We are all hungry for Steam News so here is an UNOFFICIAL report sent to me for posting here, by Jim Opolony, one of the worker bees out in steam land. Thank you, Jim.
"On June 25, the steam shop members learned how to remove rivets from the 1630's fire box. Rivet heads were ground off inside the firebox. Since we had never done this before, we had to decide which riveting gun would be the best to pound out the rivets. Like always, we started slowly and used the smallest rivet gun. We discovered that if we drilled out the center of the rivet, it made it possible for the rivet to collapse and hopefully come out a little easier. We also moved up to the largest rivet gun to get the rivets out faster. We constantly added penetrating oil and pounded the rivets, with a small sledgehammer, back into the sheet so that they would come out faster. We managed to remove two rivets. Since a number of members were involved in the fund raiser on Saturday night, we stopped work relatively early. Only four workers can do this job, so some shop members did other work.
Two members worked on 'truing up' one of the driving rods for the 428. Glenn Parkhurst worked on the Bay City crane's engine."
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 [...]