The coach department has again met its goal!! We have completed the interior restoration of the 2602 and it will again be used for the Thomas event. Paul and I would like to thank all of you who participated in its upgrade! Here are the last few pictures taken before it was added to the Thomas train this last Thursday. We now have five reliable Rock Island coaches, all interiors repainted and in service. Just to refresh everyone's memory the numbers are: 2555,2571,2582,2602 and 2612. RI 2524 is now being restored and might possibly be ready for next years Thomas train. Be sure to follow the upcoming blogs on this our last R I restoration.Please compare these pictures with the ones on the last blog. We had a crew of seven when we reloaded the coach with seats and backs. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures. Suffice it to say everyone was soaked with sweat by the time the job was finished!
One other person I should thank is John McKelvey. He is our in-house resident upholsterer. He has been volunteering his time in the "upholstery shop" five days a week since May working on various projects. Without his talent and expertise the seat cushions would not have been recovered with new material in this and the rest of the fleet. Thanks John, for a fine job!
Well, there you have it! Its another repaint and restoration job completed on time and in house by the coach department crew. My personal thanks to all of you who worked on the project! As I have said before, "its amazing what a coat of paint will do" If you would like to see more of this type of activity at Irm please consider a donation to the Passenger Coach Restrict Fund. Your dollars will be well spent! Thanks and see you on the Thomas train. Roger
Friday, August 12. 2016
This is small memory refresher for all of you! This is the RI 2602 two years ago before we decided to actively restore the interior. You must remember that the coach department was still restoring the 2612 at this time! The coaches interior was in horrible condition. We only had about three weeks, last year, to repainted the walls of the 2602 before the Thomas event. Here are some 2014 pictures. Like me, you will be amazed at the before and after pictures. What a contrast.
The next blog will show you what the coach interior looks like now. What a difference!
Please continue reading. Thanks Roger
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
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...