Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Winterized

Spring in the Air

A sure sign of spring - although you would not know it by the weather this week.  Dave Rogan and I went out to Chicago Great Western X 38 and removed the winter blank from the window in the rear wall.  There ensued many fussy trim cuts, each one punctuated by the windy walk from the wood shop, and back to Track 41.  Finally, the window slipped into place, just like it had been made to order.  Wait, it WAS made to order.

The window is back in the shop getting any fitting cuts primed and painted but as soon as the weather cooperates, you will see it finished and in place.

Trim

With the window set in place, Dave is making a new interior window sill, and will next cut quarter round retainer molding for three sides.  That got primed in the morning by Victor Humphreys, along with more station door priming, and one adjustment to the fit of the door lower mid stile.

Primed

Henry Vincent continues on the train door restoration for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  The code string for this image is "BUM" - I wonder what that says about our crew?

Grids

Pete Galayda and John Nelligan are like bulldogs, not letting go of a long and arduous journey to restore electrical control grids for Charles City Western 300, a steeple cab locomotive.  Here, Pete is disassembling box number 7, the last one in the series.

Jointing

Roger Kramer was in the shop, working beside our crew to restore a walnut paneled door for one of the heavyweight passenger cars.  It is a beauty with a four way book matched solid walnut panel in the center of the door.  In this view, Paul Cronin, Henry Vincent and John Faulhaber are jointing a new piece of walnut.

John also spent some time making a steam bending jig, along with Rich Witt trying to locate the odds and ends to do that task.