Freight Car Department

Welcome to the blog for the Freight Car Department at the Illinois Railway Museum. Here you will see updates on projects, maintenance and repair schedules and news on pending or proposed acquisitions. Also, our department seems to be the defacto manager of the IRM Woodshop. Stay tuned for notes on projects that include making piles of sawdust.

Our department also does a lot of the artwork and lettering for our restored cars, and in addition to freight cars, has included electric cars, internal combustion, steam locomotives, and steam passenger cars. You may see some of this work posted in the blog.

The images on these blogs are 'thumbnails' only, but if you click on them with the left mouse button, you will see the full image. If there is a project you are interested in, please contact me and we will try to get pics/updates of work our dept may be doing in that area.

To take advantage of the info elsewhere on the IRM website you will also see links to other areas of interest.

Bob Kutella
Collection Curator

This was certainly an odd weather day.  The forecasters were unified in the prediction it would rain all day, until mid afternoon when it it be REALLY BAD weather.  Some volunteers may have been scared off and some events in Chicago were postponed.  Two of the volunteers had concerned wives who called the shop to tell them to clear out before 2 PM to beat the predicted storms.  We figured we could get an hour or two of work in on the plow, so began with that right away in the morning.  And worked along for almost six hours without rain!  We got a lot done.

Shop work was the first task for Buzz Morisette as he worked to fabricate another new window sill for the cab cupola.  This one is destined for the rear window area, if I am not mistaken.

Why, it is Dave Rogan of course.  Here he is leaning out the cupola window area, and wire brushing the metalwork.  Earlier he and I had two needle chippers going at once scaling layers of old paint.  You see what those areas look like to your right of Dave, in this picture.  Then Dave was using a power wire wheel to clean down to bare metal, seen in the posts to your left left.  And below the roof line a hint of the old yellow paint is visible.

Always with an eye to the sky, Victor Humphreys came topside and applied primer to all those areas that had been prepped.

We had also started on the very long job of restoring the roof.  Only a small area to be sure and a bit scary perching way up on the left front corner, knowing there is only the gaping maw of the plow below you.  But here is the first primer going on the roof.

We were very grateful to have some new and unexpected help from Joe Luciani - here cleaning the truck frame on the left side - and Lee Regione.  They were sweating in the sun on the ground while we were sweating up on the roof.

Victor had completed the painting up on the roof while the ground work continued.  Just in time.  Victor attacked those cleaned areas with fresh primer.  Here he is doing a triangular flanger support, and then he moved on the prime the truck frame.

Inside the cupola Buzz toiled away fitting new wood and also fitting the slider window for the left side.  The fixed window looks good installed and the surrounding area painted in the deep maroon.

Using the needle chipper is a funny task.  It is loud and some vibration is involved.  But it can be very satisfying to see the years of use and abuse peel away.  You just do not want to put it down.  As the painting was going on on the opposite corner, Dave started cleaning layers of paint from the left front corner and roof.

The old TV commercial seemed to say "Parts is Parts", at least for a chicken.  Not so true for restoration work.  Bill Peterson is cleaning up many of the cupola window hardware parts.  Earlier he had completed the fitting and installation of the floor repair pieces inside the rear compartment, left side.

Victor Humphreys is installing a very old mortise lock for one of the doors on the snowplow.  Lots of drilling, fitting, chiseling.

Buzz Morisette continues the tricky work of restoring the window framing and sills in the cupola.  Here he adding some paint to the framing for the left rear window.

First thing in the morning Victor Humphreys went up on the roof and finished the second coat of new paint on the cupola roof, before the metal work got too hot in the sun.  Uncertain weather drew out this task, but we are off and running now.

We also applied the first maroon to be seen on the cupola.  This to the posts, trim, and framing exterior, while Buzz applies some finish grey to the new wood sills and posts on the left side.

As mentioned in the first entry for Wednesday, it rained off and on all day and that chased us inside the shop and allowed us to continue more work inside the plow body.  This has been a long stretch of inclement weather on our regular workdays, so not as much progress on the exterior painting has been accomplished.  But the last of the old open grid steel roofwalks have been torched off and we got a lot done inside the car body.

Despite dodging raindrops, Jim Leonard was up on the roof, and down, and back up, and down, but managed to move forward on the roof of the cab cupola.

Thanks to Al Rheinschmidt (and all of the rest of the crews) for their work today.  Al primed many boards to be installed inside the CGW snowplow; all those shown here and ANOTHER batch.

Buzz Morisette started making up two new window sills for the cupola, here jointing the boards.  There were quite a few following steps and they were ready to fit, then prime painted at the end of the day.

Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard are inserting the last of the three piece floor repairs at the end of the day.  The nice white walls are the new interior lining we have been installing during our rainy weather work.  We added door trim, more siding inside, and floor stripping and cleaning and repairs today.  So much of that work will seem all but invisible to the walk by visitor, but it is no less necessary and moves the project ahead.

Paul Cronin is priming the many new boards for the interior lining, cut and sized in the shop last Wednesday.

It did not matter that the skies were gray and promised some drizzle.  Ray Pollice is sheltered from it as he operates a needle scaler attacking the flanger blade.

Over the winter season we constructed two new doors for the plow.  Victor Humphreys and Jim Leonard are checking to see how it fits.

There were a few trims and cuts to perfect the door into the opening, but minor really, in the scheme of things.  Victor and Jim hoisted it up into the plow body more than once and here are enjoying the view out the window.

The string of two consecutive good weather workdays was broken yesterday with intermittent rain, some of it heavy.  So we worked in the shop and inside the plow body.

Buzz Morisette was in the shop fabricating and shaping new framing timbers for the cab cupola on the plow.  Most of the wood around the windows and sills was rotted and will be replaced.

Dave Rogan worked inside the cupola between downpours and needlechipped and wire brushed a lot of the steel.  In an afternoon dry spell he is applying primer here, and then the temporary window blanks were re-installed to help keep it dry.

Victor Humphreys and I fussed with the next piece of lining inside the plow.  For some reason it was troublesome to fit into place.  I bet we went through five fits and they gave us fits.  Each time the wood notches seemed to expand (high humidity?) to prevent the piece from slipping in cleanly.

With the long piece installed below the side window, Victor quickly marched up the wall toward the right front corner.  These are some of the pieces measured and cut last weekend and now ready for nailing.

Paul Cronin is just completing the last of 32 more new pieces of interior lining and framing for the plow body.  Whoever arrives first on Saturday will have some painting ready for them!

Buzz Morisette is up inside the control cab as we try to re-engineer how all the windows, sills, and stops will go together.  Note that much of this was totally useless and rotted away.  He is holding up one of the original windows for size and placement

Before too much dismantling was done to replace the bad parts, Buzz took many pictures to help document the areas.  Kind of unusual to find instructions painted on the ceiling - but here it is.

Here is an experiment in formatting so you may see the front of the cab by stitching together the three views.  The left front view shows faint traces of more lettering; the right front view shows "EMERGENCY VALVE" stenciled in red. Lots of piping, electrical, gauges - most of which will have to be removed to replace the spongy wood behind them.

 

 

 

A lot of the work is now started with removal of the window post and corner posts on the left side.  Look closely and you will see the empty mounting holes in the steel members.  And what a scenic view out the window!  Freight cars, of course - that is our department.

This view looks downward at the left front corner.  the wood has been removed to the bare steel framing.  And another trace at the very top of this image of more lettering and flaky paint - we figured this one out - but not without some headscratching and creative railroad archeology.