Alex Randow continued removing paint from the rear ceiling liner, now down from the ceiling and leaning inside the car. Sort of dusty in there, or a soft mood shot by my camera.
Part of the process to install the side windows is the needed window post cap in the interior. There are many of the originals that have been saved, but among them all, we only found one in decent shape. Various degrees of rust out and corrosion made most of the rest good candidates for repair or replacement. Ed Grzesik is eyeballing one.
Eric Lorenz was able to produce many fabrication and detail drawings for these very pieces. Frank Sirinek, Ed, Eric Lorenz, and Lorne Tweed are checking them out.
The decision was made to try to repair them, fitting and welding in new metal where needed. But they are not exactly one straight piece. There is a bend of a few degrees near the bottom, reflecting the shape of the car side and framing. Lorne and Ed are discussing ways to create a fixture to hold the alignment while welding is done.
Ed is a great practitioner of the dark art of metal fabricating, but clearly seems at a loss while Lorne makes sawdust, cutting some parts for the above fixture.
Ed has the fixture standing up at a welding bench near the east doors of Barn 4, marking and planning the first cuts. Next, he begins surgery to remove the bad areas on one of the post caps.
With the wheelsets out of one truck, the bearing surfaces were being cleaned up and wrapped to protect them during the next steps at the machine shop.
Then it was time for a SWITCH MOVE!! This can either inspire terror in the hearts of the crew assigned to do this, or awe and lots of pics snapped by the bystanders. We needed TM 972 back in Barn 4, behind three cars at the west end of Track 41. And it started the day four cars deep on Track 83.
About 4 PM here it came, heading east into Barn 4. I cannot remember the last time this car may have been on this track; and it was moved here to pull the remaining original truck from beneath the car, then to remove the wheelsets on that.
One of the byproducts of any such planned string of moves is the appearance outdoors of cars that seldom see daylight. Here, SS 68 rests on track 43 to the west of Barn 4. Later it motored under its own power to a new spot inside Barn 8 for the coming winter months.
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
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...