Entries by Roger Kramer

Our active coach dept members were again volunteering  in the first part of January 2017.   I would like to welcome another new volunteer to our group. Curt Wahlmark lives in Rockford.    Welcome to our crew, Curt. Here the group is prepping the standee grabs for painting. We primed them the first week! What a ambitious start to the new year.   The first two Wednesdays of 2017 each had six people show up and work in the department.     Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New year!    Roger  

I visited the Steam Dept Saturday, on a cold January 14, and was amazed to see so many young men and women working on various projects in the heated steam shop! This is a truly a growing Team of dedicated people.    The volunteers were working on 5 or 6 projects and  were making a difference, accomplishing something.  The goal; To make steam a reality again in 2017!  BTW this is not unusual to have this large a number of people show up on a Saturday.   The large weekly turnout bodes well for the future of operating and preserving steam in the department as well as for the entire museum.  

The following scenes show the installation of the sheet metal wrap around the boiler exterior      Here is a list of people who were volunteering in the steam department.  Tom Schneider, curator, Jacob Venekas, Phil  Cwikowski, Jane Blackburn, Stu Brosh, Liam Dancey, Trevor Palczyrski, Don Panek, Nigel Bennett,    J D Marzec, Gerry Best, Mike Danisevich, Eric Hoyem, Jason Maxwell, Bob Rugg, Ed Kletecka, Tim Marino,  son Nick Marino, and Dan Paulson.    I should also mention that the skills needed to maintain and operate these large machines are being past down from Tom Schneider to these young people.  Through his teachings and guidance these volunteers are being given the information and techniques to continue these restorations!   Yes, I believe the future looks very bright for this group.  If you would like to assist the volunteers in their quest for more operational locomotives, Please send a donation to your favorite project or not having one  but still wanting to help this crew send one to the Restricted Fund, Steam Shop.  Tom then will use the funds for future shop projects.                Thanks   Roger       

The team in the Steam Department are refiguring some of their storage area.  Making full use of the space in the steam barn is Jeff Calidene with the shop's fork lift.   Since space is at such a premium it was decided to make more efficient use of wall space by purchasing and installing tall storage metal racks.    They are moving long stored engine parts from the floor and onto these palette racks.   This solves two problems.   First, it inventories and tags the individual steam locomotives parts and, second, it moves them from the floor onto the racks so that they can be accessed at later date.   This clears valuable floor space for ongoing projects. Smart idea I would say!    Stay tuned!  More to come!

For some of you that are new to this site the Steam Dept is always looking for more volunteers who are interested in learning the many aspects of steam locomotive preservation and operation.    Another aspect of their efforts is the constant need for additional funds [$] to continue the equipment restorations.   One project comes to mind!  The Union Pacific 428, our 2-8-0, is in desperate need of more funds to continue the work necessary to complete it to full operation.  What is the estimate to completely fund the project, you ask?   To finish the job by our volunteers the estimate is $22,750.    To send out some of the machining work to a qualified contractor, you can more than double that figure, to an estimated 53,000!!   That is why your donations to the steam dept are so important.  Tom and his crew can accomplish a lot with the funds they receive!  The museum, with its vast amount of ongoing projects, just does not have enough funds to  devote to this one.    Why not send in $10, $20, or $50, to UP 428 project, today.   Thanks   Roger 

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday from the Passenger Coach Dept!   We are all very optimistic about the 2017 season.    Many ideas and events are changing the museum for the better.    Some surprises might be also on the horizon, we will see how they all play out in the next year.    In the mean time remember the museum equipment in your year end donations!    Pictured left to right are; Austin Harvey, Jeff Button, Roger Kramer[ blog author ], Bob Albertson, Bob Olsen and Sandi Harreld.  We were all working this last Wednesday on painting more parts for the RI 2524!   Ho Ho Ho   Roger

For those of you new to this site the coach department has begun restoring our last Rock Island coach,2524.  Our goal is to have it in service for next years [2017]  Thomas event.    The 2017  Day Out with Thomas has been moved to the first two weekends in July.    You will here more of this event starting in next years advertising schedule.  This is our last coach and we hope to get it ready by devoting many of our department volunteer hours  into this project.  Its so cold that we are now working in the nice heated area  in the barn four annex.   It sure is comfortable and productive working in the warmth. Last week we made ourselves a temporary paint both in barn 4.  These pictures all refer to this work project. This last Wednesday we had six workers focusing on this single job of painting seat parts.     BTW we have estimated we have about 300 parts to paint just for the seat frames for this coach.  Please consider coming out in the next couple of weeks to help.   We will be working on this project for the next couple of weeks, weather dependent, of course.    Thanks Roger