Illinois Railway Museum Blog

OK, back on schedule almost.  Here is some sampling of work going on in Barn 4 this week.  A wide selection of project work, and I saw many other volunteers, working on still more projects.

Lettering

Last week I did a sort of tease showing the Great Northern X 1390 tank car lettered with only DIESEL.  Moving on, it now carries the complete DIESEL FUEL OIL legend on its side.

More Lettering

Then it was on to add more lettering, this time two blocks on the center sill.  We have the railroad reporting marks and car number on the right, and the builders painted logo on the left - American Car  & Foundry.  I guess our shiny new paint job on this car is holding up since the reporting marks are clearly reflected on the belly of the tank, just above the center sill.  Jim Leonard filled in the open apprentice position in our lettering department and helped on this work.  What do you think?  Does he get a passing grade?

Still More Lettering

It is only a small detail but you can see the white diamond shaped character on the tank car dome.  Of more note is the fact that this was possible due to the re-mounting of the dome walkway and ladder on this side of the car.

Specialist

Jim Heinlein is working the needlechipper to remove decades of rust, grime, and oily residue from a truck on Charles City Western 300, a steeple cab locomotive.  He is rapidly becoming our specialist 'go to guy' for this type of work.

A Glazed Look

Jeff Brady has that glazed look (no, not really) as he glazes two restored upper sash window frames for Michigan Electric 28.

Engineering Department

Rich Witt continues to hold down his spot at the drafting table.  The window sash there is a cupola window from our Pennsylvania Railroad 'bobber' caboose.  With his drawings complete, it looks like this will be our winter shop work this coming season.

New Canvas

It almost seems that three crews are racing each other to put new canvas on their project first.  For this car, John Faulhaber is on the scaffold while Gerry Dettloff rolls it alongside the car, challenging John to keep up.  This is the first coat of canvas paint for the roof of the Lake Shore Electric 810 freight trailer.

Jointing

Paul Cronin is jointing some of the over 100 pieces of stock on hand for new passenger car windows.

Ceiling Car Lines

Buzz Morisette did a lot of work on ceiling repairs in the observation end of private car ELY last season.  He has moved on to the dining room where these new ribs will stabilize and repair the badly deteriorated car lines.