Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Rear Window

Lorne Tweed is providing some needed help to complete window installation on CTS 4223, our PCC car form Cleveland.  He is working inside the car to clean old paint from the frame areas, and prime the raw metal, prior to fitting glass.

Welding

Mike Alterio is welding new steel repair patches to the sides of the B&0 wagontop boxcar.  Victor Humphreys cut and prepared the new metal, but installing them proved to be a challenge.

New Siding

Tim Peters is installing new tongue and groove siding near one end of CRT 1797, the wood L car he is restoring.  I suppose you could say this was exsiding (exciting) to see.  It is always amazing to see the fast progress and careful work on this car.

Running Boards

Pete Galayda has completed installing the new hood running boards on the west end of Charles City Western 300, one of our steeple car electric locomotives.

Dover Strait

Meanwhile, by Barn 3 the Dover Strait is sunning itself outdoors.  All of the equipment on Track 31 has been pulled from the Barn to allow for replacement of track.  Gene Mackowiak is needlechipping decades of dried gunk and rust from the truck frames, while Bob Hunter follows closely behind applying new black paint.

Let the Sparks Fly

Victor Humphreys is cutting and fitting metal plates to work as patches on rusted out areas of our B&O wagontop boxcar.  Earlier in the day, Victor, John Faulhaber, and Lorne Tweed worked on cleaning and priming another side panel on the car, and completing cleanup and priming on the A end.

Prep Work

After a shower chased us indoors, Lorne finished work on preparations to secure tarps on the roof of the car.  That dratted polypropylene rope needs to have the ends 'burned' or it will quickly fray and unravel.

Sitting Down

Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber continue to strip and refinish seats for the Vera Cruz open car.  One at a time, they have remained under the radar and have now nearly completed the seats for the entire car!

Standee Windows

Eric Lorenz soldiers on, essentially without any additional help, on the CTS 4223 PCC car.  He is making good progress installing the standee windows on the south side, despite being under the weather in recent weeks.  This is not a "closed project" so if any of you fans have the desire to help out in this restoration, contact me or Eric.  The immediate plan and goal is to complete the body painting, paint and install the various trim pieces, anticlimbers and side bumpers, and install all the windows.  You can help.

CRT 1797

Tim Peters was again at work on the CRT 1797, sanding and trimming out the window openings.  Note the panels between the windows, made last week, and already primed and installed!