Illinois Railway Museum Blog

As we set to work in the morning it was raining so we moved into the wood shop.  Dave Rogan, Rich Witt, and I manufactured about 50 feet of special profile molding (two different shapes) to act as stop jambs for the window and door openings.  The rain stopped so everyone shifted gears and went to our 'outdoors' shop space.

Floored

Buzz Morrisette was fastest on duty and he continues to cut out damaged flooring and to replace the heavy boards.

Visitor

Mr. Hans Bolt was visiting IRM from Switzerland and we showed him the plow work in progress.  Dave Rogan is explaining the mechanism for moving the plow wings.

Priming

Victor Humphreys set up ladders to work in tight places once we opened the plow wing.  He wirebrushed all the areas needlechipped of many layers of old paint, and then set about applying primer.

The Edge

It is pretty easy to see large flat areas of the side that are cleaned and ready for paint.  But there are a lot of odd details still needing attention.  Dave steadies the ladder while Victor gets to the upper rear edge of the wing.

Working not Watching

There is always some task ready for attention.  When Victor did not need a ground man for the high painting, Dave Rogan set up a needle chipper and began to attack the steps under the rear door.  Dave also did some work chipping the cast steel door threshholds during 'intermissions'.

QUIZ

Here is your quiz for the day.  The rear truck has casting marks indicating it was originally for the New York Central.  Interesting, but not unheard of for rail equipment to have had their trucks swapped for any number of reasons or maintenance.  But look at this image.  To the right of the bolster pocket there is a raised part of the casting, with a hole in it, and a slot behind that hole with a sheet metal retainer of some sort.  There is one on each side of the bolster pocket.  Does anyone have an idea what their purpose was??

We considered that these are freight car trucks.  Parts of the NYC ran from third rail but no reason to attach any kind of device to pick up current for a freight car, and unlikely there could have been any need for an inductance box or other device to be hung there, to trigger signal indications.

This will be a relatively short update.  We did not have a lot of volunteers, and many probably chose to spend the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day Weekend, with family or other pursuits.  But we did get a lot done.

Rear Wall

This is the rear wall, now nearly done.  Saturday we did some blacksmith work and straightened the metal above the rear window.  It had bowed inward about a half inch and there were sledgehammers swinging and some new words invented.  With the wall straight, we fabricated remaining window framing, primed it, and installed it, as seen here.  You can also see some of the bodywork and filler that has been applied to smooth out weld areas, where the missing metal panel was welded in below the window.

North Side

On the north side the goal is to have some finish paint applied very soon.  But needlechipping remained to be done in some fairly inaccessible areas.  Maybe that is why it was saved until last.  Look up under the small roof overhang behind the plow wing, half is cleaned up.  By days end, all had been chipped as well as the short notch wall behind the plow.  Of course that meant we got to charge up the air system and move the wing out, and then back in.  Obviously a railfan effort of fun, but we 'needed' to do it.

Front Anchor

On the front nose of the plow is a massive anchor casting and that is used to mount a front coupler when needed for ferry moves.  There really is no springing or draft gear in the traditional sense, merely a very stout pin to hold the coupler in place.  What you see could interfere with good snow removal and the air pipe and hangers often got damaged or bent in severe situations.  So it was made largely removable for winter operations.  There is also a train air pipe down to the coupler mounts, and when the coupler was removed, that pipe has a universal joint and the drop leg is swung back and over the plow roof, to rest upon it, in front of the cab cupola.  In the background, note the passenger department roof repairs underway on DM&IR 84.

Surely you modelers will want to include this detail on your masterpiece.  Walthers made a model of the Russell Plow in HO scale and while out of stock, they can be found on E bay.  This detail is not included on the model.  A little kitbashing and adding details and you will have a very credible model of the real thing, only found at IRM in Union IL.

Rare Visitor

I will digress strictly from the snow plow report, here, to show a rare visitor to Barn 4.  The Nebraska Zephyr is receiving a detailed inspection and some repairs in preparation for the upcoming excursion trip.

And in the Freight Car Department we completed a two and one half week blitz to repaint our Borden's Milk Car, BFIX 520.  We sanded, primed, and applied two coats of finish enamel to the top half of the car, as well a some washing and cleaning, and a repaint of the black handrails and grab irons.