Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from March 2010

Monday, March 29. 2010

Wood Shop Update - March 27, 2010 Posted by Robert Kutella in Wood Shop at 06:27

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Wood Shop Update - March 27, 2010

409 Sash

Frank Sirinek and Rich Witt are proudly displaying the new sign box sash for CA&E 409. Rich did most of the woodworking and Frank finished the painting and glazing. By the end of the day it had already been installed on the car!

Rich Witt began at once on the next window project, this time a door drop sash for the CA&E 450 series cars. First step was to take measurements and create a drawing to proceed.

Jointing

Buzz Morisette continued his fine efforts on ten new windows for the MILW 01984 caboose. After long trips to Barn 11 to check the fit, he decided to use our century old jointer to shave a bit off the width.

Priming

With the fit satisfactory, it was on to the bench to apply primer. Buzz sure gets a lot done and makes the most of his time out at IRM. I wonder how he does it?

Gutters

Tim Peters has made new gutters for the CRT 1268 using new sheet copper. Here is a side by side of one of the few originals and the new fabrication, which included forming a folded over lip and rolling to shape.

Back in the Saddle

Here is the first prototype of a 'pilot model' for new saddles for CA&E 451. The old one Tim Peters is holdng can be seen to be 90% rotted and missing.

I think there will be no entry here for March 28. I have come to rely and appreciate guest photographers in the last recent weeks but no such help yesterday. And a lot of the shop remained nearly empty with the large attendance at the CTA fantrip. But work continued by the ME 28 crew, the passenger coach department was on hand to continue seat work, and to lend me a hand milling more battens for the depot project.

Oh, and one other thing - a lot of folks were working on the CA&E cars including the 409 and the 460. As I was leaving, I saw a three car set of steel cars rounding the ess curves on the car line! 431-460-409

Sunday, March 28. 2010

Track Dept Weekend Report Mar 27, 28 Posted by Adam Robillard in Track Department at 23:02

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Track Dept Weekend Report Mar 27, 28

Corwith Tower Lever Machine

Frank walking the machine to the tower

Saturday Report ---

The day's primary project was the joint effort with the Signal Dept to get the very large Corwith Tower lever machine into our Spaulding Tower. This proved to be no easy task. The entire lever machine is roughly 20 ft in length and weighs nearly 9000lbs... The signal dept can report further on its future but our part was the heavy lifting with the Model 50 Burro crane to get it into the lower level- through the doorway. Tom Hunter ran the crane and after a few test lifts near Barn 9, we lifted the machine near the station and ran it into the Tower very slowly and carefully. We were successful in getting it in the building around 2PM and hit lunch. Lets hope that machine never has to leave the tower again!

Tight squeeze into the building

After lunch, the crew of Tom Hunter, Tyler Hunter, Frank Devries, Jeron Glander and myself, Adam Robillard split into a few groups. Jeron and Tyler ran to Napa and picked up new fuel filters for the Burro crane and along with Tom Hunter replaced the filters in the crane and fueled up the machines in yard 11. Jeron did some wonderful electrical work on the Amtrak regulator and also broomed a yard track in Yard 10 to test the functions. All which appear to be working well. Nice job Jeron! Meanwhile Frank and myself were at Track 24 pulling the bad vibrator motor out of the Switch Tamper and prepping the install of the new one Tom had stored in his garage. We managed to get the new motor in and wired up but it hasn't been tested yet. That's for another day.

Greasing bearing on the reinstalled motor

The next project was to relocate the brush trimmer that has been stored in one of the electric carbarns. It cannot be left in the open near the public beginning next weekend so we needed to switch it back into Track 24. Tom and the gang took the EJ&E 585 motorcar to retrieve it only to have the entire machine derail on the Yard 6 lead.... Call in the Model 50! While Frank, Tom & Tyler took time to rerail the cutter, Jeron and I headed onto the carline to weld traction bonds. The portion of track we surfaced over the last few weeks revealed three joints with broken or non existing bonds. Some quick work with our stick welder resolved that problem and the two of us went back to Tk24 to clear all the machines out of the Barn. When the cutter was rerailed, now well after dark, we shimmied it into the back of Tk24 and switched everything back in the Barn. We called it a night around 9PM. Wow, what a day.

More of Frank's photos can be found on his page here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/icemancne

Sunday Report---

Four Mile Siding

Today was a quiet day so I spent it finishing the mainline inspections and greasing switches. I took the EJ&E 585 motorcar out to Seeman Rd and walked one rail all the way to the end of the railroad and walked the other rail back. Not much to report other than a broken bolt and a few joint/ tie defects we'll have to either spend a day repairing or add ties in this section for Volkmann. I oiled and tested all of the mainline switches from Four Mile Siding to Schmidt Siding and tested the power switches. Carline Jct wouldn't respond on power mode so it's back in hand operation until the Signal Dept can troubleshoot that. I changed a handful of signal lamps on the line while I was out there. There are still dark signals along the carline, and one at East Switch though everything appears to be working properly. That's all folks.

Adam Robillard
IRM Track Dept
lzeje657@msn.com

Sunday, March 28. 2010

Snowflake Special Report 03/28/2010 Posted by Ray Piesciuk at 21:30

Snowflake Special Report 03/28/2010

The Snowflake Special was today and it was great! The equipment used was a 6 car train made up entirely of 2200s, the oldest in the fleet. We traversed parts of every line, traveled in every subway and visited some rarely seen yard trackage. We started at Rosemont northbound for our first photo stop at O’Hare, then headed back south. We pulled into Foster middle track (former Jefferson Park yard) for photo run-bys at Jefferson Park and Addison. Then into the loop and out to 63rd St. lower yard. A rare opportunity for a passenger train. At that point we headed back to the loop for our lunch stop. After lunch we went on the Orange line for a photo opportunity at 35th/Archer. Afterward we headed down into the State St. subway and up to Howard, then to Skokie Shops. The CTA was kind enough to park a pair of 5000s for us to see as we entered the yard. After some switching, we headed down the Skokie test track. The CTA guys thought that this was the first passenger train to ever go down the test track. Don’t know if that is true (there have been a LOT of fantrips dating way back), but it sure was a highlight for us. We headed back to Howard for a restroom break and to do a few loops around Howard yard, then up to Linden to loop that yard also. Then it was back down toward the loop, then over parts of the green, pink, and finally blue line for the trip back to Rosemont. Of course the afternoon was littered with photo stops including a thrilling one where our train paced a revenue train southbound into Belmont. Thanks to our CTA crew it came off without a hitch and the collection of photographers at the south end of the Belmont platform was incredible. What a great way to spend a day as I’m sure the approx. 280 passengers will attest to. David Harrison did a great job getting the ball rolling and working with Bob Heinlein and the CTA came up with a great routing plan.

The trip was a fundraiser to get the 2000s inside the next barn. The good news is we are about half way there! The challenge is that they still need donations. Please consider donating to the “2000s Fund” as they are the only Chicago Rapid Transit equipment in the museum’s collection that is still stored outside. Great job David, Bob, Richard Schauer coordinating ticket sales, today’s IRM volunteer car captains, our fantastic CTA crew who made sure the day went smoothly, and most of all those of you who supported this trip with such enthusiasm that we had to put an additional 2 cars on the train to accommodate everyone who wanted to ride. The museum and the 2000s THANK YOU!!!!!

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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 [...]