Entries by Pauline Trabert

Jon Habegger and Shelly Vanderschaegen applied a second coat of tan paint more than halfway around the 2nd Exhibit Car on Sunday, December 8th. They had to stop when the heat went out and the paint started getting slushy in the cans. 

Department head Mike Baksic and Mark Gellman worked on putting more parts back into the Loch Sloy. 

David Stepek stopped by for a visit with his mother Susan to celebrate his birthday. Everyone left earlier than usual because of the snow. 

Sunday, November 24th: Kevin Kriebs and Shelly Vanderschaegen painted the first coat of tan on the walls of Exhibit Car #2 while Mark Gellman and Department Head Mike Baksic were getting parts together. 

Kevin Kriebs painting edges at the start of the day

One wall with first coat of tan paint

Kevin Kriebs near the end of the painting day on 11/23/13

Progress was made

Saturday, November 30th: It was warm - 42 degrees until the sun started going down. Jon Habegger and Shelly Vanderschaegen cleaned Halloween leftovers of dried blood and leaves in the Birmingham. This included general cleaning of tables and floor. They put pictures back up that belonged in the Birmingham, ready for our Christmas visitors. And they put a Christmas tree and a Menorah for the holidays. 

Meanwhile, Mark Gellman, Ray Mormann, and Curator Mike Baksic started gathering parts and pieces and putting them back into the Loch Sloy. These were things put into storage by the late Phil Stepek who was not able to get them back in the cars. Mark, Ray and Mike are starting with the Loch Sloy and will do one car at a time over the winter to install as many parts as possible. 

Mike McCraren was working on peeling carpeting off walls in the Pacific Peak in the streamliner set. Mike Baksic and Jack Biesterfeld were putting a wall back up in the Boston and Maine #1094 wooden cafe-coach. 

Jon Habegger, Shelly Vanderschaegen and Kevin Kreibs finished the second coat of paint on the ceiling of the second Exhibit Car. 

Kevin Kreibs admires the finished ceiling painting in the 2nd Exhibit Car 11/17/13

Buzz Morisette was a busy guy in the Ely dining room over the course of three days last week. He epoxied the wood left on the ceiling to make it stronger, and then cut the braces to fit. He dry fit the braces and penciled in where to put the bolts then drilled holes through both pieces of wood, bolted them, and then primed them.

Newly installed ceiling braces in the Ely dining room

Focus on the second brace installed by Buzz

John McKelvey finished one last seat back for the DM&IR #84 car before flying south for the winter with all the other Snowbirds.

It could have been one of the last really nice days for 2013 on Sunday the 10th and a lot of work moved forward that day. Inside the second Exhibit Car ceiling painting was continued by Shelly Vanderschaegen, Kevin Kreibs and Jon Habegger. Two coats of paint will be applied to the ceiling.

Shelly Vandershaegen painting the 2nd Exhibit Car 11/10/13 - Photo by Jon Habegger

Kevin Kriebs also painting the 2nd Exhibit Car 11/10/13 - Jon Habegger photo

John McKelvey worked in the Barn 4 shop on seat bottoms from the smoking section of the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway #84 coach. He is reupholstering them in a leather-look vinyl once the basic repair work is done.

John McKelvey sewing seat bottoms together prior to recovering them

The underside of the DMIR 84 coach bench seats

Jon Habegger took a photo inside the DM&IR car smoking section to show some of the completed seat covers in place. It was completely dark in the car when the image was captured. 

A shot in the dark of DMIR 84 smoking section from Jon Habegger

Buzz Morisette is making progress in the Ely dining room ceiling repair. Because of previous repair work done on the car, Buzz explained that the curve of the roof has been changed. He is correcting for this cosmetically as much as possible but said a new roof would be required to make it right and that would be a tremendously time consuming and costly project.

Buzz Morisettes skills are being put to good use in the Ely dining room

Buzz patiently waits for the photographer to catch up

Milwaukee Road Dynamometer project leader Warren Newhauser worked with new X-5000 volunteers Dan LaKemper and son Brian on getting mechanical equipment operational while Chuck Trabert sealed the second bay window. The car is expected to be weathertight this winter.

Chuck Trabert and Warren Newhauser working on the Dynamometer Nov. 10, 2013

New X-5000 volunteer Brian LaKemper

New X-5000 volunteer Dan LaKemper

As Warren and Chuck worked outside the Dynamometer car the streamliner cars were switched from their temporary mainline position back to Yard 5.

The streamliner cars were moved back to Yard 5

Mark Gellman helped with switching moves to get the streamliner cars back in their spot in Yard 5. It takes a series of moves to get the train set out of and into Yard 5 and it took about an hour of steady switching to complete the work.

Mark Gellman helped out with the streamliner cars switching moves

After the streamliner cars were back in place, Mike Baksic, Mark Gellman, and Jon Habegger worked another two hours putting extension cords back in place and hooking up heaters so the cars could be warm for meetings.

Let's go back to October 29th when Buzz Morisette put up the the first brace in the Ely dining room ceiling. He primed it and started working on the second brace.

The first brace in place in the Ely dining room courtesy of Buzz Morisette

Sunday, November 3rd, Mike McCraren and Mark Gellman were putting odds and ends together in the streamliner cars. Mike Baksic was caulking in the second Exhibit Car. 

Mike Baksic caulking seams in the 2nd Exhibit Car 11/03/13

A work in progress

Kevin Kreibs and Shelly Vanderschaegen were peeling the never ending decals from the second Exhibit Car. 

Kevin Kreibs peeling decals on November 3, 2013

Shelly Vanderschaegen peeling decals on November 3, 2013

Chuck Trabert was caulking one of the bay windows in the Milwaukee Road Dynamometer car. Pauline Trabert was taking pictures and helping as needed. 

Chuck Trabert applied sealant around a Dynamometer bay window on 11/03/13

John McKelvey was working on reupholstering the smoking section seats for the DM&IR 84 car. More photos to follow. 

Thanks to MANY volunteers, we were able to run the Dyno on Sept. 14-15 and 22nd, 2013. We began plans to ready the car for service after Laddie Vitek from the IRM Diesel Dept. inquired in mid-July if we could run the car for folks visiting IRM post-MRHA convention in Rockford on Sept. 22. We agreed it would be a great idea and then also chose to run it Museum Showcase Weekend as well (Sept 14-15).

From July-Sept we would spent several weekends removing no longer needed items aboard the car clearing out space on the car for riders and getting the necessary repairs made and the necessary systems working. Getting the car ready to be run will be a separate blog post in and by itself that encompassed many weekends.

The car performed flawlessly Members Showcase Weekend and Sun 9/22/13.

The following people at IRM helped make this happen: Chuck Trabert, Pauline Trabert, Laddie Vitek, Adam Farance, Jeron Glander, Paul Sawicki, Bob Olson, Jamie Kolanowski, myself, Warren Newhauser, and a few others.

Welding the cut lever bracket back on in Yard 11. The Diesel Dept guys straightened it out for us. 9/14/13.

X-5000 was pulled out to the mainline 9/14/13

Looking forward into the night. 9/14/13

Looking back from the instrument room towards the kitchen. 9/14/13

Warren Newhauser at the instrument panel 9/14/13

Instrument Panel showing loco throttle position, gen field, and other on/off events. 9/14/13

Buzz Morisette making coffee with the old percolator coffee pot on the propane stove. 9/14/13

X-5000 volunteer Brian LaKemper (left) and Jeron Glander (right) work on the hydraulic dynamometer unit. 9/14/13

We offered to replace some of the 120V bulbs with 32V to provide more light, but when we did the passengers adamantly insisted they preferred the soft glow of 120V bulbs better.

Dyno’s 32VDC trainline powering the 3 coaches equipped with 120V bulbs makes for a nice ambiance! 9/14/13

Red Mars light mounted on back protects the car. 9/14/13.

Red Mars light beacon protecting the back of the Dyno (frame from a video). 9/14/13

Most images and text provided by Warren Newhauser.

The Passenger Car Department crew under the direction of Curator Mike Baksic had been working on the streamliner cars from late September on to get ready for Terror on the Railroad. They had to put air on then they went through each car individually to do a brake test. The Birmingham had leaks and another car had a brake cylinder that needed to be rebuilt. The work was completed two weeks before Terror on the Railroad. 

Sunday, October 6th, department head Mike Baksic and crew member Mark Gellman emptied the dining room of the Ely in preparation for upcoming ceiling repair and Kevin Brown took pictures. Shelly Vanderschaegen and Wayne Baksic installed a door holder in the combine car and Wayne worked on seats.

Wayne Baksic working on a seat in the ATSF 2544

Later on 10/6, Kevin Kriebs, Shelly and Wayne continued peeling decals from the second Exhibit Car. In the afternoon Mike and Mark replaced a seat in the RDC. John McKelvey and Wayne took measurements in the Lake City for men's and women's lounge seats to see how high to make them and where to position the legs.

Wednesday, October 9th, Kevin Kriebs came down and peeled decals again on the second Exhibit Car and did a great job. Thanks Kevin!

Kevin Kriebs smiles as he peels decals

Sunday, October 13th, Ray Mormann, Mark, and Mike put rubber around and in between the two Exhibit Cars to act as a temporary vestibule diaphragm. While Jon Habegger and Shelly continued peeling decals.

Mark Gellman and Ray Mormann outside the Exhibit Car

The gap between the Exhibit Cars

Temporary rubber diaphragm between Exhibit Cars

Wednesday, October 16th, Buzz Morisette taped up most of the clerestory from the ceiling down and secured cardboard over the cabinets in the Ely dining room until he ran out of cardboard.

Ely dining room preparation started by Buzz

Saturday, October 19th, Shelly and Buzz finished covering the clerestory and then put thick plastic all around the Ely dining room prior to taking down the ceiling. The ceiling was down by noon. Buzz applied epoxy to exposed damage wood.

Buzz Morissette covering the Ely dining room floor with plastic

Plastic was hung to protect the dining room walls in the Ely

Ceiling down in Ely shows worst deterioration spot in the dining room

Buzz applying epoxy to areas of damaged wood

Meanwhile, Ray, Mark and Mike cut a hole on the first Exhibit Car near the closed end vestibule exterior wall to remove rust rot and then they patched the hole. This job took most of the day. Later Mike heated up the nozzle on a caulking tube to bend it into position for sealing the temporary vestibule diaphragm between the Exhibit cars to help prevent leaks.

Rust rot removed from first Exhibit Car

Patch in place on repair of Exhibit Car exterior

Mike Baksic working on the temporary diaphragm between Exhibit Cars

Saturday, October 26th, on the front vestibule of the first Exhibit Car Mike and Ray cut and patched another rust rot area. Then on the other side of the first Exhibit Car toward the aisle they marked another rust rot area to be repaired. Kevin Kosen and Shelly worked in the Ely pulling nails from the old ceiling where Buzz will be rebuilding.

A look at the second rust rot patch from inside the vestibule

The next rust rot areas to tackle are marked

During the Terror on the Railroad event, Passenger Car Department members were responsible for getting the streamliner cars ready for use and to act as safety monitors during each night's activities. Mike McCraren and Mark Gellman took most of the shifts. Mike Baksic, Shelly Vanderschaegen, and Andy Townsend were monitoring the streamliner cars on the last Saturday of the event.