Illinois Railway Museum Blog

SEPTEMBER 26-27, 2009

Last weekend was a big weekend in Yard 11.  Our dept was joined by three volunteers from the Minnesota Transportation Museum, Andy Inserra, Phil Wellman and Eric Hopp in addition to our IRM gang Frank D, Tom H, Adam R and our most recent addition, Mike Weber.  The task was to do as much work in Yard 11 as possible with two full days and a good group of guys ready to work.  In previous weeks we have been actively loading ballast into our two C&NW ballast cars and dumping them on yard tracks as needed as well as repairing the 6000 tamper.  Saturday we split into numerous gangs throughout the day while we ran our "production surfacing gang" in the Barn.  While tracks were being tamped with the 6000 tamper, other crews were busy loading ballast cars with the Model 30 Burro crane, regulating stone on the yard tracks and dumping stone with the Model 50 Burro crane.  At one point it was truly an impressive scene with three work gangs working on seperate tracks at once!  The crew from Minnesota did a great job learning the machines and jumping into the jobs.  (Some of them have backgrounds in track and signals and are also the MTM's track dept...) Saturday night we all worked well past dark which was possible due to the ceiling lights inside of the Barn.  We called it quits for the night and made it to the Truck Stop for dinner a bit after midnight. 

Sunday most of us returned for another day of tamping and regulating in the Barn.  Like all track machines a few problems came up with the 6000 tamper later in the day shutting down the operation.  A few parts failed 'inside' of the machine and for anyone who knows the machine also knows how dirty it is to get under, in between and 'inside' of the it for any reason...  We had a few spare parts which we reinstalled and helped us get through the evening but more parts are on order which will complete this round of repairs and get us rolling again.  The work didn't stop there as another track was regulated and the west end of 11-4 track was lined with the assistance of Nick K in the Bobcat.  By the end of the weekend we had finished tamping 11-4 track, nearly finished 11-3 and made the first lift on 11-2 track.  Each track requires 3-5 lifts with the tamper for their entire lengths to get the track upto the proper height and alignment.  Ballast was dumped on 11-3 and 11-4 tracks and both tracks regulated.  It was a VERY successful weekend and proves how much we can accomplish when the machines work properly and most importantly when we have many hands helping out.  Track work is not an easy activity to say the least...  Thanks to the gang from Minnesota again, we really apprectiate your help!

Adam Robillard

lzeje657@msn.com

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OCTOBER 3-4, 2009

This past weekend, Tom H, Frank D and Adam R were out Sunday to continue repairs on the tamper, load ballast and pick up material on the mainline.  An urgent request was made to clean up some Track and Line Dept material near the interchange track for the unloading the the new Santa Fe loco in the coming weeks.  Frank was the first one out this morning and fired up the Model 50 Burro crane.  I arrived shortly after and we picked up the C&NW flatcar and headed West toward the interchange. 

There we met up with Tom H and John N and the four of us loaded a complete track diamond, misc rails and OTM and good number of old line poles and wooden planks which have all been in the weeds for well over a year.  The Burro crane made quick work of the job and impressively lifted the 8000lb diamond onto the car with little trouble.  We made our way back to Yard 11, tied down the train and went to lunch.  After lunch and a quick stop to Napa, I split from Tom and Frank and went back to the interchange with the tie crane and flat carts to finish the clean up job.  In the meantime Tom and Frank worked on the tamper in Yard 11.  They made significant progress but there is still more work to be done on the tamper and a few bugs to work out during the week.  Throughout the day Frank also spent time loading the next ballast car with the X-17.  It turned out to be another late day for us all.  I can't remember the last time we've gone home before dark but the Barn is important to us and we're committed to finishing the track portion as soon as possible.  Next weekend we're planning to continue work in Barn 11.  Help is needed to load and dump more ballast on the finished track, 11-4.  There is a lot of hand work at the West end of all four tracks to finish raising and leveling the tracks where the tamper cannot reach.  Shoot me an email or talk to any of the Track Dept volunteers if you'd like to come out and help us complete Barn 11.

Adam Robillard
lzeje657@msn.com

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OCTOBER 10-11, 2009

Saturday's crew consisted of Frank D, Tom H, Steve L, Steve's friend Josh Gould, and Adam R.  As in previous weeks the big project is finishing Yard 11.  The day started early for Frank who was able to get the tamper temporarily fixed making it operable once again.  With things looking positive we fired up the tamper and got to work... Thankfully Nick showed up shortly after and gave us a little pep talk.  My favorite quote from the conversation- "Get as much done before the tamper breaks again, it's already past due for a break down..."  Mind you we hadn't been tamping for more than 15 minutes at this point.  More on that later...

We all focused the next few hours tamping 11-2 track and 11-3 track.  By 12:30 we had 2 track and 3 tracks completely raised and ready for stone.  But as expected the tamper failed just as we were finishing 3 track.  The pin which holds the entire workhead assembly to the hydraulic cylinder snapped, the workhead fell to the ground and busted the hydraulic cylinder and hoses.... Sigh.  Well all hope wasn't lost and the next few hours were spent working on the current failure and replacing parts from last weekend's failures...  Needless to say we got a lot done on the machine and we'll be up and running this weekend. 

I left early but the rest of the gang stayed late Saturday dumping another round of ballast on the finished tracks. The majority of the work inside of the barn is done.  Three passes with the tamper on one track and the tamping will be done.  We need to manually lift the last 20' on each of the yard tracks, finish ballasting (including loading one more car of stone), regulating, and we will be finished with the track portion of the project indoors.  IF all goes well next weekend I can see us being out of the Barn within the next 2-3 weeks. 

Sunday was very low key in comparison.  I was the only one out and spent a few hours sorting the recently arrived switch timbers near the connector track.  Next month Volkmann, our track contractor, will be out replacing switch ties on a number of mainline and carline switches.  Our obligation in the dept is to distribute all of the ties and pick up the old ties afterward.  This cuts costs dramatically and helps speed up the process.  All of the switch ties are laid out along side of the connector track and marked for length.  With the tie crane we'll pick up the ties we need for each switch and lay them out along the tracks.  This is another time consuming project but also very important in maintaining our railroad and keeping it safe to use.  The cold weather is upon us so it's important to keep the block heaters in the machines plugged in at the end of the day.  The Model 50 is plugged in at Yard 11.  The tie crane is too far from the door at Tk24 to get a cord to right now, so we'll need to switch out and clean up the tie carts to make room.  More photos from the Track Dept can be found in Frank DeVries' photo album here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/icemancne and my photo album here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/lzeje657

Adam Robillard
Roadmaster - Track