Entries by Roger Kramer

Our team has been working hard to finish the painting and then the installation of shelving, windows and sinks in the women's bathroom. Here then are some of our latest efforts. Sandi has painted the room while I have been reinstalling the shelving and taking the pictures etc.

Painting the wall and trim by the mirrors.

Wall above the sinks.

The wall is finished.

The next pictures shows the before and after of the wall next to the commode door.

All sanded and prepped for primer.

Yes, she is priming the wooden door.

That door is for the excess to the drinking water container.

The other side now receives the primer and top coat.

Here Sandi is applying the top coat to this area.

April 5th shows most walls painted and the comb and brush shelves are reinstalled.  

The area next to the entrance door.

Coat hooks and drinking cup holder are also installed.

Now for the hardest  phase of this project; working on the ceiling. We have removed most of the old ceiling paint by scraping it by hand and using the electric sander. This is no easy task working over head! If you wish to help us, please consider a donation to the Mt. Harvard fund.       Thanks     Roger   

We began working on the women's bathroom in late January of this year. We first began removing the items on the walls, slowly at first. As we finished up on painting the hallway our activity in the increased in the bathroom. Here is some our progress to date in late February.

Tim Fennell, another new volunteer, is working on removing old paint from the womens bathroom ceiling. Not the easy  job!

February 23 the husband and wife team of Darek and Kathy Mitura continue removing old paint next to the mirrors.  

These last two Saturdays in February we had five people volunteering on three different locations in the sleeper.

Early March finds Kathy sanding the back of the entrance door to the commode.

Darek again sanding on the ceiling panels.

March 6 Sandi began priming the walls of the bathroom.

This area will get primed next.

 Here she is priming underneath the mirrors.

The next blog continues with more priming and then comes the finished top coat.   Thanks  Roger

Here is another update on the Mt Harvard restoration. Events are happening so fast that I can't always blog about them in a timely manner. A five member team volunteering on the last three Saturdays gets the job done quite fast. Here are two new developments. First pictures are of the lounge area. Sandi cleaned then sanded the seat frames of the small buffet. She then applied two coats of stain followed by three coats of Spar gloss polyurethane. While she was working on that I focused my efforts on a couple of areas including replacing the two large windows that were once Lexan plastic with 3/16 plate Glasson either side of the entrance door. Next, I then began reproducing and installing missing Mahogany window sills on either side of the lounge. While I was working on the sills she begin sanding and staining the large desk window sills located on either side of the lounge entrance door.

The buffet end seats now stained and freshly covered with polyurethane.

Mahogany windows sills installed.

Small arm tables receiving sanding, stain and clear polyurethane.

Our five person Saturday crew has divided their attention into the men and women bathrooms.

We are just beginning to strip old paint off the ceiling and wall.

This is Bill Sr. working in late February.

Bill Sr. again but this time in early March. His son is also in the picture. That is his  back in the blue sweatshirt.

Please consider donating to this project. Replacing the old rusted steel will be expensive. More on the exterior later.     Thanks   Roger

This winter we have been replacing rusted steel panels on the 2524. Welding in new sections of steel on one vestibule end of our last remaining unrestored Rock Island coach.  This has been accomplished in the unheated barn 10. Very cold but our work continues in spite of the harsh environment. Paul Cronin, in the fall of 2018, began this part of the project by removing all the old rusty steel and insulation from the area in these following pictures.

December15, 2018, here is a view of the vestibule wall with all badly deteriorated areas removed.

Our welder, Jarred, measuring for new steel replacements.

He just finished weldingthe new support pieces.

This piece was just fabricated and installed on the other side.

February 16, found Jarred again measuring for new steel parts.

March 2 Gregg Wolfersheim assisted Jarred in welding more new steel pieces.

March 9 of this year, the end panel is completed with a coat of primer.

We in the coach department hope to continue on this project of replacing the rusted plates on both ends of the coach. Stay tuned for more updates.   Thanks  Roger 

Please don't ever say that the volunteers in the coach department are not devoted and tough in this cold weather. In spite of the extreme of this winter a new group of volunteers began removing old paint and rust on the X 5000. Here are a few action shots! You can almost here somebody's teeth chattering!

Bill Jr and Cathy Mitura removing old paint in the freezing weather.

Darek Mitura and Bill Davis, Sr, removing more old paint from the x 5000.

Bill is getting up in the world.

Warren call me on one of the coldest days, January 27, 2019 and asked if I would like some homemade Dynochili.

Here he is cooking on the X 5000 stove. It was a little KOLD but we both had a good time enjoying the chili.

Cathy and her friend, Heidi, enjoying time together removing more old paint.

They started this project December 15 2018. Little did we know that working in barn 11 was going to be quite cold! Pictured here is Eddie, Bill Sr., Cathy and Darek.

Just removing a small portion of old peeling paint makes a world of difference. With more volunteers we might be able to remove the old paint scale on the other side and get it ready for priming and painting in a few years. Want to help? Visit us in barn 10 and/or 11 on any Saturday or Sunday and we can continue the project.    Thanks     Roger

Winter didn't start out too bad but the last four weeks sure has made up for the earlier malaise. In spite of the cold, snowy, icy, did I say cold,  Sandi and I with help from Eddie and Bob are still on our restoration schedule. You must ask yourself how have we been working in barn 11 during this cold and miserable winter.  We have five oil space heaters which keep the sleeper relatively warm at 50 degrees. Let me tell you that 50 degrees sure feels great when you come in from a 10 degree outside temperature. Here's our latest accomplishments!

Here Sandi is painting the wall trim next to the entrance door.  

Another wall by the entrance door.

The entry door and walls now are all painted. 

Bob has been working on the womens bathroom.  He is removing all the old paint. 

This shows the emergency tool box.   The correct sledge hammer, saw, and pry bar, were found and added. They were not in the Mt. Harvard when I acquired it.

Here is a Before picture of the hallway. Below is the After photo. Quite a difference!

Again another picture of the hallway now showing the two side windows.

The two windows shown here were removed in August prior to the start of the hallway project. The exterior and interior sides of each along with all four metal frames were cleaned, repainted and reinstalled. You must remember that we started this hallway project way back in October, 2018!  It really didn't take us too long to complete this repaint.

Another picture of the entrance door leading to the newly painted hallway. 

Don't forget to stop by the Mt. Harvard when you next visit the museum. We are still hoping to have the sleeper in showcase weekend this coming year. That's our goal! And.... Donations to the Mt. Harvard project are greatly appreciated.        Thanks   Roger