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Sunday, December 5. 2010Track Department Report, December 5, 2010
Again, today's primary function is to protect the Santa Trains. Again, Today's cast of track department characters, was again, Me, Myself, and I. Tom Arrived around 1400 but was engaged in conversation for the duration of his visit.
Since mother nature finished with the white stuff yesterday, and the snow wasn't really drifting. So a quick sweep of the snow, and the switches were in service. Since there wasn't much to keeping the trains running, it was off to the barn where, as always, there is a plethora of work to do. This wasn't such a bad thing as the temps were hovering in the teens for the duration of the day. To start with, I replaced handles on a couple of spike mauls, and a sledge that all had met an untimely fate. Next up was to continue working on our hanger queen - the switch tamper. When last we left our heroes the switch tamper had a motor fail, as well as a power cable to another motor. There was also a hydraulic leak due to a failed crimp on one of the new hoses. Only on track machines can you do a 100% hose replacement, and still get failed hoses!!!!! So I found the old hose,and re-installed it to take care of the leak. Next up, was to re-wire the cable. The old cable was held into it's mount with some caulk and some press fittings. Fortunately we had replacement SOOW cable on the shelf, as well as the mounting lugs, so a repair was in order. All was going well until I went to wire the cable back on the machine. Apparently when the cable was taken off, one of the screws was lost. A small search was mounted and a suitable replacement was found. Next up was to remove the failed motor. Four bolts and a few minutes later, a small push and the motor was on the ground. About this time, it was time for a thaw break. Off towards the silver cars I went, when I was told of the festivities in barn 4. So some chit chat, some food and some awesome apple cider. Of course that about did it for work for the day. A tour of the KC PCC car by Frank S., one last throw of the switch for the winter trains, and it was time to call it a day. All that is left on the Switch tamper is to mount a replacement motor on the machine, and we should (again) be ready to work. Another big project for this winter is to "ring out" the wiring on the 6000 tamper and verify we don't have a wiring problem on that machine. Frank D. Sunday, December 5. 2010Wood Shop Update - December 4, 2010The day started as usual with a short meeting to review project work and address any safety or shop issues. Before I knew it, Rich Witt had picked up my camera and started snapping pictures. So, here are some of the 'usual suspects' for you to place names and faces. It turned out I was not immune from the rampage.  Gwyn Stupar  Greg Ceurvorst  Bob Kutella - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Tooling Moving on to some of the work at hand, we started setting up our very old Delta Heavy Duty shaper with tooling and guides to be able to start milling matching tongue and groove roof boards for the ETB Department.  First One Later on, the arrangement had progressed to the point where we managed to run the first piece, complete with fences, featherboards, guards, power feeder, and dust pickup. I am feeding the stock and Rich Witt is acting as the catcher.  A Frame Up More accurately, window frames for the B&M 1094. In the morning we cut all the tenons for these windows, and by day's end Rich Witt had completed the work to allow the first dry fit of the first frame. No matter how well we are able to use machines to do the heavy cutting, there is always the craftsmanship element of fitting and trimming the parts.  CRT 1797 Side Doors As you might expect on a cold snowy day, Tim Peters continued his work on CRT 1797, and the rebuilding and repair of the four sliding side doors.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Tim himself suggested this caption for the picture. The end or train doors of the 1797 have small double hung (after a fashion) windows and Tim is nearly complete with making two new frames this week. The new frame is THE GOOD, the older frame is THE BAD, and, well, the UGLY - - - -  Rapid Transit Accessories We rarely capture an image of Bill Wulfert although he works tirelessly on the el car collection. Here he has completed stripping and cleaning four pamphlet racks in gleaming brass, has more restored paddles for train markers in progress, and has one of the hang on end signs for our early cars. |
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Comments
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]