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Tuesday, April 28. 2020Long awaited progress report on the Mt HarvardThe Mt Harvard has changed its appearance since my last report on the sleeper. We have continued working on it through the winter and have made great strides on our goal of operating the Pullman. The change, has been amazing! I will explain as well as letting the pictures do the talking. You will remember we had our first xmas party in the Mt Harvard lounge last December. At that time party goers were impressed when shown our progress on the sleeper. We are making more progress concentrating now on the vestibule. Renewing and repairing that area is now our goal. Along with that is the prepping of both exterior sides for future painting.
In April 2019 I contracted with Harmony Metal of Gilberts, Illinois to manufacture 6 duplicate stairs at a cost of $1200 ea. One stair was installed in August, 2019 on the Mt Harvard. Now the second stair has been installed. An additional four stairs were made for the John McLoughlin's future installation.
The last project we started on before the shutdown was the rebuilding of the two traps for the vestibule. Parts have been made for the rebuild but we ran out of time to reassemble them.
We have also been working on the exterior.
I am so very proud of all the volunteers and employees that have contributed to this project! Many hours of work still lay ahead of us but we are all working together to get the job done. The Virus has complicated our time frame to return the Mt Harvard to limited service. Hopefully, we still might see the project get finished by the end of this year. The Mt Harvard restoration is being solely funded by your donations to the restricted fund. Please consider a donation to help with the restoration of the Mt Harvard project! https://www.irm.org/donations/category/passenger-car-department/ Monday, April 13. 2020The John Mcloughlin Mens Bathroom Gets a MakeoverContinuing the restoration news on the John McLoughlin is the repainting of the Men's bathroom. Mark Hoffmann started by abrading two walls in late 2018. They were primed to preserve the surface from rusting but we never top coated them. 2019 brought an increase in activity in the entire sleeper. That is when the work in the men's bathroom resumed. You will see, in these pictures, our renewed efforts.  We have sanded this wall and now Sandi is ready to prime.  Partially primed.  Now the wall has been primed and Sandi is applying the top coat.  The wall is painted but still lots to do.  We now switch our efforts to this wall. A future mirror will be installed in that large white area.  Now we have started the hardest job. Working on the ceiling and using a sander and electric wire wheel to remove the old paint. Thats Tim Fennell inspecting Sandis fine work.  Taking a break from the ceiling we worked priming and painting on another wall. Not shown in any of these pictures is the actual painting of the ceiling. As we found out in the Mt Harvard, working over your head on the ceiling is no easy task. The ceiling did get painted! Many thanks to Mark, Andrew, Tim, Bob, our volunteers.  Here we just finished painting the last two walls. A corner sink gets reinstalled underneath the mirror.  Here I have installed most of the brass shelves. Already, it looks more like the mens bathroom.  With much of the work completed we moved on to the stripping the old paint from the steam and water pipes below the sinks. They are now also painted. That almost finishes the job. Removing the clutter will make it even better! After reinstalling all of the wall light fixtures, brass shelves and two sinks we moved on to the more difficult job! The team was to begin the most labor intensive work yet, the repainting of all four sections. Removing old paint from ceilings and walls was going to be a major, major job! We first had to remove the four seat cushions that made up each Pullman seat. No easy task. The seat cushion themselves are very heavy. Made up of metal coil springs, straps and wood, each weighted about 40 pounds. Yes, That's one reason why these sleepers were called heavyweights. Everything about these Pullman sleepers is super heavy. They were made to last a long time. My back can attest to that. Anyway, the next blog on the John Mcloughlin will focus on our repaint of the four sections. Donations to continue this project can be sent to: https://www.irm.org/donations/category/passenger-car-department/ Thanks, Roger. Sunday, April 5. 2020Repainting CB&Q RPO 1923A job that was long on the wish list of coach department projects was finally completed June, 2019. Thanks to the energy and determination of Nick Dey, who spearheaded the project, our RPO again is in beautiful shape and should be kept that way for many years. Nick started the project in mid August, 2018. Working in barn 3 by himself his goal was to repainted the 1923 for the Museum Showcase Weekend but because of the lack of volunteers that date was missed. In early September saw the RPO moved into barn 14 and the work there was continued. With more volunteers helping in the Fall, 2018, and Spring of 2019, the 1923 finally was repainted and re-lettered and placed back in service for RPO days in June of 2019.
Unfortunately, the team just ran out of time to complete the job in the Fall of 2018. The next year was sure to bring a renewed emphasis to complete the job. In the spring of 2019 Gregg Wolfersheim entered the picture and thus completed the project.
The goal was to demonstrate how the railroads use Railroad Post Offices in bygone service years. We met that goal when the freshly painted car was used again on RPO Days 2019! I didn't take any pictures of it in operation last year but I sure heard many favorable comments from members and visitors alike. Thanks to Nick Dey, Gregg Wolfersheim and the many volunteers who spent countless hours working on the CB&Q 1923. Again, it takes a team effort. If you wish to see more painting projects like this in the passenger coach dept PLEASE contribute to https://www.irm.org/donations/category/passenger-car-department/ Thanks, Roger. Thursday, April 2. 2020Painting the Union Pacific Rotary SnowplowHere 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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! Wednesday, April 1. 2020United States Army 8537 update 4/1/2020Here 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.
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. |
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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 [...]