Riding on the success of yesterday's progress today our two goals for the day were to clean a few machines with the pressure washer, and unload the ties loaded onto the flatcar yesterday along the mainline. The short version of the story is that both jobs were completed but not without a little excitement in between.
The crew today was myself, Tom Hunter, Jeron Glander, and a new volunteer, Patrick Shea. We started right away with the rented 3000psi heated pressure washer and cleaned up the tie crane, regulator and Model 50 Burro crane. After cleaning the radiators on the burro it ran significantly better now that it has proper air flow drastically minimizing the possibility of overheating the engine. We picked up our loaded flat car of ties and the EJ&E 529 caboose and headed out onto the carline.
The rest of the day was spent unloading around 400 ties along the mainline. Tom expertly ran the crane while Jeron, Patrick and myself hooked and unhooked the bundles along the line, mostly between Seeman Rd and Four Mile Siding. We'll come back out with the tie crane sometime soon and distribute the ties where they'll be installed. It was an incredibly productive day and called it quits after tying up shortly before sunset in Yard 11. This week the rest of the ties (~250) should get loaded onto the flatcar which should allow us to repeat the job again next weekend. Thanks again to Patrick for joining us for a second day in a row. Hope we didn't scare him away.
Adam Robillard
IRM Track Dept
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 [...]