We celebrated May Day working outdoors on the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow. At 82 F it was the warmest day we have seen in SEVEN months!
Victor Humphreys sands and cleans up new interior lining wood while Dave Rogan primes them as soon as they are ready. Dave also primed the two new interior framing timbers made last weekend. Several of these short pieces were installed inside the plow next to the south doorway, even as the paint continued to dry.
Jim Leonard is a champion - he volunteered at once to continue body cleanup and repairs outdoors on the plow body. The first area to be attacked was the cupola, as completion here will allow for installation of new windows made in the shop over the winter. In this pic he is wrestling with a pneumatic air scaler to remove old paint and rust from the roof.
With the weather holding favorable into the afternoon, Jim wire brushed an area clean and began applying fresh primer to the roof.
I could ill afford to let such nice weather be wasted. So we began the complicated task of hand painting the famous CORN BELT ROUTE herald on the north side of the plow. Paul Cronin assists in lining up the pattern and tracing the artwork.
John Faulhaber helped me out while planning which part could be done in the time remaining and masking areas that lent themselves to the task. Just like the old game show - BEAT THE CLOCK.
The first word we painted was of course CHICAGO. If you are not familiar with this iconic herald stay tuned. Weather permitting more will appear each week.
Below the CHICAGO there are four horizontal stripes, which could largely be masked off for painting.
The stripes were completed as the sun sank ever lower. I suppose this looks disconnected and puzzling. I guess it is - I know where we are going, yet it is hard to visualize.
I stayed on task while the other members of the crew worked on installation of more interior lining and applying steel capping to the doorway weatherstrips.
There was a lot of work done today, but I was outdoors working on another project. But here are a few images I caught walking through the shop early.
John Faulhaber is putting the finishing touches on the boxcar he is building for the Ray Bellock children's program this summer.
The repaired and restored door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36 received its first coat of blue, earlier in the week. It really looks good.
Henry Vincent is applying the shade of green used by the TM in their Cold Spring Shops as the table saw restoration continues.
Eric Lorenz and Lorne Tweed are making good progress working on the interior of the Cleveland Transit System 4223. As mentioned before, it is a puzzle of sorts and many of these pieces and parts must be sorted out and installed to allow installation of the side windows. Simon Harrison helped throughout the day.
Other work included the Michigan Electric 28 crew of Jeff Brady and Norm Krentel working on a new roof, and completion of a new door for our 1851 depot building.
Comments
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 [...]
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...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]