Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Jeffy Brady was out again, toiling on the project.

Molding

Lorne Tweed and Jeff are trying to carefully measure some very small molding, the stuff that is used to retain glass in the windows. The goal is to manufacture about 200 feet of this from mahogany.

At the Saw

Jeff has moved on to the saw to begin cutting test strips.  It is a pretty complicated setup needing custom jigs and holddowns.

I am going to continue to mix topics of interest in here, as generally they may not have enough of a series of pics or back story to stand on their own in a separate BLOG entry.

Panels

But true to the header, we will start with continuing progress on woodwork related projects.  Victor Humphreys and Lorne Tweed have glued and assembled the second panel for the new station door.

Finish Work

Victor Humphreys is working on touch up and repair of some divots on the frame, and you will see gray primer has been applied to all the rabbets where the raised panels will be installed.  Those panels 'float' in the grooves and are NOT GLUED in place.  This allows them to expand and contract with seasonal changes.  But therefore, all edges on the panels and in the door must be sealed and painted before the final gluing of all frame pieces takes place.

Brass Shop

Pete Galayda examines a shiny polished brass window latch while Simon Harrison uses a felt wheel and buffing compound to work on another.  If you look close you can see this mirror like polish glinting into the camera. These are latches and hardware destined for installation in Sand Springs 68.

Layout

Here are some pieces of a large scale 1:24 model railroad layout that has been donated to IRM by a long time friend and supporter who has had to relocate his residence.  Henry Vincent was instrumental in doing the grunt work of driving across three states to pick this up.

That Did Not Take Long

We reported in an earlier BLOG ENTRY that it seemed that repairs would soon be underway on Depot Street.  A few days later and several feet of paving have been broken up and are being removed.  The connection to the wood shop subject is that several volunteers access the shop over this street.  A word to the wise should be sufficient!

Routing

John Faulhaber is using a hand held router and jigs to do stopped chamfers in 32 places on the new station door.  He started early in the morning and finished them all before the end of the day.

Doweling

Lorne Tweed was back in town following what sounded like a fun vacation.  Here he is doweling some wood to be assembled into stock for the four raised panels in the new door.  These are wide solid wood panels and we decided to make them from three ripped planks with the grain pattern alternating, to help stabilize them in use, and make them less prone to warping or cupping.

Assembly

Lorne and Victor Humphreys have the first panel made up and in the glue press.  Note the use of four bowed cauls to help keep the stock aligned vertically while the press clamps work horizontally.  Three more to go, then planing, and 'raising' the panels.

American Saw

The large American table saw is now completely mounted on the new frame and re-assembled.  Lorne and Victor used our A frame to lift the heavy tilting table into place.

Drill It

And for a change of pace here is Dave Diamond and Tom Opolony breaking up paving in front of the west end of Barn 4.  Springtime in Chicago - time to break up the roads!  Actually, in this case a crossing sign had to be relocated as part of the Barn 4 shop expansion.  But Wait - There is More!  Pavement markings indicate that Depot Street will soon be broken up and re-paved from the Thomas loading area crossing north to the Barn 4 leads.  You will not want to miss this project.

We also saw Max Tyms and Roger Smessaert working to set new poles for the trolley bus extension in the mostly dry weather (rain and drizzle later in the afternoon).  There are a number of poles slated to be replaced all around the property due to their failing condition and the two wire extensions underway.