Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I have been delinquent in posting current news but trust me, there has been a LOT going on in the Freight Car Department with every day this week seeing work done, as we try to make the most of an unexpected late fall spell of good weather.  For our B&O wagon top boxcar project, some significant milestones were reached.

Blast It

We began by hiring a contractor to sandblast the roof areas to white metal, to remove all the rust and remaining traces of old deteriorated paint.

Blasting

Finishing Up

BLASTED

John Faulhaber looks over the results on the roof.  By spending money here we avoided  an entire summer's worth of volunteers sweating it out on top, and got a completely clean surface.

A Clean Sweep

The contractor was finishing up, touching a few more spots, and blowing off all traces of the blast media.

Spraying Primer

John Faulhaber and Buzz Morisette were able to change their schedules on short notice and come out to help on a Monday.  The new primer is being sprayed on the roof.

Windshield

A bit of a breeze came up in the afternoon and the paint crew coped with that by using a sort of shield to minimize blow away.  Behind them is the painted roof area.

Patching

On Wednesday Rod Turner and John Faulhaber were fitting and welding new steel onto one of the rusted out ribs on the corner of the car.  In previous weeks we had fabricated some of these tricky pieces of sheet metal, and now the results came to hand.

Done

Looks Good

John Faulhaber checks the work before prime painting.  This will complete repairs this season on half of the right hand side of the car.

Within the scope of the world debt crisis, this did not cost a lot of money - we got a good price, and struck while the weather was good.  But we REALLY need your help and support to pay the bill.  OR - perish the thought - I will have to dig into my meager billfold to cover the costs.  Any donation, large or small, to restricted fund R 374065 will assure that restorations like this will continue to proceed.  THANKS!

The big news was the progress and activity on our Cleveland PCC car.  At one point yesterday, there were SEVEN volunteers working on this one project!

So, at this point, we would like to welcome Alex Randow, Mike Willer, and Ed Grzesik to the crew and thank them for coming out and helping with the work.  At one point the car actually got crowded and some work went to other areas in the barn.

Rear Anticlimber

Mike Alterio repaired one of these channels last week, and was setting up and measuring for some needed work on the second one.

Roof Ladder

I am calling this the roof ladder, but more like three pieces of grab irons to be mounted to the roof, after painting and priming.  Alex Randow is cleaning this up, and it was really a good job when he finished.  Then he moved on to complete cleaning the rear bumper that was repaired last week.

Marker Lights

Alex moved to the shop and began cleaning some marker light assemblies that will be painted.  A total of four markers and two stoplights are being worked on.  Mike Willer joined him after lunch.

Sign Box

Lorne Tweed was cleaning and removing old paint from the inside of the front sign box.  It got primed later in the day.

Door Boxes

Alex Randow had sanded and cleaned the boxes and covers housing the electric door motors, front and rear.  Here, Lorne is prime painting the rear ones.

Window Trim

With all this activity in full swing, Eric Lorenz was kept busy answering questions and supplying parts to be worked on.  But he managed to find time to install interior trim pieces under the standee windows on the north side of the car.

Glass

Then Eric got up on the ladder and began installing new glass in the openings he had just prepared.  These really make a great visual impact in the appearance of the car.

Front Dash

Ed Grzesik is a welder by trade, building heavy machinery.  Here he is making repairs to the front dashboard area of the car.  Plugging holes, welding patches, and grinding them smooth.  Mike Willer was cutting new pieces for the patches and Ed had them tacked in before you had time to turn around.

So with all this activity you can see a lot of progress on installation of window and interior areas, that had to wait for years for most of the exterior paint job.  But of course this means money is being spent for parts and supplies.  So, the commercial - donations would be very welcome to restricted fund R4223 to assure that milestones are reached and goals met.