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Sunday, May 22. 2011
This
year, like most years, the museum’s Track Department undertakes a large
tie renewal job. This is a necessity to properly maintain our railroad
and allow for a high quality ride all of our visitors and volunteers
have come to expect. This year, it was decided to undertake one of the
largest tie renewal projects to date, nearly 750. Typical years may see
500 ties replaced anywhere on the property where they’re most needed.
This places a huge strain on us to complete the bulk of the work before
operations ramp up in April and May. Whether it’s the Mainline, Carline
or little used yard track the importance of maintaining our track for
the safety of the public, our volunteers, and the fragile equipment we
operate is always the top priority of the Track Department. Always…
So
what does it take to get the job done? This process began last year
with the purchase of the 750 brand new ties to be installed. All of
which were delivered by truck and unloaded on the property. During this
year’s detailed track inspection beginning in the cool month of March
we walked up and down the railroad not only inspecting the track, but
also marked bad ties to be replaced. Once a majority of the ties were
marked for replacement we had to figure out the best way to get the new
ties on site. This year, because of the huge quantity of
ties, we found it best to load all of them onto a flatcar and roll them
out to the site. With our Burro crane we unloaded all of the bundles in
the general locations that would be needed. This is not an easy process
and most of this work happened during the last half of February and
into March.
Needless to say there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground to make the job difficult.
With
the ties all on the ground, the lengthy process of placing each tie in
the exact location where it was to be installed began. Mostly, this
involved the tie crane and an operator working eight or nine hour days
over the weekends. This step took many weekends throughout March
and April to complete. While that was happening, we also moved new
spikes in locations they could be accessed and continually worked on
machine maintenance. Things break, machines wear out, and we spend a lot
of time and elbow grease keeping the machines in running condition.
With
only our small core group of volunteers, and without the necessary
equipment to do the actual replacement ourselves, we hired a railroad
contractor to truck in their own equipment and swap the bad ties for the
new ones. This took a solid week for the contractor to
finish the job and then the cleanup of all the material was left to us.
As with most tie projects, the work typically disturbs the track severe
enough to require a slow order. The problem of support under the ties
becomes an issue without being properly tamped. Until that happens, the
ties may not have enough ballast underneath which could create an
unsafe condition.
At
this point the race was on to clean up the railroad before the
operating season gets into full swing. During this time all of the old
ties were collected with the tie crane and placed in one large pile near
Johnson Siding where they will eventually be picked up taken away by
another railroad contractor. Just like when they were all set out, the
job meant the tie crane and operator must spend long days peddling ties
back and forth. This year it took us five or six full working days and
detailed cleanup still isn’t finished. In addition to all of the ties,
other material had to be picked up, such as old line poles and tree
limbs. This adds considerable time and energy but needs to be done.
With
the wood picked up we focused on gathering all of the steel scrap which
took the form of 2,800 spikes from the tie job, hundreds of old tie
plates and other track material left on the line from years past. This
could only have been done quickly and efficiently with our Burro crane
and its electromagnet. We took one of our flatcars and ran up and
down the line until the flatcar was full of steel and brought it back to
the property to be sorted.
That brings us to today. The next
steps will be to get rid of our huge tie pile at Johnson Siding, and
surface the railroad. Surfacing the railroad will be done in house
using our ex Amtrak production tamper purchased a few years ago.
Contracting an operation such as this would cost the museum another
$40,000 and that does not include regulating the railroad afterward to
finish the project! All of the work done in house by the Track Dept.
easily cuts the total cost of the project in half and in this season
alone has already saved the museum roughly $50,000. The alternative to
any of what we do in house involves renting and trucking in equivalent
machinery and paying contract wages. Work will continue throughout the
season to tamp and dress the line working between operations and special
events. Follow up maintenance on all of our machines and sorting
materials from the line will take many more weekends of work. Without the
equipment we have, most of this wouldn’t have been possible. While most
of this work goes unseen to a majority of our volunteers and visitors,
it is this work that is required for our museum to function as a world
class operation.
None of this could be done without the
dedication of our Track Department working odd hours in all sorts of
conditions. Thanks to all who have helped on this project including
Frank DeVries, Tom Hunter, Bill Lygiros, Patrick Shea, Jeron Glander,
Mitch O'Brien, Bob Olson and Adam Robillard. Also we must thank everyone
who supported the work including, but not limited to, the Operating
Department granting us track time, Dave Diamond in the Buildings &
Grounds Department, and anyone I may have missed. …and that’s what it takes to get the job done
More Track Dept. photos from Frank Devries and Adam Robillard can be found in the Member's Photo Site here- http://www.irm.org/gallery/Members-Photos
Saturday, April 30. 2011
Trying to beat karma to the punch....
The weather was beautiful today... and that was the problem... Today's plan was to get some minor repairs done on the tie crane. We are once again getting ready to go pick up about 720 ties that were changed out by Volkmann a couple weeks ago. So to avoid problems we did a little preventative maintenance.
I arrived at the museum about 9AM and found Bill there already. Bill and I started to de-fuel the tie crane. Even though the fuel was out of the sight glass there was still about 10 to 15 gallons of fuel left in the tank. We drained the fuel then took the hose off the tank. We also removed the fuel sight tube to replace that as well. Jeron showed up and we ran to town to grab parts. While I replaced the fuel hose, and sight tube, Jeron replaced the damaged mirror and Bill replaced the windshield wiper. We drained the fuel out of the transfer tank, but that was a drop in the tank so to speak. Unfortunately I left my keys in my winter coat..... at home.... SO no truck key, no fuel key.... Guess I'll fuel the crane in the morning.
After that it was time to take in some of the sights of the Illinois Terminal to do. I took a ride (my first I'll add) on the IT B motor, to see how the ride is after our tie change out. It's not perfect, but the 25MPH speed restriction seems to be adequate until we can get the line tamped.
While out and about today I did find three more sticks of rail along the ROW, that we need to get picked up and in the gon. One is out near the Big tree, the other two are along the main line just east of the depot. We also need to re-set the whistle post along the main. I think we can just pick it up and add some ballast to hold it up.
While all this was going on, Dave and Evan continued work on the 580 Motor car. They have most of the wood off now, and have started to clean old paint and rust off the frame. They bought a couple of wire wheels for my grinder and were using that to clean it up real nice. They were getting ready to spray on some primer when I was leaving for the day. It's looking really nice. I also found one of the brake leaks on a caliper thanks to all the wood being off. Nice work guys! I'll post some pictures to the Members photo section in a few minutes.
Frank D.
Sunday, April 3. 2011
Today was a new member spectacular! The day started with myself and new member Keith Ziolkowski joined me and returning new member Bill. We found the model 50 missing it's exhaust circuit, under rebuild by Jeron. So a Plan B was formed. Off to 14-4 track to solve a reverse super elevation problem on the curve to this track off the switch. We gathered jacks, bars, forks, and shovels, onto the tie crane and off to yard 14. We hand jacked the track and hand tampped from about 8:30 to 11:30, picking up the outer rail from "in the mud" to out of stone. A lift of over 6". After lunch we took the regulator back to yard 14 and dragged stone from the north side to the south side to fill in the cribs that were now devoid of stone. A quick broom job and the track was back to a useable status. Before this work, when the diesel department would try to switch cars on this track they had a tendency to derail when being pulled out. Meanwhile back on the main........ Tom showed up later in the morning and fired up the mower for one last trip on the main before it leaves for a job. Tom was able to mow by Karstens crossing, cleaning up some trees that the farmer cut down and pushed over onto the property. He also was able to give a good pass between East switch and West Switch. Third trick was Jeron coming out after work and installing a new exhaust elbow off the turbo. The old 90 degree bend had been previously welded, and subsequently rusted out again, and as Tom put it, made it smoke like a Russian tank. Jeron was able to find a suitable part and had Jamie from the diesel shop weld the flange to the turbo onto the new pipe. The exhaust was then put back on the crane for the Sunday activity. From what I understand it was a real wrestling job to get the exhaust back in. During the wrap up of my tour of duty, Dave, and his young son Evan showed up having just joined the museum, and coming out to see what they can do as a team to help IRM. Work on our motorcar fleet was offered up, and they are eager to get started. Unlike last week, cameras were on hand to record the festivities. Photos from Tom and myself have been posted here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album155Frank D.
Sunday, March 27. 2011
First off - not a single photo was taken this weekend, we were all just too busy.
Saturday was a productive day, Adam was a surprise visitor as he had some things to take care of up north for a day, so he joined Frank and we always can use the added help. Frank and Adam worked together taking care of joint repairs, marking ties, fixing one of two pull apart, cleaning the ROW and starting the process of switch lube - all from the Santa Fe hyrail truck. I spent the entire day setting out ties from the big tree to the east end of Johnson, picking up where Jeron left off - the CN gon never arrived of course - we worked until well after dark to get it all done.
Sunday was just Mitch and I doing some machine repairs - we pulled the bottom bearing from the mower side bar, and cleaned it up in the car shop. We found out why the bolts broke - the bearing is worn out and caused the housing to wobble breaking the bolts. As it is in a trapped hanger, Mitch and I put it all back together without the bolts (that have been broken for years) and fired it up after sitting by Yard 3 all winter - the mower is now back in machine row at Yard 11. I plan to run it on the ROW some next weekend. We spent some time in the Industrial Brownhoist crane with the steam shop folks who are making it ready for service for the Barn 23 track project. We got a plan together for changing out some grease fittings and will get that one ready in the next few weekends as well.
Over the next week Jeron will get the 4 inch long sweep exhaust 90 deg bend for the 50 and we can get that installed - as the CN gon was a no show on Sunday too... soon enough we need to be ready to unload it.
A productive weekend for sure -
Be Safe out there
Tom
Sunday, March 20. 2011
Long Days and tons of work done... well how about one long day and a day to watch thunderstorms and do some flat car planning...
This weekend we continued where Adam and Jeron had left off the week before, we set up the crane train and set off the last of the tie bundles. It was a long day of hard work - and we were joined by more new folks - and Patrick who it appears that we did not scare off (yet). We were also joined by Mike Potter - it was good to see him out for a day, and good to have him along to make the cuts and couple back up every time we have to set off a bundle close to the crane - as you cannot raise the boom under the wire - For the gang we had Adam for his last day of spring break, Frank, New guy Bill and Patrick - we also had Greg from the electric car join us and of course Mike Potter. At the end of the day Steve joined us as a ground man fresh from the new CP UTU rank.
While the gang unloaded the ties between Johnson and the Farm Crossing - Adam spent the day spotting the ties where marked - about 400 of them. We have about 300 more to spot. Frank started marking the rest of the bad wood - and Jeron will dig into the tie crane to spot the rest this week. We hope to get the tie gang out in a month or less to get this done - then we have all the mess of the old ties to pick back up. As soon as we had the last ties off the car, we took a bit of time to set some signal heads with the crane while we were out at Johnson - have to use all the equipment as much as we can for each other.
We worked so hard that we did not take any lunch time until after 3P - as we wanted to get all the ties out and give the railroad to the electric car department to train on the CA&E trains. After lunch we set the TTX car back on the interchange and a few of us finished the day off with some scrap loading into the gon with the mag to pick up some more of the scrap around the place.
Sunday tuned out to be really rainy with thunderstorms - as we had so much under our belts by then, Frank - Jeron and I just spent some time talking the rest of the summer plans watching the show from Barn 2 -
Next weekend the inbound CN OTM car unloading will be the show (if it is here).
Be Safe out there
Tom
Monday, March 14. 2011
Riding on the success of yesterday's progress today our two goals for the day were to clean a few machines with the pressure washer, and unload the ties loaded onto the flatcar yesterday along the mainline. The short version of the story is that both jobs were completed but not without a little excitement in between. The crew today was myself, Tom Hunter, Jeron Glander, and a new volunteer, Patrick Shea. We started right away with the rented 3000psi heated pressure washer and cleaned up the tie crane, regulator and Model 50 Burro crane. After cleaning the radiators on the burro it ran significantly better now that it has proper air flow drastically minimizing the possibility of overheating the engine. We picked up our loaded flat car of ties and the EJ&E 529 caboose and headed out onto the carline. The rest of the day was spent unloading around 400 ties along the mainline. Tom expertly ran the crane while Jeron, Patrick and myself hooked and unhooked the bundles along the line, mostly between Seeman Rd and Four Mile Siding. We'll come back out with the tie crane sometime soon and distribute the ties where they'll be installed. It was an incredibly productive day and called it quits after tying up shortly before sunset in Yard 11. This week the rest of the ties (~250) should get loaded onto the flatcar which should allow us to repeat the job again next weekend. Thanks again to Patrick for joining us for a second day in a row. Hope we didn't scare him away. Adam Robillard IRM Track Dept
Sunday, March 13. 2011
Saturday's plan involved a two pronged attack. One group was to finish walking the mainline, the second team was to load the mainline ties onto a flatcar, so they can be peddled out for install in the coming weeks. Again, I picked up Marcus at Aurora Transportation Center, and we drove up to Marengo Cafe for breakfast. After Breakfast we met a new volunteer to our group, Patrick Shea. Adam joined us at the caboose on 110 track and the plans were set in motion. Marcus and I walked track. We started with the stretch from East switch to Karstens, so the diesel department could use the east switch as head room for fueling diesels. We then continued out to signal 201 with no significant defects found. The walk continued from East switch to West before we broke for lunch. After lunch we finished off the West end finding one broken bar. The total repairs for this spring, two pull aparts east of 4 mile siding, which is still out of service, One broken bar on the main between 201 and 251. One broken bar at West switch. We intend to have the two broken bars fixed before the start of the season. The pull aparts depend on getting some warm sunny weather to get the rails to expand enough to get new bolts in the rail. Adam and Patrick grabbed the fork lift and started loading bundles of ties onto the TTX flat car that the Camp Grant arrived on. All the other IRM flats are in use, so we pressed this one into service since it was just taking up space in the siding. The diesel department was kind enough to retrieve it and bring it to along barn 9 for us. In short order Adam and Patrick had the flat loaded up and ready for Sunday's distribution party. A break for a brief meeting, and we were back at it putting the train together. Tom joined us for this phase of the job. Tom finished off getting the four part hook put back on the crane. The hook was taken off last year to rig up the clam shell for loading stone. Tom, Marcus, and I, then got the 529 caboose moved over and the loaded flat car onto track 112, while Adam and Patrick loaded a couple more bundles of ties onto tie flats with the tie crane. The tie crane was tied down in yard 10 for the night. Tomorrow's projects, go out and peddle ties where we marked ties for replacement. A few photos have been posted here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album271Frank D.
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Comments
Thu, 02-19-2015 11:16
Sam, Ooops!. Now that is something I had not noticed before. For sure we have IC201. I walked past her just yesterday in barn #9. I had not [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 18:48
Hello Philip Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, the 1630 will again be running in 2015 baring any unforeseen problems. The continuing projects [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 13:59
I really love seeing the 1630 returning to its former glory. I first got to ride on it more than 25 years ago and it left a great impression on me. [...]
Wed, 02-18-2015 03:31
speaking of electric cars, i haven't heard any updates about Michigan Electric 28. what has been done since its last blog post?
Mon, 02-16-2015 23:26
The tag shows the date of the last seat reupholstering. Chris & Dan Buck have assisted with the 3rd rail beam project for 1797. In Chicago, it's [...]
Mon, 02-16-2015 19:53
A beautiful restoration. Can't wait to see the car in the spring. A true labor of love - can't even imagine the hours that have been spent on this - [...]
Sun, 02-15-2015 21:52
Howdy! So glad you folks are at work. I can't wait for spring so I can get there in person. The website will have to do for now. Here's a [...]
Sat, 02-14-2015 07:15
John, Apologies. I have been off line for a couple of days so did not pick up your note. Welcome. I am afraid that the start up may be a bit [...]
Tue, 02-10-2015 22:11
First time volunteer but long time member joining this weekend! I had about a year of experience working on the black River rr in New Jersey.
Tue, 02-10-2015 12:45
Hello Raphael The Susan Marie will not be painted to the 2-tone Southern green. Per the donors wishes it will always be kept in the colors it is. [...]
Mon, 02-09-2015 23:50
I do not believe that Susan Marie ever wore the two tone scheme, as it was a business car. The photos I have seen of it as SOU business car #10 show a [...]
Mon, 02-09-2015 02:58
speaking of the susan marie, will it eventually be repainted into the 2-tone green found on the southern crescent? because since the train made its [...]