Illinois Railway Museum Blog

            May has been a rather on again, off again month in the coach dept.  One week its been like June and the next it been like March.    So... some of our projects have been slowed by the weather changes.   As goofy as it has been we still manage to get things accomplished.   Our main focus, again, has been the upgrading of our Rock Island fleet of passenger cars. 

 With the upcoming Day Out With Thomas event we are continuing the work in the 2612 and upgrading the interior  in the 2555.  The ceiling is the last of the interior painting projects on the 2612.  Working on the interior ceiling  is very comfortable when  the weather is this cool.  Standing on a ladder and painting over head in 90 degrees is not my kind of fun.   I thought it would be a good idea to start the ceiling project when it was relatively still cool.  So we began the painting the ceiling about three weeks ago. With the help of Chase Renwick the job is almost done.   Yet to do is the painting of the steel supports  brackets.  Those can be done at any time but at least the majority of work is completed.  Not pictured but equally important is the continuing of removal of the  old yellow paint on the exterior.    Howard and Mary Gierer and Austin Harvey have been chipping and priming this  last side. Meanwhile, we also have been busy removing old peeling  paint on the 2555.    Dan Boguse has been busy prepping the card advertising holders for the eventual new coat of paint.   I was not at Irm this last weekend but Mark Hoffman told me that he, again, worked on the EL 556 and that Loraine Bixler continued needle chipping on the 2555.  l, instead, drove to the Mid Continent RR  Museum on Thursday and for the next three days worked on the Mt Harvard.   I will be giving you an update on my efforts in a couple of days.  In the mean time, please consider sending a donation in for the Mt. Harvard.  Thank you!    Roger Kramer