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Sunday, July 7. 2013Wood Shop Update - July 6, 2013 Before  After Here is my nomination for the best before and after photos of 2013. On the left is one of the cab/cupola seats from our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow. On the right is its mate, with restoration complete. WOW! You last saw a pic of this two days ago as we were working on the frame. Hardly any time went by and our upholstery guru, John Mc Kelvey, has it done!! We continue to work on the restoration tasks for the plow but perhaps are a month behind our plan for the exterior re-painting. Due to rainy weather maybe six of the last eight weeks. So you have seen related work like the above seat restoration and a lot of work to restore the interior of the plow.  Stunning STUNNING or SUNNING?? This is a shot of Cleveland Transit System 4223 which came out of Barn 4 for a static display on this day of our largest Trolley Pageant ever. Those of you who have followed along for years, or happened to walk by it in our work barn, can clearly see the transformation and the possibilities for moving the work forward. This is another short report since we did put on a show with the pageant, something of the scope never before attempted at IRM or any other Museum in the USA. There had to be over 50 volunteers involved in the effort, many for several days or weeks of work. For my part I operated the Sand Springs 68 along with crew members Bob Sundelin and Paul Cronin. Thanks to both for their efforts. In addition to the many crew members needed on the equipment there was a large contingent of volunteers working behind the scenes to make this come off smoothly, staging, throwing switches, make it look seamless to the visitors. In case you did not see it in person, too bad. But our MEGA EVENT weekend focused on electric cars continues. It is not too late to visit today, tour the iconic Electroliner, and witness and ride many trains of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee. See you there. Friday, July 5. 2013Steam Department Update 07-03-2013An interim update this week as I was at the shop on Wednesday with my son who is visiting from the UK. With additional work sessions Sunday and Wednesday a lot was achieved. On 1630 the primary focus is on the remaining tasks to get the boiler water tight for initial testing. · Phil has now finished caulking the rivets inside the firebox so the rivets are now complete subject to hydro testing; · The major remaining task is fitting the two new flexible stays into the patch. These are steel rods with domed heads that must be threaded into the inner firebox and tightened so that the domed head makes a seal with the socket in the outer firebox. Here
you can see the holes in the inner firebox into which the stays will be
screwed. The end of the thread cutter is
projecting from the right hand hole.
Viewed
from the outside we can see the two sockets.
The one on the right is empty and, thru the socket, you can see the hole
in the inner firebox into which the thread will be cut. The guide and cutter are in place in the left
hand socket ready to start cutting.
Here
Tom is setting up one of the stays to cut the thread on the stay itself.
Here
the thread is being cut. This also gives
a good view of the overall shape of the stay with the thread being cut at one
end and the ball, nearest to the camera, which will seat into the socket. The slot in the ball is essential to allow
the stay to be screwed into the threads in the inner firebox.
Here
Michael is manually cutting the thread into the inner firebox sheet.
Good progress was made and by evening the stays were being screwed into place. This is not a "one-time" operation as the threads must be carefully adjusted so that they are tight but not excessively so in the threads of the inner firebox when firmly in contact with the socket. Once this is achieved the inner end is to be peaned over and caulked to complete the sealing Another major task completed Wednesday was the hammer and hydro-testing of the three air tanks. All were successfully tested to 180 psi and have now been partially stripped of paint. Paint stripping will continue so that they can be repainted before fitting. A lot of preparatory work was required for the hydro-testing, which has commissioned and tested the equipment needed for the boiler testing in the next few weeks. The water for testing both tanks and boiler must be warm. The heating is achieved by circulating thru a pool heater. Preparing the pump and heater system for use after winterization requires several hours work. This was successfully achieved and the system is now tested and ready for use in the boiler testing. I will not be at Union this Saturday so will look forward to an update myself on Sunday ! NigelFriday, July 5. 2013Wood Shop Update - July 3-4, 2013Here is a short report on the last two days. There is a lot of activity that goes unreported. Partly I do not get around well anymore, and if engaged in a project, I do not take the time off from the work. So- anyone out there want to sign up as our official "unofficial" roving photographer and reporter?  PCC Let's start out with Simon Harrison who spent the entire day cleaning up Cleveland Transit System 4223. It is stunning when clean as we have come to expect some settling of dust in the shop areas and may not remember the paint scheme this bright and clean. The purpose is that the car will be moved outdoors west of Barn 4 for public display by Saturday. The transformation of the car in the last year is stunning with a motivated and active crew installing interior panels and wiring, and that led to most of the windows being installed. Come out and look it over, you will not believe your eyes. And of course the Trolley Parade is also on Saturday.  Corner Post Tim Peters has completed the new corner post on the northwest corner of the Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 as he slowly moves from the 'take it apart' phase to the 'put it back together' work. This a what you might call a "deep restoration" of this more than century old car. Definitely not a quickie repaint.  Slicing Time shuttles back and forth from the work on the car, and back again to the shop to make up the next piece of the puzzle. I saw him here, slicing some thin poplar 'veneer'.  Cab Seat Here is the first of the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow cab seats, with the metal work done (finally). That due in no small part to help from Buzz Morisette and John McKelvey. We have sanded and brushed out the aluminum passenger car seat frames, and then cleaned, primed, and painted the angle iron support frame. Seen here upside down as the paint dries. Buzz managed to continue work on the cupola framing and new sills and window framing, and as mentioned above, there was a lot of work ongoing on Wednesday, maybe not so much a large crew on the 4th. But we noted the Electric Car Department working feverishly switching out equipment, putting together lashups for multiple car electric trains, staging the order of equipment, all for the Parade on Saturday. It will be worth the trip to see this and the weather promises to be pretty good. Come on out and bring a friend! |
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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 [...]