Illinois Railway Museum Blog

As you all have read by now we are actively pursuing funding and hopefully construction of a new Barn in the near future.  There are many worthy candidates.  I have had some inquiries on these two fragile wood bodied cabooses.  Are they BARN FODDER?

CNSM 1002

Many almost swoon at the mention of the North Shore Line.  If I said we had just discovered a hidden car that was almost unknown for 49 years, I suspect we would be getting calls from the post office to pick up our mail twice per day, the response would be so great.  Well, it is true!!  We have had this 1926 Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee wood bodied caboose since 1963, shortly after the line abandoned service.  As you might imagine, another half century (almost) of outdoor storage has not been kind to it.  Platforms rotted, steps fallen off, a tarpaper roof to help keep water at bay.  It is unique, historic, and its future is in question.  Fund R1002

CNW 10494

This one is a 1915 wood bodied Chicago & North Western caboose acquired by IRM in 1958, and it has lived outdoors ever since.  Some basic level of patching and repairs continue to be done, but you can clearly see that it is CLOSE to the end of the line.  The roof leaks and water gets into and behind the siding, and even the structural framing is being affected.   As long as equipment like this does not get under roof it is an uphill battle, a losing one at that!  Fund R10494

Yes IRM is only the second owner of these cars, and has owned them for more time than they spent with either of the original owners.  Railway preservation is at a crossroads in many areas of the country, and we have to face the issue of whether equipment saved for so long should continue to be saved.  Only today I read where the Kentucky Railroad Museum sold ELEVEN pieces of their collection for SCRAP, including four locomotives.  These wood cabooses would not bring much as scrap value but their future is by no means certain.

Many ask, why do these continue to see little attention and remain outdoors?  The answer is YOU!

Plans are underway for Barn 14 and it is not yet fully funded nor the space fully committed.  Most volunteers spend freely of their time and money to make IRM and the COLLECTION a better place; I cannot ask them to do more.  We cannot do this alone.  Substantial donations to either of these could assure them a space in the next building.  If not - well - look closely at the images.  Please vote with your dollars and help us decide if they can be saved.

Illinois Railway Museum

Box 427

Union IL 60180

In addition to the work previously reported and targeted to progress on our CGW X 38 plow, here are some examples of the wide diversity of projects in the shop yesterday.

How It Stacks Up

Certainly not a glamorous job but Simon Harrison helped to stack and move the pile of new lumber to make a new door for the station.  It is useless to merely buy the lumber, it must be carefully stacked and stickered to preserve it as true as possible.

Third Rail Beams

Speaking of new lumber basically only a week old at IRM, John Faulhaber and Randy Hicks were processing some of the heavy white oak timbers through our jointer.  That is used to surface rough cut lumber to a smooth and true face and edge.  From there they moved through the planer and then the tablesaw to rip it to correct width.  Finally through the radial arm saw to cut all to length.

Windows

Jon Fenlaciki was working on restoration of a large window for our first car, Indiana Railroad 65.  In addition to meticulous removal of old finishes, the detective in him revealed the true color of the first layer of old paint, buried well below more recent layers.

Grid Shop

Pete Galyda was visited by Dick Cubbage as here they discuss how to solve all the problems.  I wonder if John Nelligan (at work on the sandblaster in the next room) knows it is break time?

And many other tasks and projects saw work.  We almost expect Tim Peters to be on hand at 120% of what any mere mortal can do and this was no exception as he sped on a time line to break all records for a new canvas roof on one of our 4000 series steel elevated cars. Victor Humphreys was outside with acetylene torch and managed to remove another badly rusted out panel on our B&O wagon top boxcar.  Henry Vincent continued work on the new table saw and was assisted in some metal machine shop work by Rod Turner.