Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Making Tracks

Not exactly making them, but trying to make them new again.  Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz are going over a pile of them, trying to set aside the hopeless ones.  I think there are seven different varieties of these parts for ONE WINDOW, making the scope of this something north of 200 pieces.

Let There be Light

On the carbody out in the barn, Eric Lorenz continues to install trim and more parts.  The headlight is now complete visually, although a new reflector bowl inside and the bulb and wiring remain.

A Step Up

The last of the two fold up steps to the roof have come back form the painter and are now installed just to the rear of the mid car exit doors.  Eric checks the last screws to be sure they are secure.

Windows

What would any of these posts be without the ubiquitous window work?  Keith Letsche returned to the shop and is working on reducing the large pile of sash that remain to be cleaned, and coated with clear finish.

I think I would like to start this report with some eye candy.  And I will lump together many projects in this one entry rather than constructing many of only an image or two.

Archeology

Victor Humphreys is holding a stained glass window from a heavyweight Pullman car that Buzz Morisette has expertly restored.  This and a few others, were found in a forgotten dusty corner of an IRM storage boxcar by Roger Kramer, painted over and looking poorly.  Buzz stripped, cleaned, and refinished this to be glowing example of the carbuilder's design and craft.  Victor did some research.

Apparently these were stripped from a car we did not acquire, one in very poor shape and destined for the scrapper's torch.  It is a good thing these were saved, even if we had no car that needed them.  This is from Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe 1332, the SAN MIGUEL, built as a library buffet car in Pullman lot 4254.  The car was converted by Santa Fe to a coach combine, used as the caboose on some branchline mixed trains and regrettably was not saved.  But a STUNNING example for display someday at IRM.

Bushings

In the most recent TMS Project entry I mentioned the work being done to renew and rebuild the trucks.  John Faulhaber is holding a brake lever showing the three new hardened bushings installed.  Thanks to some expert work and machinist skills from Rod Turner, all four of these levers are complete, and additional replacement of bushings continues.  Installing each one of these new bushings is not a trivial home hobbyist workbench project!

On Track

Lorne Tweed is cleaning and repairing window tracks for our PCC project, CTS 4223.  A dusty pursuit, and one requiring quite a bit of time and patience for each set.  30 plus sets required!

14 Windows

Buzz Morisette continues on 14 windows for ATSF 1400.  The gluing, sanding, and assembly is about done, ready to begin painting and glazing.

Cooperation

Ted Anderson stopped by, from our Pullman Library.  Any project usually involves a lot of input and effort from several different departments at IRM.  The Wood Shop is creating new windows for the Steam Department (N&W 2050), and Ted is using cadd files created by us to print full sized templates for the new sash.

Tricky

Victor Humphreys is focused on cutting some tricky two tongued tenons for one of our current projects

Some Assembly Required

Victor and John F have made the first assembly of a new door, to test fit and see how it is beginning to shape up.