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Friday, December 16. 2016Coach Dept Team Work
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.
 We have 44 foot rest parts to paint for the 2524  This is just one box of seat parts we must paint. These all have been primed.  Parts hung to be primed  This week Bob Albertson was helping prime more parts  Here I am top coating the primed parts with our air spray gun  Here is Jeff, Sandi and Dale scraping and painting parts  Jeff and Bob are scraping paint off of the ceiling light fixtures. Yes, we also have 26 light fixtures to prime and paint.  The results off our one day efforts Sunday, September 11. 2016Work Continues on our Ely
During the Summer months John Mckelvey and Buzz Morisette have been working on reupholstering the Ely seat cushions in the dining area and the observation end of the car.
 A before picture of the long sofa in the obs end. It shows the very poor condition of the couch  This view shows the new fabric installed in the dinning room couch. What a great fabric match!  This is very tedious work when you consider 30 buttons must be hand made, threaded and individually sewn into place. Nice job, John.  Here John is in the shop threading new buttons to be inserted into the headrest Friday, August 12. 2016Back in service: The RI 2602
The coach department has again met its goal!! We have completed the interior restoration of the 2602 and it will again be used for the Thomas event. Paul and I would like to thank all of you who participated in its upgrade! Here are the last few pictures taken before it was added to the Thomas train this last Thursday. We now have five reliable Rock Island coaches, all interiors repainted and in service. Just to refresh everyone's memory the numbers are: 2555,2571,2582,2602 and 2612. RI 2524 is now being restored and might possibly be ready for next years Thomas train. Be sure to follow the upcoming blogs on this our last R I restoration.
 This picture was taken just after we completed the painting of the ceiling  Jeff is priming the last of the seat pedestals. Yes, we cleaned all the rust from each frame and primed them.  We also paid attention to many details in the coaches. Here Buzz is applying decal numbers on the bulkhead of the 2582 coach. Yes thats me looking on.  It turned out to be real hot the last couple of weeks but we continued working in spite of the heat. Thats the new fan we purchased to kool the crew!  Bob Olsen finishes the painting of the seat frames. Each one is now painted and properly working.  Seat frames are now painted. What a difference.  The weekday crew Jane Sandy and Jeff. Not in this picture is Scott our in-house artist.  Another view Thats Jane in the foreground and Sandy in the background  The seats cushions are all installed and Bob Albertson is cleaning the dust and grime off the wall.  Its ready for the Day Out With Thomas.  I hope the public will enjoy the new interior. It was well worth all our hard work! Friday, August 12. 20162602 Before the restoration
This is small memory refresher for all of you! This is the RI 2602 two years ago before we decided to actively restore the interior. You must remember that the coach department was still restoring the 2612 at this time! The coaches interior was in horrible condition. We only had about three weeks, last year, to repainted the walls of the 2602 before the Thomas event. Here are some 2014 pictures. Like me, you will be amazed at the before and after pictures. What a contrast.
 These pictures were taken April 21, 2014  A very dark and uninviting interior.  What a mess! Would you as a customer want to ride in a car like this? Monday, August 1. 2016RI 2602 It will be ready!
I want to show everyone our latest project rushing to completion for Thomas. We have a small crew that has been feverishly working on restoring the interior of our last operating Rock Island coach 2602. Paul Cronin and I are very proud of the quality of work that we all have accomplished this season. We are just like Metra upgrading the interiors of our equipment. Here is the latest report, then, on the Rock coach.
 The four person team has completed the painting on one side of the ceiling and now our attention focuses to the last side  Jeff has finished chipping and sanding areas above both doors. Next step is to clean with xylene and prime.  Another focus on the coach was to remove any ugly peeling paint on the exterior. Again Jeff needle chipped this stairs and now Sandy has begun priming it.  Jane AKA Steam Dept Jane has been working with us on the weekdays all summer. Here she is continuing her priming job on the second half of the ceiling .  Its water break time for her. We frequently do that to prevent any illnesses from the heat. As you can imagine its hot up there next to the ceiling.  This shows the vast space to be primed and painted. Jane is walking to retrieve another ladder  Sandy is priming the last section on the ceiling while in the back ground Jane has already begun to finish coat the primed areas The new ladders and scaffold are in use is this picture. This makes the painting of the ceiling a lot easier and safer. It also saves time. Friday, July 29. 2016More on DLW 556
Here is another progress report of the 556. Included are a few scenes from other important restoration projects. We have accomplished so much in the first to weeks of July that I will be giving you a detailed report on the RI 2602 next week.
 Heres Howard taking a little break before he starts priming the roof on the 556.  We rigged a temporary awning so that Sandy could prime one truck on the 556  Here is a wider view of our restoration site in back of barn 3.  Howard is standing next to the recently primed 556 truck  Here Jeff has shifted his attention to the needle chipping of the last truck on the 556.  Remember the truck that Sandy had finished painting? Well, here it is all painted gloss black  Yes, this is a museum team effort. Victor is priming the battery box that was needle chipped the first week of July.  This is the interior of the CNW 7700 combine. After all these years its floor has been finally been painted  Here is Jane and Sandy in the process of painting the floor.  Although Rod is not in the picture he is operating the fork lift and lowering one of the huge motors in to the truck.  Another view. This is just for a test fit. Some modifications were made to accommodate the motors  The weather has been somewhat cool for the first two weeks in July so BIll and Victor have resumed painting the wagon top box car  Another view of the freight car crew painting the B and O wagon top box.  Lastly, Rich and Henry are manufacturing special contour wood beading. The wood pieces will used for the future installation of mirrors in the Dover Strait, John McGloughlin, and Mt. Harvard. |
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Comments
Fri, 08-18-2017 00:52
Hi John T, We would love to have a copy of your Ohio crane information. Please contact Mark Secco concerning anything about rail bound cranes. Thank [...]
Fri, 08-11-2017 00:05
Randy, The 543 was never in that paint scheme. It'll likely be restored to the zebra stripe scheme whenever it does get restored. Jamie
Thu, 08-10-2017 17:46
If you ever get the money to repaint this engine, I would hope you would repaint it to have the big letters Santa Fe instead of the small print. [...]
Thu, 08-10-2017 10:38
I would like to know if these MR #649 and #542 were part of FEVR excursion in Nebraska? Awesome to have them to be part of IRM collection!
Sat, 08-05-2017 23:30
They need to restore Milwaukee road 33 and 37c along with the 3 Milwaukee road f units hey have
Wed, 08-02-2017 20:01
It was supposed to be restored and sat behind the NS Altoona shops for the better part of two years, waiting for that to happen. We finally had it [...]
Tue, 08-01-2017 02:42
those 2 Milw cars would actually look good behind one of the Milw F7's or the E9's.
Sat, 07-29-2017 22:02
I just donated to the Save the 800 campaign. Should the campaign fail, I would like my donation re-directed to ATSF FP45 #92 please. Please tell the [...]
Sat, 07-29-2017 13:14
I see Conrail 4601 has finally arrived. I suspect a cosmetic restoration and getting donations to put it in a barn are in order?
Sat, 07-29-2017 01:51
It was restored at Altoona before coming to Union from the Essex, CT area. BTW, is or was it going to be restored as a Virginian engine? or kept as a [...]
Fri, 07-28-2017 11:54
It appears to be the E33 that IRM aqquired a year or two ago.
Thu, 07-27-2017 14:06
What is the 4601 locomotive parked in front of the diesel shop?