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Wednesday, June 5. 2013RI 2612 project: May update
This is the latest progress report on the transformation of the RI coach 2612. For those of you new to this blog, we received the coach in mid-February of 2013. The efforts are slowly paying off and the interior is finally looking like the interior of a Rock Island commuter coach. I, with help from Brian Paterson, have been working on it almost once a week for the past few months. My lastest efforts have been aimed towards the lighting. I have reinstalled two missing light sockets [ I have extras in stock]. Then I found enough glass shades[also in storage] and installed all 26 of them. Lastly, I tested the lighting circuits and the lights came back on without any blown fuses. What a beautiful sight! We now have the capability of having a five car RI train that can be lite during our famous "Night time" operations. Not many people can have five cars lite up for night operations!!
 It really looks like a Rock coach especially w/ glass shades installed  Picture from the other end. Look closely at the first two pictures. Can you see the shades?  Electric applied and 26 lite bulbs installed  Looks nice  Roger scraping away the old paint Sunday, June 2. 2013Milwaukee Road Dynamometer Update
On May 25, 2013 we had 4-5 people working on the Milwaukee Road X-5000 Dynamometer car in various areas.
Chuck Trabert started out by spending time of the roof looking for small water leaks over the kitchen area. He found an old copper roof patch that come loose. We used a combination of a new spray on flexible rubber membrane sealer and his trusty Vulkem caulk.  The area of one leak over the kitchen area was identified  A soldered seam had popped up causing the leak Warren Newhauser and Larry Kuehn evaluated putting on a new kitchen door latch from the Coach Dept., but it would require removing sheet metal cladding on the door so the decision was made to postpone this project for now. Larry Kuehn installed two new jelly jar lights on both ends of the car that had been removed before the car arrived at IRM. Total time required: about 2 hours to disassemble the piping and run the new wires. These were donated by a railway supply company. They will add a nice touch to the car at night.  Larry Kuehn threading wires for one jelly jar light installation  Wiring completed for the kitchen -B- end jelly jar light  Close-up of jelly jar light installed on the kitchen end of the X-5000  A view down the side of the Dyno while testing the new lights  Larry installed the second jelly jar light on the front end of the Dynamometer car  The jelly jar light on the rear end of the X-5000 was tested and it worked - Larry is happy! Warren Newhauser installed two new time delay relays on the Waukesha propane Enginator (generator) control panel that control the automatic starting of the unit, making the controls 100% functional, except for one missing relay on the Load control Panel that is not essential. These relays which are becoming scarce, were also recently donated and were off the old KCS business cars. The car is able to generate 32VDC for the lighting and other systems.  Warren working on the Waukesha propane Enginator (generator) control panel Buzz Morissette delivered the roughly 400' of tongue and groove ceiling boards we made this Winter in the Wood Shop with the help of Bob Kutella. Buzz made several wood carlines to which the ceiling boards will be attached. He also made three wooden drip caps for the two side doors and the kitchen end door that were were patterned after those on the MILW ribside caboose 01984. The woodwork was previously stored in the MILW X-5001 caboose. All of this will be used for ceiling repairs where the original boards need to be replaced. The drip cap moldings will prevent water from running in the car when rain hits the doors.  Buzz Morrisette delivered drip caps for the side doors with other materials processed over the winter Larry, Chuck and Warren spent much of the day working on replacing a broken pipe underneath the car.  Chuck Trabert fixing a pipe  Evacuating the fluid from the heating system with a drill powered pump Pauline Trabert was the "official" photographer. Overall it was a very good day with a lot of progress. |
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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 [...]