Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here are some of the behind the scenes photos during the priming and painting of the UP rotary snowplow after it had been sand blasted. The main rotary unit was painted in barn 14 as it was the only building tall enough for it to fit in to. The tender was painted in the Diesel Shop as it would be winter by the time we were ready to start working on it.

A sample of the aluminum color.

Quite some time ago I had bought a quart sample of the the PPG paint in the color that we thought was right. It wasn't until September 15th when we sprayed a cover to see how it would look. Everyone appeared pretty happy, so we bought the rest in bulk. On September 23rd, we started priming the rotary unit. It was done in 5 sections. We started with priming and painting the roof, then the sides one at a time, priming and painting the round rotary section minus the red, and lastly spraying the red.

The roof was the most difficult section to paint. First, this thing is tall. There was only inches of clearance between the hatch and walk treads over the cab and the bottom of the trusses in the building. Then there was so much equipment on the roof... valves and vents and hatches and ladders and brackets, it never ended. It started with one coat of PPG Corrosion Resistant Epoxy primer and was best to be followed up within 24 hours with the first topcoat of PPG AUE-370 paint. The paint could have its second coat not more than 7 days later. The rood was finished on the 26th of September. The masking was done on October 3rd.

The primer applied on the roof, looking forward.

Two coats of paint on the roof, looking midway towards the rear.

Two coats of paint, looking forward from the rear.

Masking applied to start the sides.

Primer applied to the sides.

IT 1605 acting as an air compressor.

Since barn 14 is a storage building, there is no equipment or source of compressed air. Two portable air compressors were just enough to keep up with the production HVLP spray gun I like to use. One of the compressors died, so I was quick to grab the nearest locomotive, which was 1605, so keep the project going. The larger sullair is far to wet on its air output. 1605 right off the main reservoir MU was perfect and very dry. The sides were started on October 8th and finished on the 9th.

Some primer was done on the front section on the 9th, with the leftover mixed for the sides. The remainder was primed on October 18th and the outside that was aluminum color was painted the same evening. By this time the temperatures were getting a little cool, so all the steel was preheated with the propane heaters the steam guys dropped off. The minimum temp was 50 degrees to spray, we brought it up more than that so it was dry some before getting below 50.

The blades before primer.

Heating up the blades and shroud.

Plenty warm to start spraying.

Primer completed on the blades.

Paint completed on the outside of the shroud.

On October 27th, Buzz started applying the stencils for the lettering and numbers, and on the 28th, Gregg and Blake masked all the areas around the stencils. I sprayed a couple coats of black and we stuck around long enough to remove all the stencils while the paint was still a little tacky. The right side of the rotary still needs all the lettering applied. Buzz ran out of time applying them, and then ran out of weather. This will be completed later this spring when the weather is consistently warm again.

Masking around the stencils.

Black sprayed over lettering.

The end result after removing masking.

The last step was to paint the blades and chute red. That was done the next night on October 29th. Everything was heated up again and two coats done that evening. It had to get done as the forecast was calling for cold temperature later in the week and this was going to be the last chance for any work like this. Aside from lettering on the right side, and painting the trucks black, the main rotary unit is done.

The rotary blades all in red.

The chute where the snow gets ejected.

The tender was sand blasted and then moved into the heated Diesel Shop on November 5th. It wouldn't be worked on until January 2020 as we were all focused on getting the train ready for the Happy Holiday Railway Christmas event. The roof of the tender was primed and painted January 4th and 5th. Then the painter went on vacation for three weeks. On January 31st, the right side was primed and painted over the next two days. The left side, front and rear were primed and painted starting on February 8th and were completed on 9th.

The roof priming completed.

Painting of the aluminum color on the whole tender completed.

The week after, Kym, Gregg, and a number of others wire wheeled the trucks and completed all the prep on those so they could be primed and painted. On the 15th, Roger and I applied all the stencils for the lettering and we all masked off all the areas around so the black could be sprayed over the lettering. This was completed on the 16th and 17th, with all the masking being removed the same day.

Trucks cleaned and primed.

Stencil and masking applied.

Masking applied for the chevrons on the back.

Black being sprayed on the striped and lettering.

The end result with masking removed.

The tender was moved out of the Diesel Shop on the 22nd and moved back to barn 14 with the main rotary unit. All that remains is the roof walk platforms, a bunch of things that connect the tender to the main unit, safety chains and such. All of which will be done as time permits through the remainder of the winter and spring.

Rear view outside after completion.

The engineer side after painting.

The left side while being moved to barn 14.

There are many more photos during the painting process. You are welcome to view a slideshow of them all by following this link in our photo gallery. The slide show will advance automatically at 3 seconds per photo and you can change some of the available options. Enjoy!

Here is the latest update on USA 8537 as we begin the body prep work required now that the grease and oil cleanup has been completed.

Photo: Jim and Ben wire wheeling the cab roof.

Photo: Sean laying down on the job sanding while Ben wire wheels.

Photo: Bob and Jim sanding the No 2 hood and cab wall.

Photo: Linda and Lee wire wheeling shutters and handrails.

Photo: Blake sanding the top of the No 1 hood.

Photo: Making great progress the first couple days.

We will be making some improvements to the locomotive as well. It is the most used switcher and never had ground lights, so we'll be adding that, along with step well lighting to make the unit safer to use at night. The number 2 engine will get an upgrade by removing the tiny auxiliary generator and adding an alternator. The radio antenna will be replaced with a permanent skate instead of the temporary mag mount that it has now. Once the museum opens again, we will continue on the body work and the other improvements.