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Thursday, February 4. 2010Wood Shop Update - February 3, 2010Well, today we did a BIG job in the wood shop, with nearly every one of the half dozen volunteers participating. For several years we have made very good use of the Berlin sander for finish work on well over 180 windows and doors. One of the abrasive sheets (on drum 3) was about worn out, and last Saturday the sheet on drum 2 failed. So we had no choice but to invest some time to return this machine to service.  Disassembled This is a large and complicated machine - it has over 95 lube points alone! So the first steps are to start the disassembly which has largely been accomplished in this photo. The A frame was used to remove the top deck (seen in the background here) and then one layer of mechanism parts after another to get to the drums. Pete Galayda, John Faulhaber, and Victor Humphreys worked on on this - seen here measuring and cutting a new sheet of sandpaper.  On Deck Pete Galayda, Victor Humphreys and Tim Peters (on the deck) are putting parts back together as the new paper has been installed, and the fussy assembly work is next.  Together Again Amazingly, by the end of the day the machine was almost back together, John F and Pete G reassembling the dust collector ductwork which had to be removed for access. Many thousands of dollars of custom woodworking projects are produced each year in the wood shop, at great benefit to IRM. But like most things there are no funds for ongoing expenses and upkeep of the tools and machinery. By way of example, EACH sheet of sandpaper for the Berlin cost $60 when we bought these some time ago, and we needed to replace two of them now. These were the last of our stock, so, any of you want to send in some coins so we can buy more? Thanks!  409 Sash Rich Witt continued on work for a new wood sash for the CA&E 409, cutting the rabbets for the rails and stiles. Here he is seen laying out the mortise and tenon joinery.  Step Up Henry Vincent, with Frank Sirinek behind him, was fitting new drop steps for the Chicago and West Towns 141. Mike Altrerio went through the shop area and was recruited to fabricate some new fixtures for the mortiser. Charlie Strong is doing project planning for the CA&E 451 and we discussed needed hardwoods and costs. He has quite a 'laundry list' of tasks and I am sure donation of dollars and volunteer hours will be appreciated. Several guys from the Wednesday Special Projects group stopped in to discuss current work, although I suspect the real reason was to warm up for a bit.
Tuesday, February 2. 2010Track Dept Weekend Report
Toms report from Saturday and my report from Sunday-
Saturday- Yesterday Frank and I got there so that we could help with the Electric Car folks with the first moves into Barn 11 - as no one was about in the morning, we dug into the list of stuff to do in Barn 2 - starting with the starter of course. As I noted below - Frank dug out that one from the 585, we did the switch with the 580 and got the 585 running. We let it run a while to warm up and starter in on the 6000. We changed out the broken pin on the right work head, and on the good advice of Frank decided to change the left one too since I bought two new pins... good thing as that one was broken too, hanging on but less the a 1/4 inch...yikes... So it goes to show - inspect your machine as much as you can... Both are now new. After all that was done, Adam showed for the 2nd trick. We headed to Yard 11, to wake up the 50. It took a while with the normal trans oil and warm up, we had to thaw out the transmission air lines too - but it fired up fairly well for having sat for a month...  Frank adding transmission fluid to the crane  Tom checking the transmission fluid level on the crane In the end it was not needed - so that ended a good day (Seems the EJ&E folks installed the wrong starter in the 585 - one with too small teeth on its gear - that DID grind away some on the fly wheel, but after Frank removed the 585 starter and we went into the barn to see what was on the 580 (how cool to have spare motor cars huh?) and saw it was a lot bigger motor on the 580... sooo..switcho we did -) Tom Hunter -------------- Sunday- Tom and I made up the gang and chose to clean off the CNW flatcar of 'stuff' gathered from along the RoW with the Burro crane we serviced Saturday. Tom fired up the Model 50 in Yard 11 and I went to retrieve wreck knuckes and such. The CNW flat was buried in the middle of a string of cars on Station Tk 2 so we had to move a bunch of cars to get it out.  Moving cars on Station 2 the main at a brisk 1-2MPH... It was amazing. After making the switch we headed to yard 14 to unload a slew of line poles we had picked up from Schmidt Siding and then went to the diamond at South Jct to unload three old signal foundations from the old 151/ 152 signals.  Lifting old signal foundations from the CNW flatcar have to clear out ALL of the track machines from the Barn. Included is the old brush cutter in the heated portion of the shop. If anyone is working on it, please let me know as it may be moved permanently out of the shop due to track space issues. Take Care, Adam Robillard IRM Track Dept Monday, February 1. 2010 |
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Comments
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
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 [...]
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...
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, [...]
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.
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 [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
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 [...]
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?
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
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 [...]