Illinois Railway Museum Blog

More Windows

Rich Witt is putting the finishing touches on the fourth CA&E window he has reconditioned.  Next job?  Bring it on!

More Windows

Tim Peters completed the planned window change out for CRT 1268.  Here he going through the process of fitting and trimming each sash to the opening.

Steam at IRM

Ray Schmid and Jeff Brady are manning a home made steam generator as Ray slides in a wood slat for the end roof of Michigan Electric 28.  Some of the curves on the end cannot be bent without this additional step.

Needle Chipping

Frank Sirinek has gone quietly about his business; largely staying beneath the radar as he restores Kansas City Public Service 755.  A lot of the windows have recently been changed out, and there is remarkable progress on the interior painting and finish work.  Cold temperatures, strong winds, and a steady drizzle which became a downpour did not discourage Frank from using a needle chipper to remove paint from two more interior panels.

End Gate

Roger Kramer was on hand in the shop, cleaning up a passenger car end gate for the Pullman Car John Mc Loughlin, to be primed and painted.

ASSOCIATE CORRESPONDENT Nigel Bennett sent in this report.  Note: He has been promoted from cub reporter to associate correspondent.

Work on Frisco 1630 (2-10-0) has continued the last couple of weekends.  The job of knocking out the old tube ends has progressed steadily thanks to the efforts of Collin, Jason, and particularly new volunteer Chris who contacted us through the BLOG and visited last Saturday with his brother Eric.  Through their combined efforts we now have about 2/3 of the plus 200 tube ends removed from the front tube sheet - so about 1/3 of the total.

Front Tube Sheet

That is Collin wearing the green hat with white polka dots.

The next sequence of photos show how it works with Collin inside the boiler with a pneumatic chisel collapsing the tube plug that was left when the tube was cut out.  These three pics show one tube in particular on its way out.  Can you sharp eyed viewers spot which one?

Plug in Place

Plug Coming Out

Gone

In this last shot Chris and Eric demonstrate what a day in the boiler can do for you!!  Thanks guys - that was probably a record first day in the Steam Shop!!

Dynamic Duo

In parallel with this Bob and I have largely stripped the boiler back head fittings and lagging to give access to the firebox for testing.  Mike, Bob and others have now removed all but two of the rivets that must be taken out to allow the area of the patch to the firebox corner to have the steel removed and replaced.

Nigel Bennett