Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Front Windows

Lorne Tweed continues to contribute progress on this car.  It was oppressively hot with a heat index over 100, and hotter still perhaps in the still air inside the barn.  This week he attacked the interior frames and trim on the front windows of CTS 4223.

A Rail Fan

Inside the CTS 4223, on the front dash there was a rail fan.  What else would you call it?  Anyhow, Lorne also carefully removed that as the paint and years of crud are removed and the clean metal primed.

Getting a Handle on It

I could not argue with folks looking for work inside the shop to escape the outside heat.  John Faulhaber was cleaning a rough casting for new seat handles for the Sand Springs 68.  That is the first step in the process.

Getting a Handle on It

Simon Harrison has returned from an exciting trip overseas, and here he is continuing the work on the handles, this representing the final buffing and polishing.  The completed work is sprayed with clear lacquer to help protect them and diminish tarnishing and corrosion.

Engineering Department

Rich Witt is examining the shaft for the cut off saw in our old tenoning machine.  This is the one originally purchased by the Illinois Terminal Railroad and used in their Decatur shops.  Rod Turner has cleaned it up on the lathe in preparation for new babbit bearings to be poured and fitted in a month from now.  Prep work for more window restoration continued (CA&E 36) and then Rich turned to design and fabrication of a die and jig to bend new sheet metal for repairs on our B&O wagon top boxcar.

Speaking of which, the heat did not discourage Victor Humphreys from working outdoors on that all day.  Rod Turner assisted and more rust out areas on the side were cut out and prepped for new patches.