Illinois Railway Museum Blog

We spent most of the day yesterday on our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  WOW!  Two workdays in a row with good weather.  So this entry will show you some of that work, not so many pics since I spent more time on the business end of a needlechipper rather than behind the camera lens.

Visitor

When I arrived about 8:30 I was greeted by long time member Kirk Warner who now lives in Florida.  As always he was eager to get started and is a very hard worker.  Out comes the needle chipper and here he is 'enjoying' the removal of a substantial amount of old paint on the right side of the plow.

Done

We finished a lot of small and some not so small touches on the left side of the plow in recent weeks and now that side is essentially DONE.  The new door is glazed and installed (not without more drama as befitting that task), grab irons re-installed, truck and flanger blade primed and painted, and you have already seen the new windows on that side in previous entries.

Front End

In addition to all the paint removed by Kirk Warner we also continued chipping and cleaning the front left ramp on the plow.  Victor Humphreys is priming that.  Earlier, Bill Peterson worked on the front roof area, and another section is done.

A Stretch

Reaching all these areas to clean them is is a stretch.  No less as Victor continues to prime what are hard to reach areas.

Get a Light

It was not all work on the plow for the entire Museum and many were occupied as the crews for Diesel Days.  On one of my cooling breaks (it only got to about 90F in the shade but there was no shade), I noticed Bill Wulfert has many of the restored 50th Avenue platform light ready to install.  I know this is not plow news but hope you will forgive me - we grow with diversity.

I guess the monsoon season is over for a while since we had another clear day.  But it was HOT!  When I left it was 95 F and some suburbs reporting at 98 F.  Add to that we had intermittent power outages from Com Ed restricting what work we could do.  In the morning, outages limited shop compressed air for work on cars, and car inspections, three phase motors in the wood shop were out, some of the diner and restrooms were without power.

Inspections

In Freight Department News, another five cars were brought over to track 41 for their annual inspections and lubrication.  These included GATX 75470, IRCX 1277, RI 19135, UP 3786, and URTX 26640.  It was brutally hot in the afternoon and the hardy souls who did this work should have earned a few days off, or at least a cold shower!

Records

Paul Cronin led the inspection team including working on the switch crew that brought the cars over and put them away at night.  Here he is completing some of the recordkeeping and paperwork.  He was assisted by Simon Harrison and John Faulhaber.  Anyone seeing these in operation should send a thank you their way.  I do not know how they did it without more cooling breaks.

Now That is a BOX

Without any fuss or ado, Rich Witt is quietly going about the business of completing the replica first aid boxes he has been making.  He was adding hinges and latches today so we are within sight of the goalposts.

Bucket List

It is very popular today to talk about your life BUCKET LIST.  Is bucket work on it?  Jim Leonard is up there priming the frame channel on the end of the roof on our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  He and Dave Rogan soldiered on most of the day with nowhere near enough breaks.

New Windows

Here are some new windows on the north side of the plow, installed this week by Buzz Morisette.  Now, both sides have these in place.

A Glazed Look

Victor Humphreys installed the new window glass in the snowplow door that we have been working on.  Brian Patterson was walking by and he stopped to check out a new trim strip we were fitting.

Ramp

Henry Vincent and Brian Patterson were making an access ramp to bridge the gap from our elevated walkways in Barn 3 to one of our passenger cars.  The reason?  Read on.

Mens Lavatory

We have a special chartered tour group that will be walking through the Great Northern John McLoughlin Pullman car.  It is very much a work in progress and here Brian is showing us the Men's Lavatory.  This is a 1929 8-1-2 car which was built for the original launch of the EMPIRE BUILDER, a name train which survives today with AMTRAK.

Open Sections

The "8" in the car layout description is for eight open section Pullman sleeping accommodations.  This is what would greet you as you entered the car.  The facing seats on each side of the aisle would make up into a lower berth at night, and the curved sections of a sort of ceiling above that seating would fold down to create an upper berth.  I wish displays like this could be open all the time, but it takes some planning and volunteer effort.  We need to thank Foreman Roger Kramer for the work and opening the car, and Brian for his work to make it accessible and safe.