We welcomed the return of Bruce Plaxton to the shop and put him to work removing hardware and glass from some of the CA&E windows.
We have a wonderful tool, an 80 plus year old gluing table manufactured by Greenlee in nearby Rockford. Optimistically, we hoped to be able to glue up a few of the new windows by days end, and Steve Holding and John Faulhaber have just set up the rails and dogs to work on the dimensions of these windows.
Bit first we went to our mortising machine and did 16 slots for an additional four CA&E windows slated for the 409.
Next, Rich Witt, John Faulhaber, and Steve Holding began cutting the tenons on the window rails.
At the end of a long day three new frames had been fit and glued, in the press. Rich Witt, Steve Holding, and Victor Humprheys are checking the squareness and seeing that the frames are held tight and true. WOW!
Randy Hicks and Mike Alterio stopped in to exhange info and parts for new hardware that Mike will fabricate for the cars in the Trolleyville collection. Is it just me, or do they look out of place in a room dedicated to making sawdust?
Rebecca Tulloch was in the wood shop meeting with Henry Vincent. Who knows what evil plans they are hatching, but look for some exciting enhancements and additions to the WW II re-enactments which will occur throughout the Memorial Day weekend.
I would have guessed the better category for this was more properly "News and Publicity" but as of now I do not have access to that, and they were meeting on our Shop!
Tom and Jim Windmeier were back in the shop making jigs and fixtures to tweak the parts for their replica step stool project.
Jim Windmeier is assembling the prototype, ver 4.0. These guys have raised the bar and are showing what can be done as to fit and finish of fairly complicated angles and pieces not rectangular. I am sure you can all contribute by way of a donation to the step stool project and any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Our friend Steve Holding was back for his annual pilgrimage to IRM and he immediately was put to work on the CA&E steel car window project. Here he is 'piloting' a wood chisel inspecting and cleaning up the rabbets on the stock already machined.
The mortises have been measured and laid out on the stiles. As soon as they have been plunged Steve cleans out the slots and inspects them.
At the end of the day here are eight new windows - at least the parts for them. Eight bottom rails, eight top rails, cut to length and ready for tenoning. And sixteen stiles complete - with 32 mortises plunged and cleaned out today!
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
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...