PHOTO BLUES: I resorted to a factory reset of all functions on my camera and there is some improvement in some of the images. (I tried to take a lot of photos in differing situations to get a better handle on the problem.) Seemingly there is better focus in the foreground of these frames but not good elsewhere. The autofocus frames are displayed in the viewfinder before snapping the shutter, but the software does not seem to be tracking those and instead setting focus elsewhere. HMPHH!! So put on your Mr. Magoo glasses and suffer the poor images. The glasses will not help the images, but with EVERYTHING fuzzy you may not notice the difference.
The largest effort in the shop today was to produce new interior window sills for the Spaulding Tower. Buildings and Grounds, under the leadership of Dave Diamond, continues to invest in the maintenance and repair of this historic structure. In recent months the badly deteriorated double hung windows on the second floor have been replaced. The job started with Dave Rogan, Rich Witt and John Faulhaber running large planks of untreated southern yellow pine through the jointer.
The jointed planks were ripped to the correct width and then planed to thickness - John Faulhaber, Dave Rogan and Rich Witt on the job.
The next steps involved squaring up the ends and cutting to length; Rich, Dave, and John wrestling the long boards extending between some of other machines. Then it was on to the router, four cuts with three different bits on each of the eight new sills.
The last operation was to make a relief on the bottom side and trust me, it was getting late in the day and the workers were 'relieved' to complete the job. A lot of the crew rotated in and out for different parts of the job, some required more hands than others. At the end we still had Henry Vincent, Rich Witt, Dave Rogan and Simon Harrison here posing in front of a pile of the completed sills.
Here is an end view of one of them, so you may see the old time profile we reproduced and some of the other details, seemingly simple, but not so simple in the fact of doing it.
Other work was ongoing on almost every benchtop. Jim Leonard sanded and primed more than a fistful of quarter round molding destined for the Chicago Great Western X 38. And we assembled and glued the last two of the eight new cupola windows for the plow.
Victor Humphreys completed glazing the first three new windows for the X 38, and later was seen working on new curved grab irons for our Pennsylvania 'bobber' caboose.
Henry Vincent was working on the very stiff motor for the 'next' tablesaw needed in the shop. Anyone here know much about one hundred year old three phase motors and how to disassemble then without breaking anything? This one has sleeve bearings for the rotor ends, and it is clear that many decades of old oil and grease has mostly solidifed in place.
Buzz Morisette has been showing up extra days in the shop and earlier this week completed the first painting of three large sheets of solid core birch plywood. These will be used for new ceilings in the private car ELY.
Not the child toy building blocks, but Buzz continued making new blocking for the ceiling in the ELY. Not exactly square, most one of kind different length, and tricky to install and fasten in place.
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 [...]