Wood Shop

This entry is late since COMCAST was down most of the day today.  But look on the bright side, I got to make driveway repairs!  Always on my top ten list!  And despite the title of these posts they include work done in the barn 4 shops as well as car work, often in the freight car department, and elsewhere on site.

Winner by a Nose

Jim Leonard is always a hard worker and today he spent a lot of time on the nose of Chicago Great Western X 38 Russell snowplow.  Lots of tricky areas hard to reach, to clean old rust and paint.  We would like to remove the bent train line pipe, but so far that task has eluded us.

Primed

Lots of work was done by the crew in several areas on the plow, and here Jim closes the workday applying more primer to an area on the knife edge of the nose.  Dave Rogan, Victor Humprheys, and Buzz Morisette helped along on work for the interior.

Buzz

Speaking of Buzz he measured up and cut many pieces of wood for trimming out and repairing the cupola interior.  So naturally he had to stay late and get primer on one side of the pieces.

Room With a View

One of our other ongoing projects does not get much press.  That is the restoration of Illinois Central Gulf 199458 steel caboose.  From the newly painted and lettered interior you have an excellent room with a view.  Joe Luciani is on the west platform preparing to start re-painting.

An Inside Job

The Wednesday Special Projects crew has made remarkable progress in a short time.  Here is another view of the interior, including new lettering.

New Paint

After cleaning and priming, Lee Regione is applying the new interior finish coat at the east end and under the cupola.

To a Letter

Paul Gasiorowski has taken charge of the artwork on the caboose interior - GOOD JOB - and now is documenting and preparing patterns for the exterior lettering on the caboose.

Boxed In

Rich Witt is applying finish paint to all the replica CA&E first aid boxes he built.  The color is sort of a butterscotch pudding tan, and almost close to the color of the natural wood.

On the Beam

Speaking of the CA&E, Randy Hicks and John Faulhaber have a boring job.  That is, boring mounting holes 3/4 inch diameter in new solid oak third rail beams for car 36.  That is certainly not a job for a hand drill, but it looks like they have it all figured out.

New Ceiling

Lorne Tweed, and behind him, Simon Harrison, sanded down the new ceiling panels for Cleveland Transit System 4223 and applied finish paint by the end of the afternoon.

Here is a quick report on some of the shop activity yesterday, more to follow in a separate report on work for our snowplow.

Thomas

Rich Witt was diverted from the shop work he was planning for the day as he responded to a request from Nick Kallas for some much needed last minute work to support the Thomas Event.

Saw Frame

We have been working on a new table saw for the wood shop for some time.  New to the shop, in real time nearly a century old.  Part of that work was to design and fabricate a steel base to hold the saw, and yet make it relatively portable.  Here it is, ready to weld.

How Things Fit

The base has been welded and Jim Foraker is very happy that everything fits as planned.  Here it is with the saw sitting on it and the motor and guard in place.

Name That Game

Here is an action shot of a new band saw blade uncoiling itself after being tossed out of harm's way.  I bet we could script a lame tv show for this type activity.  And if you did not get hurt - you might advance to the next round where you could fold it up again into three coils.  Here, Tim Peters is safe and sound.  This is a new heavy duty resaw blade that Tim will use to cut massive timbers for new end sills for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

Roof Scrubbing

It is hard to shoot a pic upward into a clear sky, but that is Bill Peterson finishing off removal of old paint on the front roof of Chicago Great Western X 38, our Russell Plow.

Marooned

Victor Humphreys is applying the maroon finish paint to the primed north side of the plow.  It makes a huge difference, but remember, we will apply a second coat.  I find it interesting that the code string for this image came up "CIA" but do not know what that means, or if we are in trouble with the government.

Unhinged

Buzz Morisette is working to let in new mortises for hinges to allow a last new door to be hung on the north side of the plow.  For now it remains unhinged.

The Nose

Every day we try to make some more progress on the the parts of the plow remaining painted in the ever popular 'rust' and 'yellow' colors.  Soon all traces of the C&NW yellow will be gone.  Victor is ready to prime more of the ramp, while Bill Peterson and Paul Cronin stand by.  They largely did the paint removal.

Take a Seat

Randall Hicks is taking a break and is sitting on the replacement compressor for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36 wood interurban.  They hooked up a 600 volt stinger cable to it and ran it for a while to check it out and it passed the test.  If something unexpected comes up and this is not needed, I think this would make a stylish and chic conversation piece in the living room.

In the Shade

Bill Wulfert is removing paint (many layers) from some 'pie pan' light shades.  They are destined for the 50th Avenue high level platform lighting.

Carlines

Bob Sundelin is routing new carlines using a template and pattern routing bit.  These are to be installed as part of an all new set in Union Pacific M 35.