Sunday, October 25. 2015New Motor Buses Arrive and Garage Moves Continue - 10/25/2015Two new acquisitions arrived this past week. The first is Bee Line 512. Historically, the focus of the Motor Bus Department has been exclusively transit buses. This is our first intercity bus. It is a Yellow Coach Model 743 (Our first Yellow Coach), built in 1939 and just oozes 30's inside and out. Photos simply don't do it justice. There are so many little details, you could look at this coach 10 times and find something interesting every time. Yellow made 1,256 of these and ours coincidentally is serial number 1256. It will be stored in the Hoffman Garage so visitors will be able to see it.
The second is a Twin Coach Model 40 from St. Louis Public Service, coach number 3529 (x529). This one was built in 1932 and seated 40, which was an unheard of number back then. Over 1,000 of these were built but only 4 survive and only 2 of those are complete. Ours and one beautifully restored at a museum in Tucson, AZ. For both coaches, we do have the parts that appear to be missing such as bumpers and headlights.
As you can see from the photos, both these coaches need work. However, we feel they are significant enough to be saved and added to our collection.
With these new arrivals, it is necessary to maximize the indoor storage that we have in the Andersen and Hoffman Garages. We came up with a plan to put more buses than ever under cover. For the first time we are mixing motor buses and trolley buses in both garages for the simple reason of fitting them into the garages more economically (space-wise). Of course this means moving virtually every single vehicle in our collection. Yesterday's moves completed our reorganization of the Andersen Garage and we started on the Hoffman Garage. We hope to complete the moves within the next couple weeks.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank Richard Schauer, who assisted in unloading the two new coaches and was the driving force in the planning and executing of the garage rearrangement. He also supplied the historical and technical information on the coaches. I don't know what we would do without him!! Thanks also to Greg Kepka, Vince Allen, Fred McGullam, Thomas Slater, and Joel Ahrendt. They were a HUGE help in getting so much accomplished yesterday. Also a shout-out to the track guys who finished using the big forklift and bought it over for us and to the Steam guys who lent us their small forklift for working in the Andersen Garage (the big forklift won't fit through the doors there). Often times the terms thrown around are "At no cost to the museum" or "an outright donation". Obviously things like that are great and very much appreciated. The misconception is that these acquisitions are "free". To start with, these new coaches are going to cost thousands of dollars to transport. Once here, the basic needs are glass and tires. Again, we are talking thousands of dollars. And we haven't even gotten to the traditional restoration. If you are starting to plan your year-end giving, please consider the Motor Bus Department. We are not only looking to fund these acquisitions, but also to eventually build a new garage. EVERY donation is GREATLY appreciated!!! Thank you. Monday, October 19. 2015
The Crane Lifting of the Mt. Harvard Posted by Roger Kramer
in Passenger Car Department at
20:04
Comments (3) The Crane Lifting of the Mt. Harvard
Here are some pictures and descriptions of the incredible Mt. Harvard crane lift that took place at the Mid-Continent RR museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin, Oct 14 and 15 of this year. [Near the Wisconsin Dells] I would like to thank all who donated to the restricted fund, Mt. Harvard project. You helped make it possible to ship this sleeper to the museum in just five months! Maybe a record!! Everyone is cordially invited to view the Mt. Harvard at Irm. Special thanks to Paul Cronin who advised me when ordering cranes and the trucking company.
Yes, this sleeper was quit heavy. Its 93 tons required two cranes to finally lift its off its trucks. [wheels] I hope you have received the most current Rail and Wire newsletter. Its cover article outlines and explains the history of the sleeper and its donation to the museum.
In future blogs I will be discussing more about the move to the museum. The current dollar estimates to rent cranes and the special trucking have depleted our restricted fund balance. Please consider a donation to the Mt. Harvard so we can continue its future restoration.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support. Roger Kramer
Sunday, October 18. 2015Steam Update September / October
In many ways this is a depressing time of year in the steam shop. In the Spring there is a substantial buzz as you turn the large dead mass of steel that you have worked on all Winter into an active steam engine. The reverse process in the Fall is less fun but just as necessary. However, aside from the regular work on 1630, a great deal has happened in the shop and it promises to be a very exciting Winter.
The end of season was celebrated with a department cook out. Everyone had a good time. Many thanks to Jeff who came up with the idea and organized the food.
On #1630 a lot of work has been done since the last operations at the showcase weekend. Over the last three weekends:
tender was emptied and cleaned;
boiler drained and all the washout plugs removed and stored;
brick arch taken down and removed;
smokebox, tubes and firebox washed out. (This is a really fun job involving a lot of time in confined spaces with a high pressure hose so that you end up stiff wet and black. I did a lot of this last year and was not sorry that I had to be in the UK when it was done this year!);
the locomotive was run on air the weekend of 10/10. This is an important step to remove water from all parts of the mechanism and accessories. The boiler is pumped up with the Sullair compressor then the locomotive is run back and fore a number of times to clear the cylinders, valve chambers and super heaters. The all the accessories, injectors, air pump, generator, etc. are operated on air so any remaining water is removed.
The remaining job is to finally wash out the boiler. Given the low temperatures this job, originally scheduled for this weekend, was delayed. This is another job that guarantees the operators a good soaking so not at all pleasant at 45 degrees!!.
#1630 will come into the shop in a couple of weeks once work is finished on painting #938. For this Winter we have scheduled the usual mix of annual inspection and mechanical improvement work. This Winter is not planned to be as demanding as last (time will tell!!). The main target, aside from the annual inspection, will be an inspection and overhaul of the valves. Hopefully, unless something unexpected is found, this will require fitting of new rings to the valves and casting of a new babbit bearing for the fireman’s side crosshead, which is getting close to maximum allowable tolerance.
This weekend there was a very good turnout and many jobs were progressing at once.
Obviously the biggest focus after #1630 has been Shay #5 and this will continue to be the case. Much has been achieved in the last few weeks and Brian arrived this weekend for a major work session over the next couple of weeks.
Substantial progress has been made on the smokebox. The holes have been drilled for the rivets into the front ring. These are now bolted into place, which makes the fit so tight that the smokebox bottom is largely watertight (as we found this weekend – see below);
The holes must now be drilled for the rivets into the boiler barrel and then the process of riveting can begin;
Many valves, gauges, injectors and the water glasses have been fitted all in preparation for the big milestone of filling the boiler;
On Saturday the throttle body was fitted into the boiler. This is a very tricky task as the large and heavy unit is a close fit on the opening in the dome and must seal where the long vertical pipe seats on the elbow of the dry pipe. So moving the pipe as you try to position it risks damaging the critical seal, on which the throttle body sits. After much effort it was successfully fitted and the next big step was started;
The boiler was filled with water for the first time since 1999!!. With a couple of stops, to address leaks as they were identified, the water level was raised into the dome. Overall the result was very encouraging. A major problem with #5 was a number of badly blocked stays, some of which were behind the frame or motor and would require a great deal of stripping to replace. Huge effort has gone into clearing these but the risk is that this could have cracked some of them. To this point we have found one stay where this has happened but it is in a nice accessible position, so no issue to replace. Experience is that a stay broken in clearing is most likely to leak even without pressure so the fact that only this one revealed itself is a cause for growing confidence;
The broken stay was plugged temporarily with a nail and a number of tubes that showed minor leaks were rolled to seal them. In the next couple of days the dome cover will be fitted and the water heated to test under pressure.
So a LOT of progress. Watch this space!.
Glen and Stu were busy South of the shop and succeeded in starting and testing the traction motor of the Bay City crane. That should now be close to being able to move under its own power again. They also replaced a union in the fuel line of the “critter” (the 4 wheel diesel that can provide switching power at the South end of the shop). This is a useful unit but has been very unreliable in starting. Glen has found and fixed a whole bunch of blockages and defects in the fuel supply so that it is becoming much more serviceable.
A number of us were working on the new compressor set up. Jeff is hoping to spend a couple of weeks on this to get it close to, if not fully, operational.
Max was running the conduit to bring in power for lighting and outlets;
The 480V supply was disconnected and made ready to move the ducting to bring it into the compressor shed;
Rick was completing the wall facing to allow the pipes for the cooler to be mounted. The large compressor is sufficiently powerful that a 60ft cooling run is suggested. This will be on the wall inside the shop and will provide a useful source of heat when this unit is used in the Winter;
The placement of the pipework was agreed and a detail parts list developed. This should be delivered in the next few days so that Jeff can move ahead with the installation;
Dennis was working on the flanges needed to connect the compressor to the cooling array and air intakes.
On #428 Ed has substantially completed his exercise of identifying and fitting the myriad of pipes originating in the cab. One pair of copper pipes proved extremely frustrating as they did not seem to relate to any identifiable equipment although we did have some pictures that indicated roughly where they were when the locomotive was stripped. The most likely answer after much forensic work is that as late as 1947 the locomotive had a hydrostatic lubricator but, when retired a few years later, it had a Nathan mechanical lubricator, which it still has. Ed now believed that these pipes are part of the feed from the old hydrostatic lubricator that were never removed as they were under the lagging. No wonder we cannot find anything that they connect to!.
The above picture shows both Ed’s recent task and his next
one!. After completing the pipework he
will start rebuilding the reverser air cylinder.
Throughout the Summer Phil, with assistance from anyone who looks underemployed / he can rope in, has worked on de-rusting and priming the running gear of #938. Huge progress has been made and she is looking a great deal better. In the next couple of weeks the priming and painting will be completed so that the areas that have been de-rusted do not deteriorate again.
So a very busy time in the steam shop with a lot of progress.
Nigel
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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 [...]