Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Air Brakes

As the saying goes - "In spring a young man's fancy turns to -  -   -  AIR BRAKES".  While it hovered barely above freezing, the sun was out. Kirk Warner and Victor Humphreys moved to the frozen tundra for more work on our wagon top boxcar, B&O 374065.  Perhaps in proactive mode, the existing service portion and emergency portion of the air brake control valve were removed and brought into the shop.  Here they are with the heavy brake parts in a box - I was too slow on the trigger to catch an image of them outdoors under the car.  Both portions were replaced under the car with spares we had on hand.   They also began checking the other air piping and replaced a missing union on the line to the retainer valve.

Interior Trim

Not a good pic but the work is EXCITING.  Eric Lorenz is inside Cleveland Transit System 4223 and most of the new window post caps are located and in place.  Eric is holding up one of the next features to be installed, a horizontal piece that goes above the standee windows and ties to each of the post caps.  Maybe you had to be there but each advance they make presents a big impact and visible progress.

Finished Door

This door for Chicago Great Western X 38 is nearly finished as demonstrated by Kirk Warner applying the maroon paint.

Second Door

The second door for the X 38 is following closely on the heels of the first.  Victor and Kirk are doing touch up filling and sanding and later primed it for the second coat.

Door Panels

Paul Cronin and Bill Peterson are drilling dowel holes using a special jig setup on one of the small drill presses.  About 88 holes later (no, really!) one of the panels was assembled, glued and clamped.

Panels

See, they really are ready to glue.  Paul, Bill, and Buzz Morisette are checking to make sure everything is in order and lines up before the glue is slathered on.

Step Boxes

Father and son team, Tom and Jim Windmeier were making many small parts to repair and recondition the custom railroad step box replicas they made last season.  They were well used last year throughout the summer, and now are being tuned up for operations this year.

Round Tops

Rich WItt continues to work on the two new round top windows for Boston & Maine 1094.  Here he is fitting the fussy mortise and tenon joints on each end of the bottom rails.  One done, one to go.