Illinois Railway Museum Blog

There was a lot of work done and a lot accomplished in the last week.  Stay tuned as I hope to find time to post extensive updates.

Stakes

Dan Fenlaciki was at the big bandsaw cutting new stakes for a flatcar project being managed by Mark Secco.  I think this is for CGW W 52 which acts as a crane tender car.

Wear Plates

Gerry Dettlof and John Faulhaber are installing steel plates to either side of the freight door on Lake Shore Electric 810.  Their purpose is to minimize damage, dents, and dings when freight is loaded or unloaded from this traction trailer.

Left Side

Gerry continued with installation of the second steel panel to the left of the door.

Herald

I was caught in the act of painting the second Great Northern herald on our GN 70104 hopper car.

In the Clouds

Frank Kehoe had his head in the clouds as I caught his good side in the viewfinder.  L car CRT 1797 was 'modernized' in the 1930's with a drop ceiling.  Years of crud, dirt and debris have accumulated, and he was diligently applying the shop vacuum to improve the situation.

On the Roof

Tim Peters, meanwhile, is applying the finishing touches to the completed roof of the 1797.  A lot of work, a lot of parts and paint, and an uncommon persistence to finish the job.  Usually the phrase "Petering out" means you are fading in the mission.  Not so with Tim Peters.

Vera Cruz 19

A crew of three were on hand Friday to work on Vera Cruz 19.  Mike Alterio, Frank Sirinek, and Mike Stauber were fabricating and fitting new metal at the base of the front dash.  This is part of the often invisible work done by Frank and his crew for constant but incremental improvements to this car.

Buffy

Also on hand for the above efforts was BUFFY who was acting as sort of a LINE SUPERVISOR or PROJECT MANAGER.

Playground

Dave Diamond has been leading a large volunteer crew assembling components and now constructing the playset.  Kind of wet in the morning, but I bet a dozen or so were working in the afternoon and it is taking shape.

End Floor

One of the steel CTA 4000 L cars has been in the barn 4 shop areas for a number of years.  Today, Rich Block came on a visit and was fabricating and cutting metal to allow re-pouring of lightweight concrete MASTIPAVE for the end vestibules.

Priming

Victor Humphreys continues his almost one man efforts to restore the B&O wagon top boxcar.  Here the first two sections of the south side have had all rust and old paint removed and now have been prime painted.

No pic for this news item, but late in the afternoon, Tim Peters, Rich Block, and Bill Wulfert crawled under the CRT 1797 L car.  You have seen the work done by Tim and others on the carbody and now on to the underbody, mechanical, and electrical systems.  The air compressor was inspected, and they then discovered it could be rotated freely by hand.  Not bad for something that has not operated on its own for half a century.  This was truly a piece of good news.