Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from Thursday, April 10. 2008

Thursday, April 10. 2008

Winter 2008 News Update for the ... Posted by Phil Stepek in Passenger Car Department at 20:53

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Winter 2008 News Update for the Passenger Car Department

Phil Stepek created a report of news briefs for work done in the IRM Passenger Car Department through March 2008.

Chicago & North Western 7700: Baggage compartment door frames were completely rebuilt during the 2007 season. Winter 2007-2008 saw both large baggage doors re-fabricated.

CNW 7700 door construction Mar 2008

Delaware Lackawanna & Western 556: This coach has had a chronic problem with an entry door frame where the tread rises and prevents the door from opening properly. Over the winter the vestibule platform was cut out and it was discovered that several previous repairs had been made over the life of the car; probably by the DL&W. The framework is now exposed and waiting for new metal work.

Bessemer & Lake Erie 25: This combine car displayed wood deterioration in a few window frames. The single most severe frame was removed and a new window fabricated in the woodshop. Bob Kutella shows a photo of Wayne Baksic working on the new window in his Woodshop post of April 8, 2008.

Chicago Burlington & Quincy 1923: This baggage/RPO car has been cleaned to provide a better example of a baggage compartment for display. The Passenger Car Department baggage collection will be stored here as well as our milk can collection. Most other items previously stored in the the baggage compartment will be relocated.

Louisville & Nashville 2726 Diner Galt House: The diner returned from Horicon but suffered buffer damage in transit. Repairs will require the removal of the diaphragm and buffer plates to reshape the metal. This will probably be deferred until the 2008-2009 off-season. The car will be on display in Barn 3 during the 2008 season.

Galt House prior to painting in Horicon

Galt House newly painted

January 2008 Galt House buffer damaged in transit

NYC Dover Strait - Bob Hunter, Project Leader: Diaphragm fabric is being fabricated on one end and the interior corridor is being prepped for painting this spring.

Boston & Maine 3288 (ex 1094) Cafe Diner - Jack Biesterfeld/Ted Anderson, Project Leaders: This car continues to see interior restoration work. More dining room seats are being repaired/reupholstered and the coach area is being cleared for better display.

Dining area of the B&

Illinois Central Railroad 3345: The exterior aluminum sheathing is almost complete on one side of this Food Bar/Chair Car. The car is to be turned to complete repairs to the other side during the 2008 season.

Thursday, April 10. 2008

CSL 84 Update April 9, 2008 Posted by Robert Kutella in Chicago Surface Lines 84 Trolley Coach at 17:11

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CSL 84 Update April 9, 2008

Lots Finished

Here we see three members showing off SOME of the 30-40 completed parts for seat frames, backs, cushion plates and parts in progress for this project. Left to right - John, Faulhaber, Steve Holding, and John Nelligan. Steve Holding is a long time trolley fan and volunteer who lives in the Fort Worth, Texas area and makes 'pilgrimmages' to Union.

Thursday, April 10. 2008

Spring updates Posted by Frank DeVries in Track Department at 13:36

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Spring updates

I see I have been negligent in updating this group. A great many things have happened since February.

Spring Inspections: Starting in March, Adam, Andy and I have walked all 5 miles of main line, and the carline, looking for track defects. And did we find defects! We found and repaired no fewer than 8 cracked joint bars, one complete pull apart aka.. two bolts on one side of a joint were broken/missing. We also had several broken bolts, and washers. All speed restrictions were lifted prior to opening day. It took us until April 5th to get it all done. Add into that we had the Kallas' popsicles to dump. Chicago rail car called their 5 ballast cars back. Unfortunately for us, they were still frozen. So with a lot of help from the Diesel department we thawed and dumped the cars.

We still have some work to do, but will get that done before operations or under traffic.

During the winter Andy and I spent quite a bit of time trying to get machines ready for service for this year. Unfortunately when we did a big barn switch to get machines out, the Tamper decided it had not received enough attention. She did not want to fire up. With the help of Wes Lloyd we were able to get her started, but she promptly started to spew out antifreeze. Looks like out newly rebuilt engine needs some more work. That will be taken out over the weekend of April 12th and sent back.

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Comments

James Kolanowski about Milwaukee Road 33C update
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]

AJ about Milwaukee Road 33C update
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...

Ted Miles about Progress update of the Multi Purpose Building
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]

J Blustein about The Old Bag and the Silver Beaver
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.

Jason E about Progress update of the Multi Purpose Building
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]

Thomas about It Happened One Saturday at IRM
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!

Ted Miles about It Happened One Saturday at IRM
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]

bob miller about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?

Ted Miles about John McLoughlin Progress - Part Two
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member

Jason Erkenswick about Diesel Shop update 1/29/2021
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]

Alex Schneider about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]

Matthew Maloy about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]