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Tuesday, September 16. 2014Coach Department Update for September 13-14, 2014Saturday, 9/13/14: Jennifer met with Mark Gellman about the Halloween train. Later Mark and Michael McCraren took the old window out of the Pacific Peak vestibule door. A new window and gasket were acquired. Sunday, 9/14/14: Ray Mormann worked with Mark and Michael McCraren to install the new window and gasket in the Pacific Peak vesibule door. Michael Baksic, Ray, and Mark spent a good portion of the rest of the day in the Silver Ridge. Michael McCraren also worked as a conductor on the coach train on Sunday.  The new vestibule door window with gasket rests on a table in the Birmingham - Photo by Michael McCraren  Mark (outside) and Ray work together to install the window and gasket - Photo by Michael McCraren  Butter knives helped line up the gasket in the window opening - Photo by Michael McCraren  Mark is sqeezed in the door while Ray works on adjustments inside - Photo by Michael McCraren John McKelvey took a chair from the Santa Fe lounge car apart, down to the frame. He plans to reupholster it. Jon Habegger was going back and forth with visitors in the 1st Exhibit Car. Shelly Vanderschaegen vacuumed the Loch Sloy and cleaned. Thursday, September 11. 2014September 7th - Coach Department UpdateMichael Baksic and Mark Gellman set to work on the buffer of the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific 2555 that was pulled from the coach train last weekend. They spent most of the day on this project and will have to order parts to complete the repair. Later, Mark started changing light bulbs in the Lochsloy and Pacific peak for the Screamliner.  RI 2555 buffer repair was begun by Mark Gellman and Michael Baksic - Photo by Jon Habegger John McKelvey continued working on the Henrietta seats but needed trim pieces to complete them. He fully expects to be finished with these seats this week, for this year at least. John is a snowbird and is getting ready to fly south. Thanks again, John, for your many, many hours of labor on the Henrietta seats. Shelly Vanderschaegen completed vacuuming in the Silver Ridge and Pacific Peak which basically took all day. Jon Habegger took pictures and then was in the 1st Exhibit Car greeting visitors. Lunch visitors in the Birmingham included Bob Hunter who talked about the rubber flooring for the Dover Strait, and Kevin Brown, one of our favorite people. Nick Kallas also joined in conversations and food. Lackawanna 556 report courtesy of Brian LaKemper: Over the weekend of 9/6 and 9/7, Brian P. and Brian L. each put in several hours needle-chipping and sanding the interior of Lackawanna 556. They also tested a new small media blaster that can use baking soda, ground corn husks, and ground walnut shells in place of the usual (and difficult to remove!) sand. The results: when the blaster is functioning, it does a good job of removing paint; however it is slow going and the blaster frequently needs attention. For the moment, needle-chipping and sanding will be the primary paint removal methods. However, the media blaster has not been entirely abandoned, and will be tested further as time allows.  Brian P. is sending chips of paint flying off the walls of the car - Photo by Brian LaKemper  An in-progress shot of the end of the car - Photo by Brian LaKemper  A close up of Brian Ps efforts - Photo by Brian LaKemper  Brian L. spent about a half hour on each of the window posts in this shot - Photo from Brian LaKemper Between the two Brians, a large pile of paint chips, used blasting media, and other material was swept up on Sunday evening, along with a general cleaning and organizing of the various tools, cords, and air hoses that are needed for the project. Wednesday, September 10. 2014Model Railway Display BuildingMany preservation railroad museums have a model railroad for the enjoyment of their visitors, especially the younger folks. In another step in Irm efforts to broaden and diversify railroad themed displays the museum is going to construct a building to house a large model railroad layout. Here is your opportunity to help fund this building project. Now that I have your interest let me give you some background how this concept came about. It was in Oct, 2012 that Irm was given the opportunity to save a complete model railroad. In this case in HO scale. We made arrangements and carefully dismantled the full basement size "empire" and moved it to a storage facility at Irm. That in itself was a large undertaking involving many, many, hours of volunteer work. To complicate matters the layout was located near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now the largest question you might have is "What has been done since then?" In order to build a display hall to house this collection we have begun raising funds for construction. This article is to inform you that we are 70% into accomplishing our goal. The building will be constructed on the Main Street site. We have a purposed building plan, that includes the main display room as well as support facilities. The exterior is designed for a period appropriate façade in keeping with the theme of Main Street. We have also received cost estimates from various building contractors.  View of proposed Model Railroad building So what is keeping the Museum from breaking ground for construction? Yes, you guessed it! We need more donations before we can have that ground braking ceremony. Sending a donation to the restricted fund marked RMRD can speed up the building process. With your help we can make this into a reality! Just think of the possibilities... A layout of HO gauge, and maybe G gauge, S gauge and N gauge. You can come out to the Illinois Railway Museum, ride real trains then stop by the Model railroad building and view model trains in action. It's a win-win day-out with trains. What an exciting day it will be showing your children and/or grandchildren the excitement of model trains. Don't forget.... send your check or email your donation and mark it .... RMRD for Restricted Model Railroad Development. Please stop by and visit with Henry Vincent. He is the Project Manager and will appreciate your interest and support. Thanks Roger Kramer |
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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 [...]