watches as the shay moves.  Brian in the engineers seat opens up the throttle as steam moves into the three upright cylinders.  The engineer is slowly backing up the engine.  Another view. Tom is carefully eyeing the machine for any problems and strange sounds.  Now its moving forward.  Stopping about where it started from.  If you watch carefully at the sequence of pictures you can see the movement of the cylinders and wheels.  Back to home base, in front of the steam shop! You can see the steam coming out of the engine! I don't know when both engines will be operating together for the first time! BUT.... Make sure your schedule is open for Antique Transportation day, Labor Day and or Railfan weekend in September! During these many blogs I have always asked for donations to various projects here at Irm. Well, This is the reason. Your separate donations DO make a difference. Here is the proof. Although, it took a long time, the results are worth the wait! Now to the next operating steam locomotive. Union Pacific 428 needs more money to complete that project! My next blog will be about the progress on the 428. Please help with this project ! Thanks Roger Sunday, July 1. 2018Part 3 Milwaukee Road Coach 649
Now to Part 3. This year the big project for Howard Gierer is the painting of one of our two new Milwaukee Road coaches acquired last year. We hope to use both of them this year on our Happy Holiday Train in late November and early December of this year!
 Howard started this project by grinding and removing three coats of old paint.  After the first coat of primer was applied Howard is now repairing some imperfections on the exterior skin of the coach.  After the finish coat of Milwaukee Yellow was applied we covered the painted area with plastic to protect it from future dirt and damage.  Here he is removing more paint  [PHOTO]  Another new volunteer was added to our team. Steve Dobberfuhl has started his first day by removing more paint. We welcome you to our growing team, Steve.  Bill is working on the same job.  Howard is taping more windows in this view.  More grinding and removal  This is what it looks like when we first start removing the old paint.  Hey, after a long day of volunteering Howard, Bill and Steve are happy that the priming is finished on this side.  Curt Wahlmark is working on taping more windows. This time on the other side of the coach. |
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Comments
Tue, 05-22-2018 21:26
Nice to see 1630 in action. Having said that, what is the holdup with the Shay since the front end is reassembled and the shaker grate system is [...]
Tue, 05-22-2018 15:51
I see the web cams don't have the timelaps any more will that feature return?
Tue, 05-22-2018 11:46
Good for you guys to offer the C&NW baggage car to other museums which is 100+ years old; before scrapping it!
Sun, 05-13-2018 20:30
Painting up a ic pass car and am looking to find out what color the stripe is. I model in 1.6 scale. I have the brown and orange. Thanks to [...]
Tue, 05-08-2018 18:34
I bet those cars made some interest noises when they started moving.
Thu, 05-03-2018 12:57
Folks, Over in the news section, I see the C&NW 8728 heavyweight baggage car has been retired from retail duty. I see that the car is not [...]
Sun, 04-29-2018 15:22
The PRR caboose is looking good. Thanks Mr. Humphreys, Rogan and Peterson. Are donations still needed for ATSF caboose #1400? And is this Santa [...]
Sat, 04-21-2018 01:25
with the Schroeder store now open for business, Will the 3 baggage cars become part of the regular coach fleet again?
Wed, 04-11-2018 11:28
You mention in the header that you would like to have the Electroliner operational by its birthday. Was it?
Sun, 04-08-2018 20:03
As a child, IRM was always my favorite place to visit. Well, other than grandma's house next to the Geneva Sub. It's been many years since I now [...]
Wed, 04-04-2018 16:01
Those temporary walls could be constructed in a way that allows their reuse after the phase is done to close off the new phases.
Tue, 03-27-2018 03:08
Why did the smoke box cover on the shay need to be replace Do?