WOW! Lots to see and report on this project!
Gerry Dettloff works to weld up some of the surfaces on the truck pedestals. With the truck totally dismantled for painting, repairs are being made along the way to renew worn areas and breathe new life into the truck.
Several of the pedestal liners were worn, cracked or missing. These should be replaced with new, and we feel we can fabricate new ones to suit. The problem is with sourcing the manganese steel plate used for these wear parts. So, if anyone has a shop willing to part with a few square feet, it would save us the prospect of having to buy an entire sheet, a very expensive sheet at that.
We said things were moving fast on this project, and were not kidding. Here is your FIRST LOOK at the new tires, now delivered to the machine shop for mounting.
Also in the shop, here are two of the old wheel and axle sets, with the old tread turned down and ready for the new tires. The new tires get heated to a substantial temperature to expand their diameter, are placed on the wheel hubs, and then shrink and grip as they cool. This is a technique and proven process that has been used in the rail industry for over a century.
Victor Humphreys works to get green interior cab paint on eight new windows for Norfolk & Western 2050. You can also see a whole lot of new beading strips that were made, and of course those all get painted before glazing the frames. Some progress was also made ripping, planing and sawing pieces for two more new windows for the locomotive.
Work was finished on a new door for the C&NW 10304 caboose and the door installed by Victor.
Pete Galayda has fabricated new parts to go into the cab interior for Charles City Western 300. Now primed, look for them to get the finish gray enamel soon. John Nelligan crawled into the far recesses of the hood and managed to extract a control resistor which proved to be good!
Other work in the shop included Rich Witt doing the finish work on two new window frames for the GLEN SPRINGS. Frames have been fit to the openings, tails on the stiles trimmed, bevels cut on the bottom. Rich worked to use a router with a special jig he developed to plow out pockets for the lift hardware. Rich has scheduled surgery for a knee replacement after the first of the year and we all wish him a successful process, less pain, more mobility, and a speedy recovery!
Thursday, December 8. 2011
John Faulhaber works to get the right fit between the painted retriever and retriever mounting ring for this car, while Pete Galayda and Jim Followell 'supervise'. Before mounting on the rear of the car, we thought to check the fit and had to sand away some of the new paint buildup.
Lorne Tweed has returned from his travels and he and Simon Harrison continued their work on the car, cleaning and refinishing side window sash, and working to get some of the newly painted parts and trim back on the car. More parts were delivered by the paint contractor, only two pieces remaining to be delivered.
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...