Illinois Railway Museum Blog

More PCC Work

Cleveland Transit System 4223 - - - Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz are fitting together pieces inside the left rear of the car.  We are relying almost totally on the memory of Eric who started working on this project more years ago than he would like to admit.

Right Interior

Eric is admiring the interior work on the right side to the rear of the car.  Amazingly, this part has most of the pieces where they should go.

Right Side

Of course the object of doing as much interior work as possible has a side benefit.  With all pieces and their sequence accounted for it is possible to install the passenger windows.  It has been a LOONG time since we could look down the side of the car and see a view like this.  During the day I fussed a bit with the old narrow ceiling panels containing the bulls eye lights.  Try as a might, I made little progress with the rusty light fixture screws, following in the footsteps of at least three other volunteers.  Then I got a tip from Dave Diaz who was passing through the shop and his idea worked like a charm - relatively speaking.  I managed to remove two of the fixtures in about 30 minutes.

The Jig

Jeff Brady and Bill Peterson are reworking a steam bending jig for work on the Michigan Electric 28.  The good news is that Jeff has just about perfected steam bending and this allows creating custom stock for special situations.  Not something that was in our arsenal of tools and techniques.  You steam a board, bend the board, and after it takes a set, check the curve and fit.  Here, they have made a few adjustments to the form.

HOT Wood

When the wood has been steamed long enough you need several sets of hands to handle the 200 F stock, clamp one end, and quickly bend it around the form and clamp it down.  You have about 60 seconds to do this or face the probability it will be too cold and stiff and you might as well start the next piece.