Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from Sunday, March 3. 2013

Sunday, March 3. 2013

Rock Island 2612.....We're workin it Posted by Roger Kramer in Passenger Car Department at 20:31

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Rock Island 2612.....We're workin it

Yes, the latest coach, RI 2612, is begining to look like a coach once more!! Matter-of-fact one of the electric car members visited yesterday and even remarked it sure looks a lot better!!!

Notice the curtains in the windows

The interior before we touched it. Just to refresh your memory

This is the interior last week

Here are the amazing results of just a few hours efforts. Warren Newhauser and Paul Cronin are watching the old paint just fall off the celiling

Scaping the peeling white paint

Another Rock Island fan and new volunteer, Brian Patterson, really got into peeling the old carpet off the wall. In many places it peeled off right to the bare metal. Thanks for your help, Brian. See you next time,when it's a little warmer. BTY, as you can see in this picture, Warren was working without his coat. After I removed the gray curtains the sun came thur and warmed the entire car. It was quite comfortable.

Yes, That WAS RED CARPETING

Here we all are working away this last Saturday Feb 2, 2013

All the xmas boxes are gone

Looking better

Hey, Paul, is the floor swept?

A final surveying of our progress

The results of one days efforts

As you can see with just two days of work the car has been transformed into a work of? NO, not yet! Much work to be done. Next, removing the green fabric on the indidvidual seats and scraping more paint; then sweep,sweep and more sweep. Want to help? Please come out on a Saturday and/or Sunday and stop by Barn 3 to say hello. If you can't make it please consider a donation to Rock Island 2612 fund to help pay the track storage fund. Remember, with all our efforts this Will happen....................... More good news is coming.... Roger Kramer

Sunday, March 3. 2013

Steam and their friends Posted by Roger Kramer in Steam Department at 13:26

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Steam and their friends

Nigel has been in the UK this last week. Here are a few examples of the events happening in the Steam dept this last Saturday. Often the question is asked "How come it takes so long" Well, I guess its because of the old machinery, I'll show you some pictures. There is a learning curve to these old, steel behemoths from a bygone era! Acquiring the techniques to repair and restore the engines and machinery, is not an easy task. Most if not all the people that you see in these pics, whether from myself or Nigel's pictures are all "new" to the program. The only volunteer that has been w/ the Steam program since the 1970's is the curator, Tom Schneider.

Tom, this is the lesson for the day

He is teaching and passing his knowledge to the younger generation. Here are the teams latest efforts. Remember, SAFTY is rule number One.

Phil painting... He is one of the youngest members

Jeff and Gerry hanging new air line pipe in new shop addition

cleaning backhead parts

more wirewheeling

Dennis, shop welder, finished welding Bull gear for the wheel lathe

Ralph working on the old planner. An important machine to get in operation. To be used for the 428 driving boxes

Rest

Now, as Nigel would say "Another productive day" ................................. An important milestone has been reached for the 1630; Dennis has welded the patch into place............................................ Cheers!!!! Your help is still needed for three projects. Donations are still needed for the Restricted fund Rock Island 938 and Restricted Fund CB&Q 3007 for indoor Barn Storage. Lastly, $ are still needed to continue funding the rebuilding of UP 428. Thank You Roger Kramer

Sunday, March 3. 2013

Wood Shop Update - March 2, 2013 Posted by Robert Kutella in Wood Shop at 11:39

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Wood Shop Update - March 2, 2013

There is a Pattern to the Work

Or in this case, the pattern IS the work. Frank Kehoe shows off a very elaborate piece of woodworking - be sure to look closely at the full screen image to see the hundreds, maybe thousands of small pyramids milled into the surface of this slab. This will be sealed and then sent to a foundry for a cast iron pour. Ultimately the finished castings will provide new threshold plates for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. Non skid? You bet!

Berlin Sander

The work continued on the Berlin Sander, assembling and lowering the deck back onto the mechanism. That was not without DRAMA. Bill Peterson and Dave Diaz did a lot of the 'heavy lifting' and here we are only a few parts away from finishing the re-assembly.

A Working Sander

Dave Diaz and Bill Peterson wasted no time after we did some checkout and got the machine running. Here is one of the two new doors made for Chicago Great Western X 38. Both doors went through the machine without incident, although I think some more adjustment and fine tuning could be made on the feed rolls.

The Doors

After sanding, both doors had the tails cut off of the stiles. We leave those long to protect the assembly in handling, but now they are squared off to finished length. Then we sized and squared the previously made lower panels. Bill Peterson and Victor Humphreys are calling it a day with the panels in place on the first door.

Interior Tongue and Groove

Warren Newhauser showed up early and got a head start on the T&G we made three weeks ago. Here he is cleaning them up to ready them for prime painting. These will be installed in the Milwaukee Road X 5000 dynamometer car.

Priming

Warren, new volunteer Brian Patterson, and Buzz Morisette are busy with the paint for the X 5000 boards. Yes, it appears Warren was working hard and shed the green shirt he was wearing earlier.

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Comments

Ethan Armitage about A brief history of 9976
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.

Jamie Kolanowski about New Acquisation: What is CN 15444?
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.

Jamie Kolanowski about Burlington Northern 9908 body work
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.

Jamie Kolanowski about Burlington Northern 9908 body work
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]

Johncrpenter about New Acquisation: What is CN 15444?
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum

Lincoln Strickland about New Acquisation: What is CN 15444?
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025

Nick about Burlington Northern 9908 body work
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]

Steve Smedley about Milwaukee Road 33C update 3/23/2020
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds

James Kolanowski about Diesel Shop update 3/5/2025
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.

Joe S about Diesel Shop update 3/5/2025
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?

James Kolanowski about Milwaukee Road 33C update
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 [...]

AJ about Milwaukee Road 33C update
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...