Illinois Railway Museum Blog

This entry will be short since almost three hours of the day were spent with members of the OWWM group.  That is short for Old Wood Working Machines.  We are again hosting their annual meet - for the seventh consecutive year!  We had few members of the planning committee on hand - from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois and time was spent surveying the improvements and changes at IRM and planning some of the activities to be held in September.

This is a loose knit informal organization, with website, that has visited us often, conducting clinics, demos, and any manner of other activities for 2.5 days each year.  They have been very generous in helping to support our wood shop.  If any of you guys are really interested in old such machinery, contact me for more information; but beware, any machine made after 1970 is considered TOO NEW!

While we were walking around, we noticed some white lines painted on the grass near the Thomas Event entrance gate.  This is the proposed new paving and construction for the west end Electric Trolley Bus loop.  It will be exciting to see that take shape.  But back to the Wood Shop - - -

Raising a Panel

Victor Humphreys is shown "raising a panel" for the new station door.  That is where the inserted panel in the door openings have a raised center field.  The operation is called "raising the panel" although in practice it is the surrounding areas that are lowered.  John Faulhaber and Victor worked on those tasks in the morning.

Panels in Place

Victor is checking the fit for two of the panels in the new door frame.  These must be made to float or fit somewhat loosely in their grooves to account for seasonal expansion of the wood.  We saw them for a fairly snug fit and then hand sand to fine tune for each opening.  When all are in place, they will be inserted as the frame is glued and assembled.

Project Manger Pete Galayda supplied some nice pics of recent work on this steeple cab locomotive.

Arc Lights

The locomotive uses arc headlights which John Nelligan has adopted as a project.  Here are the original jacks and a restored set.

Welding

Gerry Dettloff pitches in on a LOT of projects where his special skills are needed.  Here he is welding a repair on the pilot of the CCW 300.

Paintwork

The welding is complete and the parts cleaned up.  Pete Galayda is applying primer to the raw metal.  It will not be long before shiny black enamel is applied to finish this area.