Chicago Aurora & Elgin 308 was a visitor to Barn 4 yesterday. Randall Hicks was able to operate the car to here and spot it over the pit for annual inspections and maintenance. This type of behind the scenes labor requires skill and time and is often unnoticed. But very important if we wish to have safe cars to operate for public rides.
Pete Galayda is completing the insulator mounting arrangement for the grid boxes on Charles City Western 300, a steeple cab locomotive. That orange is REALLY ORANGE!!!
Simon Harrison is mounting window tracks in the openings on the right side of Cleveland Transit System 4223. These were pieces laboriously cleaned up last year in the shop during poor weather conditions and now they are in their rightful place.
While Simon worked on the right side, Lorne Tweed raced to stay ahead of him by mounting more of the window post caps on the left side of the car. Other activity on this car included removal of the twelfth light fixture from the old decrepit ceiling panels, removal of all old rusted in screws from those and the steel backer plates, wire brushing the plates ready for paint, and fabricating two more new ceiling panels.
Tim Peters is examining some of the side framing on Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. As so often happens, any little thing becomes a much bigger thing. A rotted window sill was removed and this led to the discovery of water damage and rot of two of the cars window posts.
Tim is working on the platform at the west end, discovering more needed repairs layer by layer. Here he is down to the steel for supporting the end platform and fitting some reinforcing steel. And this is one of the GOOD corners!
We also noticed a lot of infrastructure and site work in process. At least five new steel poles for the electric trolley bus system extension have been painted and are ready to plant in the ground. Concrete forms were being prepared to sink in the holes as soon as they are dug and dry - we hope.
Work continued on stump removal from a low area that had 'volunteer' trees and brush growing in it for a decade or more. This will be a big improvement to the parking area, more capacity, and improved drainage.
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
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...