Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from March 2011

Thursday, March 31. 2011

Wood Shop Update - March 30, 2011 Posted by Robert Kutella in Wood Shop at 04:53

Comments (3)

Wood Shop Update - March 30, 2011

This will only be short look around the shop yesterday, and with a number of different topics.

Taking A Bead On It

Victor Humphreys and behind him, John Faulhaber. are cutting some small beading for retaining the glazing in the new windows we are making for IC 3996. It looks at first like a small quarter round but in this case it is assymetrical with one 1/4 inch leg and one 5/16 inch leg, just to make it interesting. And of course we are making this custom molding out of mahogany, to match the frames.

Number Eleven

Lorne Tweed is fitting the last of eleven new frames for this 'order', and before the day is over it will be glued up and in the press. The next steps will include finish sanding all the frames smooth, cutting off the 'ears' on the stiles, and milling the bottom edges of each frame bottom rail.

Never Again

Not never again in a bad way, but likely we will never again see the shop space addition so empty and clean. It is now complete enough to be ready for final inspection. Pete Galayda is at the far end, looking over the progress - and it really seems like a big space right now.

An Interesting Shade

From the passenger car department, Roger Kramer has been working to locate and clean up Pullman Company shades for the DOVER STRAIT. Won't that look nice hanging in the windows?

Sunday, March 27. 2011

Snowflake Special 03/27/2011 Posted by Ray Piesciuk in News and Publicity at 23:41

Comment (1)

Snowflake Special 03/27/2011

Another successful IRM Snowflake Special today! Thinking back two short years ago, we couldn’t fill a four car train, this year we sold out a SIX car train a week before the trip! Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and helped support the museum. It is GREATLY appreciated!!!!

Today’s trip started at the Forest Park station at the west end of the Congress line. We started westbound – yes westbound (into the yards). Then back east, transferring over to the Douglass line, going to and through 54th St (again into the yards). Back eastbound, then over to the Midway line. After going through those yards it was downtown to drop everyone off for lunch. After lunch we went out to 63rd and Ashland and of course into the tail track. Back downtown and out to Kimball. You guessed it, into those yards too. Back downtown, but not before our second annual Brown Line/Red Line race from Belmont to Fullerton. Again this year it was too close to call. Finally back west down the Congress line, making our last photo stop at the abandoned California station (the last of many nice photo opportunities), we headed back to our origin station at Forest Park to wrap up another fantastic trip.

A huge thanks to David Harrison, without whom none of this would be possible. Dave did his usual great job narrating the trip including many interesting tidbits about the system and the city. Also thanks to Bob Heinlein and Richard Schauer who again coordinated the logistics of the trip. Our CTA crew was top notch as usual. Thanks to all the car captains who kept order in the cars, trading their cameras for orange vests. And most importantly, thanks to everyone who showed their support for the museum by accompanying us on the 2011 edition of the Snowflake Special.

Sunday, March 27. 2011

Track Report Posted by Tom Hunter in Track Department at 17:24

Track Report

First off - not a single photo was taken this weekend, we were all just too busy.

Saturday was a productive day, Adam was a surprise visitor as he had some things to take care of up north for a day, so he joined Frank and we always can use the added help. Frank and Adam worked together taking care of joint repairs, marking ties, fixing one of two pull apart, cleaning the ROW and starting the process of switch lube - all from the Santa Fe hyrail truck. I spent the entire day setting out ties from the big tree to the east end of Johnson, picking up where Jeron left off - the CN gon never arrived of course - we worked until well after dark to get it all done.

Sunday was just Mitch and I doing some machine repairs - we pulled the bottom bearing from the mower side bar, and cleaned it up in the car shop. We found out why the bolts broke - the bearing is worn out and caused the housing to wobble breaking the bolts. As it is in a trapped hanger, Mitch and I put it all back together without the bolts (that have been broken for years) and fired it up after sitting by Yard 3 all winter - the mower is now back in machine row at Yard 11. I plan to run it on the ROW some next weekend. We spent some time in the Industrial Brownhoist crane with the steam shop folks who are making it ready for service for the Barn 23 track project. We got a plan together for changing out some grease fittings and will get that one ready in the next few weekends as well.

Over the next week Jeron will get the 4 inch long sweep exhaust 90 deg bend for the 50 and we can get that installed - as the CN gon was a no show on Sunday too... soon enough we need to be ready to unload it.

A productive weekend for sure -

Be Safe out there

Tom

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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 [...]