Illinois Railway Museum Blog

We had a big crew yesterday and accomplished a ton of work.  Glenn Andersen’s nephew Gary is heading up the project to stabilize, make safe and presentable the front of the Dayton Flyer 960, which is currently in the front of the Andersen Garage.  He brought along his construction expert and neighbor Gary, along with high school art teacher Penny.  Gary took measurements and made some preliminary plans for getting the display “visitor-ready”.  Penny took pictures inside one of our other Dayton Flyers (925) and will commission some of her students to paint a mural depicting the inside of coach to be placed behind the 960’s front end.

Wally getting down and dirty, removing decades of crud from the wheel well

Meanwhile, Richard Schauer, Bill Moran and I got to work on tire mounting.  Over the past several weeks, we have been working on removing the tires from Seattle Twin 633 and SF Fageol 614.  They were delivered to our tire guy where the rims were rehabbed, painted, and brand new tires mounted.  They came back a couple weeks ago and of course we were eager to get them back on.  With today’s crew, we were able to just about finish the project.  The hubs were very rusty and the wheel wells were coated in crud.  We cleaned out all the wheel wells and were able to prime and/or paint all but one hub.  We mounted one set of rears on the 614 and with the additional help from Warren and Steve from the Diesel shop, we completed the 633!  At the end of the day, we took the 633 out for a couple fantrips to test out the new tires.  They make a BIG difference!!!  Since we had to pull the Edmonton BBC 181 out to access the 633, we exercised it as well.  It performed flawlessly as usual.

Bill Moran wire-wheeling the rust off the curb-side rear hub

Edmonton BBC 181 getting a little sun to make room for us to work on the 633

Those two sets of tires consist of a discontinued size and have to be special ordered.  Needless to say they were not cheap.  I’d like to thank EVERYONE who has supported us with donations.  YOU made this purchase possible.  It is reassuring to know that we will never have to purchase tires for these two coaches again!!!  Over the past decade, we have outfitted over a third of the fleet with new tires, and several others have come to us with tires that are in good shape.

Working on mounting the street-side rear

Warren squeezes between the 633 and the wall to carefully mount the curb-side front

Getting ready to fantrip the new tires

Also visiting during the day was Bob Heinlein.  He and Richard continue planning for the March 27th Snowflake Special trip.  Tickets are NOW ON SALE in the online store.  We are planning on a six-car train and due to logistics, this is the maximum size train for this trip.  No additional cars will be added, so get your tickets early before they sell out!

Bob Heinlein and Richard Schauer discuss details of the March 27^th Snowflake Special

Next weekend our goal is to get the remaining tires mounted onto the 614.  Once the tires are done, we will turn our attention to cutting the wood carlines and starting to install the wood part of the roof of the LA Brill 8002.  In addition to tire duty, Wally loaded all the milled lumber for the roof into the coach in preparation for that next job.

Thanks to everyone who worked with us today.  We could not have accomplished as much as we did without each and every one of you.  THANKS!!!