Illinois Railway Museum Blog

It is time to start separate entries for our snowplow work again.  Yesterday was perhaps the first Saturday with weather good enough to move outdoors and resume work on the snow plow - our coming out party at the Spring Cotillion.

Rear Wall

In the plow interior Victor Humphreys is nailing in the last board for the interior wall wall lining at the back of the plow.  Some tricky work as we neared the top and had to be creative to get the boards in place.

Backlit Photographers Society

Yes, this is a poor image - but I get a free one month membership in the Backlit Photographers Society if I use it here!  The second new shop made window was installed on the north wall - all the trim mitered and fit almost perfect.

Framing Timber

Bill Peterson is at the radial arm saw to cut new framing timbers for the plow interior, these destined to allow interior lining for the roof.  Buzz Morrisette went out of his way and showed up early in the AM with a car load of new wood, and we wasted no time in taking the measurements and creating short pieces from long pieces.  Then Bill and I planed these to thickness, cut notches to clear structural angles, and drilled recesses to clear rivets.

The Tally

Here is a pile of new parts cut and fit, ready for painting during our next session.  The two new framing timbers, and 23 short pieces of new lining to start that work on the south side wall.  Add to the count the completion inside the plow of the rear lining, one new window, and then Victor installing four more pieces of wall framing on the north and south sides.

OH NO DEPARTMENT - In the background of the picture is Nick Kallas on his cell phone working on a new equipment acquisition for IRM!

Interior Panels

Lorne Tweed was working inside our Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  He is working to place interior panels above the side windows and below the standee windows.  This is all part of the puzzle of what goes where.

Ceiling Panel

Simon Harrison worked on the 4223 project all day.  Here he is cleaning the back of one of the ceiling panels made last week.  Next, some light gray primer, which was quick drying but fairly stinky inside the shop.

Primed

This is a different ceiling panel, but almost done in the new primer.  Simon finished several of them today, along with more priming on the ad card steel panels (one more of which Jonathan Soucek wire wheeled into cleanliness) and the back side of the first ceiling lighting panel.

Lining Wood

Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard dug out some more lumber to be used in our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  It is still a bit inclement for outdoor work, but we are prepping as much as we can for a blitz workday as weather allows.  Here they just finished measuring them and cutting to length on the radial arm saw.

Primer

After some sanding and cleanup, Jim primed both sides of the planks.  We now should have enough ready to install to complete the interior lining inside the back wall of the plow.

Upholstery

As the old song lyric goes, "JOHNNY'S - - - BACK IN TOWN!"   In this case John McKelvey is back to IRM for the summer season (wondering where it is?) and already hard at work in the shop.  His first job on the list is repairing and reupholstering seats for the extraordinary LAKE CITY.

Saw Frame

Here is the freshly welded saw frame for the next table saw to be ready for use in the shop.  Rod Turner did the welding with setup and help from Jim Foraker.

Clean Up

Jim Leonard was working to clean up the saw frame to be ready for priming.

Round Top Windows

Rich Witt is touching up any rough spots on the two new round top windows for passenger car Boston & Maine 1094.  Moldings are fit and I think we are done with the shop work for this project.

Berlin Sander

We used the Berlin Sander in the last few weeks and here Jim Foraker is doing some fine tuning adjustments on the north end of the upper deck feed rollers.  Without such expert mechanical skills as he has, this would not be nearly so productive next time.  Thanks Jim.

A Roof

John Faulhaber is making a small boxcar at the request of Ray Bellock - for children's use this coming summer.  This is the roof being cut to size on the table saw.

The Car

John is well along on assembling what the shop is calling a toy boxcar.  How big is it?  Well, once done something under four feet long.

There was of course other work I did not capture with the camera.  Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady continued the roof project on Michigan Electric 28; we saw Steve Iverson doing some more work, finishing touches really, on the Chicago & West Towns 141; and do not forget Pete Galayda and John Nelligan working in the shop on Charles City Western 300.