Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Latches

Rich Witt is working on new windows for the Glen Springs passenger car.  The latch on this Pullman built car is a bit different from what we have seen before (aren't they all?) and it is a bit tricky to design the best way of plowing out the recesses for mounting them.

Style

I guess that caption is a typo and should be STILE.  John Faulhaber is fitting the middle bottom stile for the new station door.  We made a lot of good progress on this project today as you will see following.

More Style

Before I knew it John had both ends of the piece done and the accompanying rails dry fitted.  Looks like a capital I - - - for IRM?

Now That Looks Like a Door

With all the frame members made, John F was helped by longtime member Bob Rayunec as they coaxed all the pieces together for the first time.

If you do not recognize the name, Bob is a longtime member, probably has a lower seniority number than me!  He was out for some DC overhead wire work.  They are starting to hang trolley wire over the Yard 8 - Car Line connector track.  This will greatly simplify getting equipment out of Barns 6, 7, and 8.  I also saw a new pole planted in the ground for the northward extension of the west end of the trolley bus line.

Panel Openings

A raised panel will be made for each of the four openings in the door frame, but the next steps are to rout 32 stopped chamfers on the frame, each opening, front and back.  Those are John's hands running the router.

Duct Work

Meanwhile Henry Vincent added some new ductwork and gates to make it more convenient to collect dust from both ports of our disk/belt sander.

BIG Saw

And in the new shop annex, Victor Humphreys and Steve Holding were working on mounting the 20 inch circular saw to the newly fabricated frame.  The blade in there now is only a 16 inch size - it can take a BIGGER one!  Here they have partially dismantled the saw and placed it on the frame for the first time.  We moved the wood shop A Frame and hoist there to save our backs, and hopefully make it a bit safer.

Mounted

The saw was placed on the frame, and holes marked to bolt down the machine.  Then take the machine off, drill all the holes, and hope they line up.  We must have gotten lucky - five bolts and they all dropped right into place.