Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Bye Bye Bungalow

We will start off with a shot of a new signal bungalow  loaded on one of our service trucks by the signal department.  Volunteer Frank Carraro has worked most of the summer to install and pre wire most of the circuitry inside it.  On this overcast and dreary day these hardy souls determined they would move it across our mainline west of Barn 2 and install it on a new gravel pad.

Bobber Windows

Kit form – many of our members and volunteers have model railroad roots so here are some of the new windows for our Pennsylvania wood caboose, still in kit form.

Quality Control

One of next steps was completed with the manufacture of over fifty feet of small custom molding to be used as the beading to retain the glass once the windows are finished.  Rich Witt did the engineering drawing and Rich and Paul Cronin helped machine them out.

A Shiny Finish

Joe Luciani and Ed Walsh moved us one step forward on the interior of Cleveland Transit System 4223.  They sanded and painted the second coat of finish paint on all of the ad card panels.

Square Holes

Paul Cronin continued his quest to help manufacture eighteen new passenger car windows.  Here he is on our mortising machine and by days end, had plunged something over 500 square holes into 36 stiles.  These were one quarter by one quarter holes and several in a line to create slots to serve as the finished mortises.

Sign Box

Tim Peters is almost finished creating new roof mounted sign boxes for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  At least it looks like he is finished but I am sure there are many more steps to do, fit to the car roof, paint and mount them, and then to make period sign rolls, and glaze the boxes.  Oh yes, add lights and wire them up.

Headlight

For Michigan Electric 28, Norm Krentel worked some more on a new headlight for the car.  On the right is the original light which remained on the carbody when we discovered it over forty years ago.  On the left is a similar headlight obtained from Orange Empire Trolley Museum and is being used as a parts donor where pieces of the original are too far gone.

Roofboards

Also for the ME 28, Jeff Brady is working to fabricate new roof boards using some good looking southern yellow pine.  The old pieces lie underneath this new stock in the photo.