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Sunday, November 11. 2012Steam Department Update 11-10-2012Steady progress over the last two weekends in the steam shop. As ever with the winter approaching there are the jobs needed to prepare for the cold. Last weekend a lot of time was spent draining the boxcar water supply and removing the softener head to the safety of the shop. Not much to show for the effort but it would be a real bust if we have the locomotive ready to run and the water supply was not operational. Piping for the new air system arrived along with some more that we need for 1630. Unfortunately it looks like the supplier had a bad day!. Only one of the 3 types ordered was delivered correctly!. So now we have to arrange return and get the correct material. One of the joys of a volunteer shop working at weekend. You are not there to spot errors when material is delivered. On 1630 we pushed ahead with the key tasks: · Ed and Richard found a good process to anneal the copper ferrules. Sometimes simple is best. We had discussed using the electric furnace in the car shop but, on further discussion, that is not really designed to be opened and closed while hot as we would have needed to do to batch heat the ferrules. So, in the end, the method was to slide them along a rod and heat them with the acetylene torch to a red heat. At the end of the rod they dropped into a bucket of water. Eventually the process was so quick that I did not even get a photograph and all 130 that we needed were done in a couple of hours. · Jeff, Jerry and Alex worked thru the hydro-testing. The work ran well into the evening but, by end of day, they had successfully tested all 16 super heater flues and the new air tank. This was a good if muddy days work. For flues the rig is secured by a long rod running the length of the flue. At one end is secured a blanking plate.
While at the other is attached the plate thru which the water is pumped and pressurized
At least we got it done before the weather broke. The air tank tested fine at 240 psi so we can run the air compressor output at 150 psi. This will be a big improvement over the existing reservoir that runs at the system pressure of 90 psi. If we are regulating the system down from a higher reservoir pressure we should get a steady 90 psi at the output. · Meanwhile Mike continued with the patch. The two additional rivets have been successfully removed and focus is now upon final bending of the patch to achieve a tight fit all along the mud ring while aligning with the front and side sheets of the firebox to allow an accurate weld to be made. · On the main activity of tubing, the production line described a couple of weeks ago is now starting to show results. · Cutting to length is now established. Cutting with the chop saw is a spectacular operation. However it is now done quickly. The required master tube is laid alongside the tube to be cut, the distance set and the tube is cut in less than a minute.
· From this operation we have a satisfying stack of nearly 50 tubes cut to length, rough edges removed, painted and ready to load into the boiler. The stack on the fireman's side now shows that we need to get tubes off the stands and into the boiler before we run out of space.
· On the engineer's side we have a further supply fully swaged and annealed ready to cut.
· Meanwhile in the swaging area we brought in another bale of 37 tubes and have about 50 ready for another heavy session in the furnace. Below is a progress log. We are moving forward but there is a lot to do. Follow our progress !
Hopefully I can be a bit more productive next Saturday. After a 10 day business trip to the UK, I was not good for much by 6:30 so it was a short day for me!! Nigel Sunday, November 11. 2012Barn Fodder ?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
Thursday, November 8. 2012Wood Shop Update - November 7, 2012In 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. |
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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 [...]