Wood Shop

This was another busy Wednesday in the shops in Barn 4.  One of the volunteers said to me "Wow, there are 17 people here today!"  I counted 18, so another weekday record for attendance - and PROGRESS.

Milestone Event

The lead photo today has to be Mike Alterio and Frank Sirinek alongside Chicago & West Towns 141.  Work has been ongoing to fabricate new parts and linkages and yesterday the brake rigging under the car was COMPLETE!  The trolley pole went to the wire, the air compressor charged the brake system, and the brakes were applied from the control stand inside the car.  THEY WORKED!  This was very much a team effort with many contributing to the success.  The tests pointed to some adjustments still needed but the brake cylinder, rods, bars, pins, bushings, new clevises, the many parts salvaged and made new performed as designed.

Fitting

Dick Cubbage and Jim Leonard are trimming tenons on the bandsaw for a rail on the new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38.  It is a fitting job and quite fitting that volunteers new to the work are doing and learning the skill sets.

Trial Assembly

Each mortise and tenon joint is custom fitted one at a time.  As we go along it is too tempting to resist assembling what is ready so far.  Jim Leonard, John Faulhaber, and Dave Rogan seem pleased.

Sanding

Jim is using the disc sander to take off just a 'whisker' to make the joint nearly perfect.  The smart folks do this carefully and only a little bit at a time.  Slower perhaps, but little risk of taking too much and ruining a piece.

Shaving

Dave and John are using a tenon jig on the table saw to just shave a bit off the thickness on one side of the tenon.

Results

Results are what count.  Near the end of the day Dave, Jim, and John have the entire door assembled for the first time.  They look very proud and OUGHT TO BE!

Door Repairs

Henry Vincent has been working at repairing an end train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  He has moved on to the fussy work of plunging mortises (seen here) and trimming tenons for the final fit before the gluing stage.

New Ceiling

Buzz Morisette is already at work on new lumber for creating tongue and groove ceiling boards for the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car.  Our volunteers yesterday got what I estimate to be over $1000 of new hardwood lumber and hauled it to our site in our truck.  It barely had a chance to get warm, and the work was on.  Yes the raw materials alone can be costly (donate now to MILW X 5000, CRT 1024, or ME 28) but the value of the fabricated work we do is easily five times that.  And we have the opportunity to pass on the skill sets every week to the volunteers.

Windows

What would a BLOG entry be without mentioning windows?  Volunteer Dave Diaz has returned to the fold to help out, and he and Simon Harrison are working on the metal sash windows for Cleveland Transit System 4223.   This PCC car had a lot of window work done last winter in the shops, and now it is time to finish off remaining items to make them ready to install on the carbody.