|
|
Thursday, December 29. 2011Wood Shop Update - December 28, 2011The holiday spirit was all around us and the smell of sawdust filled the air as a few souls put their other activities on hold and came out to work in the shops.  Defying Gravity Tim Peters continued on his monumental quest to get new windows made for the Chicago Rapid Transit 1797. While Randy Hicks stopped by to consult on his work for the CA&E 36, we caught this odd image of a new window sash defying gravity. Actually Tim modified a commercial jig to drill angled mounting holes in the sash. If you have been following these entries for some time, you may remember seeing a more elaborate home made contraption over a year ago, which was used to do a similar task for CRT 1268 windows.  Ripping Good Times Roger Kramer, John Faulhaber, and Rich Witt made a lot of progress yesterday on our job to build nine new windows for Illinois Central 3996.  Production Rich and John set up the various jigs and featherboard on the table saw and Roger and John continued to process the pieces. Altogether 36 pieces of stock were handled. The blanks were ripped to size, a roundover beading created on the table mounted router, and the rabbet cut on the table saw to accommodate the glazing. Rich laid out the needed mortise slots on the stiles, and Roger squared off and cut all the top and bottom rails to length. A good days work!  New Item I have been working to build a new jig for window work, to square and size rails on any of our new window projects. It is a bit of a challenge to make this out of hard maple, essentially to machinist tolerances, and to envision the needed adjustments and flexibility to handle whatever the future holds in store. Rich Witt helped out by patiently listening to my tale of needed functions and closely examining some of the seven pieces seen here, and contributing suggestions and tips. Wednesday, December 28. 2011Steam Department Update 12-26-2011A few of us have managed a couple of mid-week work sessions over the Christmas period. The significant visible progress is that Eric and Chris did a great job on cleaning out the interior of the boiler on 1630. After all the cutting of tubes there was a mass of debris in the boiler that they spent most of Monday clearing with brushes, rods, magnets and vacuum. Thanks to their efforts we now have a good basis for preparing the surfaces for inspection. A step that we need to carry out soon is the sand blasting of the firebox tube sheet. We have the sand blast equipment, breathing helmet and supply hoses BUT - no really suitable breathable air pump. If anyone has access to a suitable pump - (oil-less, about 10 c.f.m. at 5 p.s.i.) please let me know. Otherwise we are facing a cost of about $1000 for such a pump. I had the chance to photograph the firebox with the defective corner cut out:
.............. and the piece removed:
Interesting that it is very much in line with the problem suspected by the specialist who attempted the temporary repair in May. This was that, when a replacement tube sheet was fitted (believe in the late 1930's), it may have been fractionally narrow and pulled into place by the rivets causing stress cracks in the corner. Looking now at what is the inside (water side) of the corner you can see the welded joint between the "new" tube sheet (on the right) and the original firebox. This runs thru the last rivet hole on the left in the top row. Sure enough you can see that the tube sheet is fractionally set back from the original firebox side. The crack that resulted can be seen running from the second rivet in the top row. (They look a lot worse now as a good deal of metal was ground away from the other side of the plate when removing the rivets). These cracks would have formed over many years as water worked on the weaknesses caused by the stress in the corner of the new tube plate. The other major work in these sessions was unplanned!. Initial testing of the swager disclosed several problems. The large dies that actually compress the pipe proved to be jammed. Several of us spent a day removing, carefully cleaning and polishing the guides and refitting these. Sounds easy but each weighs about 100lbs and they are linked by 4 inch long 1 1/2 inch steel guide rods that must be a tight fit - but not jammed!. Good thing there were not too many around to hear the language on the occasions when we put them together, found they still jammed, and had to get them apart again!. Still, they are now back in place ......... and it is clear that there are also issues with the air control valve. So that is the next step. Nigel Bennett Friday, December 23. 2011New Railroad Update, December 22, 2011A lot has happened quickly on this subject. A lot of IRM member help has developed as well as local model railroaders who have joined the effort. In many ways this a sad or gut wrenching effort to saw apart what was years of effort and fine work. I will follow this with a set of photos showing some of the work, but not a lot of prose. The pics speak for themselves.  Cutting the Rails Al Reinschmidt starts the process.  First Cut Henry Vincent begins the ceremonial first cut through a layout section near the door.  Drill It Wally Unglaub works along the west wall.  Moving Mountains  Planning Meeting Henry Vincent and Barb Lanphier engage in some strategic planning over lunch.  Hard One This part had been constructed around a building support column.  More Sections Gone This area is now empty but was filled with layout sections two days earlier.  Old Men of the Mountain Bob Kutella and Henry Vincent (red hat visible) pop up inside one the spectacular sections of mountain scenery.  The Way Out Bob and Henry work their way out of the mountain. A lot of time was spent on hands and knees.
|
Blog AdministrationCalendarQuicksearchSyndicate This Blog |
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 [...]