WOW! Bill Peterson and I walked out the the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow to see about the work being done on installing the new ceiling inside it. Here, Bill looks on while Victor Humphreys and Jim Leonard fit another board. As you can see they are within sight of the finish line. At this stage almost every board has to be trimmed, notched, or otherwise fit around supports and other features. And of course to prepare for these steps, there is the invisible work in the shop. Almost every work day, Victor primes more new boards so they will be ready. While winter has arrived, if the weather does not get too bad and there is little snow cover, look for this stage to be finished by the end of the year. I suppose I should not have said that - predictions are almost always the kiss of death.
We continued to work on new windows in the shop for our Pennsylvania Railroad wood caboose. Bill Peterson was introduced to the fussy work of custom fitting each joint for a new sash.
In between other work, John Faulhaber took on sash number three and worked on one joint at a time. After lunch two were done pretty well, and we proceeded to set up the glue press and do the final assembly. We started these about two weeks ago and two are assembled already! Of course these are pretty simple compared to some sash we have tackled.
Tim Peters continues to work toward making two new roof mounted sign boxes for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. The originals were removed by about 1914 so these are all new fabrications based on photos and evidence left behind on the roof and carbody.
I mentioned John Faulhaber was doing other work. Early in the morning he could be seen at our mortiser machine plunging square holes into stiles for new passenger car windows. These are old machines and a flat leather drive belt finally separated and broke. John and Rod Turner crafted a replacement and by later in the day, the machine was back in service.
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 [...]