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Monday, September 5. 2011B&O Wagon Top Update - September 3 & 4, 2011 More Jigs Rich Witt has just about completed the female side of a jig for bending new metal for the 'posts' on our wagon top boxcar.  The Old Grind Victor Humphreys and Ray Pollice helped the project along with more cleaning of the old rusty sides and trucks, and priming. Buzz Morissete is shown here manning a grinder to smooth down the weld 'worms' on five of the new patches. Monday, September 5. 2011News and Views - September 3, 4 2011 Steaming The weather was great yesterday and the Leviathan was looking good. Here she has just dropped the coach train and is running light for water. Including today you only have three more chances to see and ride behind this locomotive at IRM. Don't wait.  Slats Jeff Brady and Ray Schmid have made hundreds of thin slats for the end roofs of the Michigan Electric 28. Now it is time to install them, basically each one trimmed and custom fit to build up the two layers to fit round contour roofing on the car ends. This is shown on the rear end of the car.  Making Tracks We have previously shown work in progress to completely replace the number 31 track in yard 3 and inside Barn 3. Those fearless, hardworking track guys have assembled two large stacks of prefabricated track panels.  First Panel The old rail and ties have been removed inside the building, and Buildings and Grounds, in the personna of Dave Diamond, has graded and leveled the track bed. Using the Burro crane, the first panel has been lowered into place and is about to be bolted up. As each panel is connected, that will allow the Burro crane to lift and run further inside with the next one.  Stripping Paint Roger Kramer was hard at work stripping and cleaning many layers of old paint from the east end of the JOHN MC LOUGHLIN. The weather turned cooler and I am sure that made this work much more enjoyable - as if grinding old paint was ever an enjoyable pastime. Thursday, September 1. 2011B&O Wagon Top Update - August 31, 2011 Exercise The boxcar got some rare mileage 'exercise' as it was pulled from Track 40 by the US Army switcher.  Into the Barn The car was turned end for end to facilitate the next work, and then travels Track 41 going into Barn 4. Note the good progress in cleaning and priming several of the side panels.  Patches Not the old pop song "Patches", but some new steel. Five areas of rusted out sides were removed and new steel plates made by Victor Humphreys. Rod Turner welded them in and now the grinding will ensue to smooth out the repaired areas. At day's end the car was turned again and placed back on the Track 40 work area.  New Fixture Meanwhile back in the shop, Rich Witt was making the female part of a new set of fixtures and dies to bend some sheet metal for future application to the car. Using hard oak, we are hoping the new metal can be formed to shape and then used to patch still more rusted out parts on the car. |
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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 [...]