Wood Shop

I suppose ti is thoroughly off topic to begin a wood shop report this way, but yesterday IRM was going HOLLYWOOD.  There had to be over 20 semis and trucks parked everywhere, tents set up, and I am sure over 100 carpenters, technicians and players on site shooting scenes for an upcoming production.

New Station

Is seems there is a new station platform and canopy just north of the main line.  It is early in the morning of the shooting day and paint is still being applied.  "Don't lean against that post."

Actors Ready

The famous actor I am referring to is our own Nebraska Zephyr train, of course.  Just a bit after 9 AM and the trainset is already just west of the station waiting for the director to give instructions.  From reports I heard the activity lasted all day, way past the time I had to leave, and there was additional filming inside our C&NW bilevels.

The Jig

Back to reality.  Here is a very clever piece of engineering!  It is a custom designed fixture to take rough castings (of resistance grids for our trolleys) and face and surface the two bosses on both sides.  I have done well over 100, maybe 200, the old fashioned way and trust me, I wish this was there when my task was active.  And yes the design and construction lies entirely within the IRM Electric Car Department leadership.

Windows

Paul Cronin and Rich Witt are doing the final adjustments to fit the mortise and tenon joints for the two new round top windows we are making for Boston & Maine 1094.

Done

And then the special two part adhesive was mixed and slathered over all the joints for both windows.  It takes a lot of hands to do this quickly.  Paul Cronin, Victor Humphreys, and Rich Witt seem to have things under control, both windows squared up and in the press for the glue to cure.

Wired

A lot was accomplished on Cleveland Transit System 4223.  Eric Lorenz laid out some of the needed new wiring and is making a sort of harness arrangement.  He bundles the wire runs and inserts them into cable loom.  These are then strung through the car framing since we are ever closer to installing more of the car interior and the wiring must be in place before certain areas are covered up.

Paint Removal

Bill Peterson spent most of the afternoon with a power wire brush cleaning steel panels for the 4223 interior.  These are the curved panels which ultimately will hold the advertising cards.

Puzzling

Paul and Eric are into a real headscratcher.  There are many of the above mentioned panels and seemingly only one unique way to arrange them in the car.  While some were positively located, it is a puzzle worthy of some thought to figure out the rest of them.  And no, they were not marked or documented when removed from the car some 20 odd years ago.

Of course much other work went on, including Ray Pollice cleaning up the new to us old table saw to ready it for primer; and Paul and Bill assembling and gluing up the last door panel for the new station door.  Victor finished the bottom door panels for our CGW X 38 doors and the molding in in and complete.

Another sure sign of spring - a few hardy souls are accomplishing some work outdoors during the warmer hours of each sunny day.

Truck Work

Gerry Dettloff was helped by Paul Cronin as they worked to disassemble this arch bar truck  The springs are out and replacements will be used for the broken ones.  The truck and its mate will eventually find their way beneath Lake Shore Electric 810.

Out for Some Air

The first car acquired by IRM 60 years ago got some exercise as it was run over to track 41 for some attention.  I bet Jon Fenlaciki walked two miles he made so many trips in and out of the car, never having been more than 200 from it.

Door No. 1

Just like the quiz show - - -  Victor Humphreys had the finish gray enamel out for the new doors we made for Chicago Great Western X 38.

Door No. 2

And Victor made sure door number two got its finsihed gray enamel applied.

Brian Patterson Photo

We are working on a new machine base for the table saw we are restoring.  Jim Foraker drew it all up in 3D on his computer and Bob Kutella and Paul Cronin are giving it the once over.

Prime Time

Jonathan Soucek is priming the old motor for the above table saw project now that bearing issues have been resolved - AGAIN - and the motor has been reassembled.

Sanding and Scraping

There were still a few minutes left at the end of the day and Brian Patterson, John Faulhaber and Jim Foraker worked to remove flaking and peeling old paint from the saw.

The Mortise

Dave Rogan is trimming out a bottom rail tenon for the Boston & Maine 1094 windows we are making.  Fussy fitting that is all in a day's work.

There

There - the fit is almost perfect as Dave sights down the stile.

Brian Patterson Photo

John Faulhaber is sanding out and touching up any rough spots he can find for the new station door.  We have one of the panel inserts glued up and dry, the second can be seen in the background in the clamps.

Air Brakes

As the saying goes - "In spring a young man's fancy turns to -  -   -  AIR BRAKES".  While it hovered barely above freezing, the sun was out. Kirk Warner and Victor Humphreys moved to the frozen tundra for more work on our wagon top boxcar, B&O 374065.  Perhaps in proactive mode, the existing service portion and emergency portion of the air brake control valve were removed and brought into the shop.  Here they are with the heavy brake parts in a box - I was too slow on the trigger to catch an image of them outdoors under the car.  Both portions were replaced under the car with spares we had on hand.   They also began checking the other air piping and replaced a missing union on the line to the retainer valve.

Interior Trim

Not a good pic but the work is EXCITING.  Eric Lorenz is inside Cleveland Transit System 4223 and most of the new window post caps are located and in place.  Eric is holding up one of the next features to be installed, a horizontal piece that goes above the standee windows and ties to each of the post caps.  Maybe you had to be there but each advance they make presents a big impact and visible progress.

Finished Door

This door for Chicago Great Western X 38 is nearly finished as demonstrated by Kirk Warner applying the maroon paint.

Second Door

The second door for the X 38 is following closely on the heels of the first.  Victor and Kirk are doing touch up filling and sanding and later primed it for the second coat.

Door Panels

Paul Cronin and Bill Peterson are drilling dowel holes using a special jig setup on one of the small drill presses.  About 88 holes later (no, really!) one of the panels was assembled, glued and clamped.

Panels

See, they really are ready to glue.  Paul, Bill, and Buzz Morisette are checking to make sure everything is in order and lines up before the glue is slathered on.

Step Boxes

Father and son team, Tom and Jim Windmeier were making many small parts to repair and recondition the custom railroad step box replicas they made last season.  They were well used last year throughout the summer, and now are being tuned up for operations this year.

Round Tops

Rich WItt continues to work on the two new round top windows for Boston & Maine 1094.  Here he is fitting the fussy mortise and tenon joints on each end of the bottom rails.  One done, one to go.

Fitting

We will start out this time with a series of images showing the work today for a new door for our 1851 C&GU (C&NW) depot.  I think it was still C&GU in 1851.  John Faulhaber fits an internal stile to the door bottom.  Careful work, fussy work, completed work.

More Fitting

Meanwhile Paul Cronin works to fit a similar member to the top rail of the door.

Routing

Then the overall frame was dry assembled and Paul and John proceeded to cut large chamfer 'scallops' for the members abutting the inside panels.  This was a common design element on doors of the period and can be found on some of the very old doors in the depot today.

Results Count

Paul and John proudly show off the results of their work near the end of the day.  This eight foot tall door is getting very HEAVY!  The four openings will receive raised panel inserts since it is to be solid exterior door.

Panels

No sooner than the door frame was assembled for final fitting did Paul and Jim Foraker lay out and start jointing and ripping the stock for the panels.  It can be quite a puzzle solving exercise.  The raw lumber is purchased in random lengths and widths as is common for hardwood lumber.  We always try to have sufficient stock for the job, but the challenge is to get all the best pieces for those boards and make the most efficient use of the lumber.

The Earlier Doors

Kirk Warner was visiting from Florida and gave a big boost to the doors we have made earlier for Chicago Great Western X 38, as he sanded  and primed both sides, touching up the woodwork along the way.  He got custom glass cut and he and Victor Humphreys finished glazing more of the windows for the cupola cab.

Windows

Meanwhile, Jim Leonard, Rich Witt, and Dave Rogan were at work for the very fancy round top windows we are making for Boston & Maine 1094.  Here they are at work on the router table profiling one of the bottom rails.  Once the stock is cut to the proper size the next work includes a roundover beading in the profile and creating a rabbet to accept the glass.

Tricky Profiling

The same profile must be created for the rest of the sash frame, including the round top and sides.  Rich and Dave made use of many jigs and templates to accomplish the work.  Here you may see some of the result, and by days end all that was done to satisfaction on both windows.

Drop Sash

Henry Vincent was seen stripping decades of old paint from a door drop sash for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  There is never a shortage of work and more parts to restore.  We often work on many elements at a time for productive volunteer efforts or when one small step is accomplished and there is more time left in the day.

Steel Door Panel

Welcome to volunteer Jonathan Soucek who is a grandson of Henry Vincent.  Here he is stripping paint from a steel panel, removed for restoration from CA&E 36.

Motor Work

Jim Foraker was working on reassembly of the AC motor to drive a new table saw for our wood shop.  This effort has been going along piecemeal for several weeks as time allows.  The popular book "Motors for Dummies" does not seem to cover three phase motors that are over a century old.

Handwheels

Jonathoan also pitched in by applying some finish paint to the handwheels to be used on the new table saw.

There was a lot of good work done by a lot of good people and here is a sampling of what was going on.  Of course I did not record images for all the work, but you get the idea.  Still, a lot of photos to post, if you do not mind.

Panels

Victor Humphreys was prime painting the moldings and the panel inserts for the new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38.  As the saying goes - there is always something to be done.  In this case, every week, we take a step closer to completing these doors.  Good friend and volunteer Kirk Warner was visiting from Florida - he and Victor are working on getting some new glass cut for the project.

The Other Side of the Coin

Or - the other side of the panels.  They also got primed, in this case with a different color primer, since the interior will get a lighter coat of finish paint.

Window Post Caps

There continues to be real progress on Cleveland Transit System 4223.  This PCC car is getting interior window post caps, here shown with Eric Lorenz fighting the good fight.

Window Post Caps

Loren Tweed is also working hard on the 4223 project, the current task of installing the post caps.  They have all but a handful of 'stinkers' installed.  The 'stinkers' being a few that need more persuasion to fit properly.

Tenons

We made major progress on the two 'special' round top windows for the Boston & Maine 1094 passenger car.  A lot of different volunteers contributed to the progress - here Bill Peterson is working on tenons for the round top rail.

Coming Together

The tenons have been cut and fit for the first window and Rich Witt is working to trim and fit the joint for an exact match.

Brian Patterson Photo

All the parts are fit and clamped into alignment and a hardboard template fixed in place.  Then a pattern cutting router bit follows that to finish cut the exact curves and shape.  Tim Peters, Buzz Morisette, and Bob Kutella discuss ways to work with the grain of the pieces rather than fight them.

Chips Flying

Rich, Tim and Buzz are making the chips fly on the first sash with the pattern.

Number Two

Rich has just helped the tricky routing on sash number two.  The point here is to inspect the job carefully and do any touch up work while the template is still in place and the tooling is set up.

A Jig

The next tricky wood working job du jour (it seemed every job was tricky today) shows Tim cutting a special springboard jig to aid in creating new molding for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

Trail One

Time for the first try at the molding profile, using custom ground knives on our spindle shaper.  In this respect every job is special and a variety of guides and jigs need to be designed and put in place to make quality work - and do that safely.  It is always a learning experience - ask Tim if you do not believe me.

If At First

You do not succeed try again.  There are a number of factors in play as Victor Humphreys and Tim run another blank piece of white oak through the machine.  Height, width, position of the knives, feed rate, how the work is supported, etc.

Next

Let's try again.  If you look at the series of photos above you will see things added and changed to the set up as one by one a potential problem is noted and we fix that area.  Now, if only we had somebody that ran a shaper for a living for 40 years, he would probably converge on the best way quickly and be laughing at us.

The Door

Time to end this post and show you the door.  That is, the new door we are making for our depot.  The last two pieces were tenoned and are in the process if final fitting.

Yesterday we hosted five visitors from the Itasca Park District and showed them our restored Milwaukee Road caboose.  It became sort of a workshop/clinic/seminar as we related many of the obstacles encountered and the choices we made along the restoration path.  Victor Humphreys and Buzz Morisette were the real stars of the effort which included a 'field trip' to Barn 11.  THANKS!!  So I really had little time for shop work and photos.  Nevertheless the able shop crew turned out a lot of work.

Door Bottom

First out of the gate, Dave Rogan executed fourteen mortises in the door parts for a new door in our depot.  Here, Dave Diaz and Jim Leonard are shown with the bottom rail, cleaning out chips and doing the layout work for the tenons.

Assembly

Near the end of the day, Paul Cronin, Jim and Dave had done a lot of the fussy work to trim and fit each of six of the joints and we were able to dry assemble those members into what now what was starting to look like a new door.

Mortising

The set up and the tooling on our mortising machine was changed over and Rich Witt and Dave Rogan are plunging the mortises for two new windows for the Boston & Maine 1094 passenger car.

Stiles

Rich and Dave show off the results in the odd shaped stiles for the above windows.  These are to be round topped and the thinking behind these pieces is a bit different from the more typical railroad sash we have made.

Ribs

Buzz was back in the shop in the afternoon and was producing more roof ribs for the private car ELY.

More Door Work

Henry Vincent makes more progress every week on the repairs to a train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  Still one more wood piece to make this week, and then a lot of additional parts to be cleaned, painted, and installed.  An interesting feature is that this door has provision for the hang on headlight when on the front of a train.  So there is wiring in a channel through the wood door framing to the metal bracket, for two wires. 

Roof Panels

Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady went a field trip to a local supplier and picked up a load of new plywood panels destined for a new roof on Michigan Electric 28.  They were busy prime painting those for much of the day remaining.  In the shop some of our crew produced about 70 thin slats of poplar, to be used on the front bonnet of the car roof, much as Jeff and Norm have completed for the rear car roof.

These reports are fast becoming like a picture book.  For awhile my camera was not working very well, and now TOO MANY pics.

Panels

The two new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38 have solid raised panels in the bottom half.  All are done and Victor Humphreys does some finish sanding on them.

Trim Molding

Bill Peterson completed fitting and mitering all the quarter round trim molding on door number two for the plow.  Next, primer and paint.

Puzzling

We began work to create a new exterior door for our station today.  After a visit to the door in question in the depot, Paul Cronin is trying to sort out a puzzle.  We have a stack of lumber and a drawing with dimensions.  Now, where can each piece be 'harvested' from the oversize planks that were available?

Ripping

After jointing a straight edge on all pieces, Paul and Bill are at the table saw ripping the stock to the exact width needed.

Arranging

The parts have been cut to rough length and a dado set used to plow the needed grooves in each piece.  Paul is checking the arrangement with all the parts arranged in order.  This is a BIG door!

Layout

The next step involved the three of us confirming the length of each piece and then laying out the needed work for the mortise and tenon jointery.  Bill is making sure all marks are transferred accurately and both sides will match.

Brakes

The Electric Car Shop just completed new custom sheaves needed for working hand brakes on the Chicago & West Towns 141.  This is big news and I managed to snap a pic of Project Manager Frank Sirinek taking a picture of me taking a picture of him tak- - - - -

Template

Tim Peters is working on a hardboard curved template for some needed wood parts for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

Photo

Never loan your camera to ANYBODY!  As I downloaded these pics earlier today, what should appear but a followup shot to the above, with me and Tim solving the problems of the day.  The grammar does not sound right but the names go left to right as do the people in the image.

Ribbing

Buzz Morisette is laying out patterns for new ribbing as he continues to replace roof and ceiling panels in the private car ELY.

A Box

Here is new project for Union Telephone & Telegraph, my own made up name for the enterprise being spearheaded by Frank Carraro.  Buzz has made a pile of parts of oak, all of which would fit in one hand.  It is for a box that will hold jacks for line switching - IN THE OLD STYLE.

See, It Is a Box

Here are all those small parts being glued and assembled into something useful by Buzz.