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Thursday, July 7. 2011TMS Project - July 6, 2011Most of our major projects ask for donations and in large part the members and friends respond. Often, however, accumulating the funds is slow and folks who made donations are wondering what has happened. Many of you have been very generous on this project whose goal is to apply new tires to the wheels of two trolley cars, TM 972, and CNS&M 354. Yesterday we placed the order for sixteen new custom rolled steel tires. WE ARE ON THE WAY!!  New Tire But it is not too late to help on this milestone project. Some matching funds have been pledged and remain on hand. So in effect, every dollar you may donate becomes TWO dollars toward getting these new tires installed on the existing wheel centers and axles. This is a cost effective method to renew the running gear for reliable operation on our railroad, especially compared to even finding new wheels, at any price. Please help with a restricted donation to fund RTMS so we can all look forward to seeing these cars operate at Union. Thursday, July 7. 2011Wood Shop Update - July 6, 2011 Brick Mold Lorne Tweed is making some progress on the project for the Steam Shop. This is to be a mold to cast a specialized piece of refractory firebrick to serve as the arch or top piece in a rivet forge.  Running Boards Pete Galayda is now making running boards which mount to the top of the hoods on the Charles City Western 300 steeple cab.  Window Work Randy Hicks is involved in repainting and repairing one of the cars acquired from the Trolleyville Collection. In this case it is Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36. While he is working on the body in one of our Barns, he was very considerate to bring over a window for the Wood Shop to attack. Most of the windows are in good enough shape that replacements will not have to be made. Here, Rich Witt makes short work of sanding and removing the old layers of paint from both sides. This is good work in our air conditioned shop if any of you wish to volunteer. Next steps on this frame are to repair it with epoxy filler, and then sand again and prime paint it.  Plane Progress Victor Humphreys examines new stock fresh from the planer. That is a machine that planes thin layers of wood from thicker stock, to produce a custom thickness, as needed for almost every project. Thursday, July 7. 2011B&O Boxcar Update - July 6, 2011Another nice day, almost no rain in the last two weeks! It is beginning to make the farmers nervous but a good crew toiled on with the boxcar project.  Removing Crud Victor Humphreys, Simon Harrison, and Kevin Tudor (up on the scaffold), continued removing the accumulated old paint and rust from the A end and the right side. You will now begin to see the primed areas starting to grow and join together on two of the side panels and the end.  The Crew This is not a lot different than the above photo except that Kevin's wife, Jenny, grabbed my camera and captured me in the group. Not that I was able to contribute much physical labor, but my heart was in it. You can see cleaned areas that are about to be painted with primer. |
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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 [...]