Passenger Car Department

Entries from August 2016

Friday, August 12. 2016

Back in service: The RI 2602 Posted by Roger Kramer in Passenger Car Department at 20:47

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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.

This picture was taken just after we completed the painting of the ceiling

Please compare these pictures with the ones on the last blog.

Jeff is priming the last of the seat pedestals. Yes, we cleaned all the rust from each frame and primed them.

We also paid attention to many details in the coaches.
Here Buzz is applying decal numbers on the bulkhead of the 2582 coach. Yes thats me looking on.

It turned out to be real hot the last couple of weeks but we continued working in spite of the heat. Thats the new fan we purchased to kool the crew!

Bob Olsen finishes the painting of the seat frames. Each one is now painted and properly working.

Seat frames are now painted. What a difference.

The weekday crew Jane Sandy and Jeff. Not in this picture is Scott our in-house artist.

Another view Thats Jane in the foreground and Sandy in the background

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!

The seats cushions are all installed and Bob Albertson is cleaning the dust and grime off the wall.

Its ready for the Day Out With Thomas.

I hope the public will enjoy the new interior. It was well worth all our hard work!

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

2602 Before the restoration Posted by Roger Kramer in Passenger Car Department at 14:34

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2602 Before the restoration

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.

These pictures were taken April 21, 2014

A very dark and uninviting interior.

What a mess! Would you as a customer want to ride in a car like this?

The next blog will show you what the coach interior looks like now. What a difference! Please continue reading. Thanks Roger

Monday, August 1. 2016

RI 2602 It will be ready! Posted by Roger Kramer in Passenger Car Department at 06:28

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RI 2602 It will be ready!

I want to show everyone our latest project rushing to completion for Thomas. We have a small crew that has been feverishly working on restoring the interior of our last operating Rock Island coach 2602. Paul Cronin and I are very proud of the quality of work that we all have accomplished this season. We are just like Metra upgrading the interiors of our equipment. Here is the latest report, then, on the Rock coach.

The four person team has completed the painting on one side of the ceiling and now our attention focuses to the last side

Jeff has finished chipping and sanding areas above both doors. Next step is to clean with xylene and prime.

Another focus on the coach was to remove any ugly peeling paint on the exterior. Again Jeff needle chipped this stairs and now Sandy has begun priming it.

Jane AKA Steam Dept Jane has been working with us on the weekdays all summer. Here she is continuing her priming job on the second half of the ceiling .

Its water break time for her. We frequently do that to prevent any illnesses from the heat. As you can imagine its hot up there next to the ceiling.

This shows the vast space to be primed and painted. Jane is walking to retrieve another ladder

Sandy is priming the last section on the ceiling while in the back ground Jane has already begun to finish coat the primed areas

Do you sometimes wonder how your donations benefit the museum? Here is a prime example. We just purchased two heavy duty 6 foot step ladders and an 10foot aluminum plank scaffold to be used on this project! Your donations made it possible to purchased this equipment. Sure makes it a lot easier working on the ceiling.

The new ladders and scaffold are in use is this picture. This makes the painting of the ceiling a lot easier and safer. It also saves time.

This picture was taken, July 28, 2016. This weeks agenda includes painting all seat frames, heater covers and nickel seat frames. While that is proceeding we will also finish top coating both areas above the two entrance doors. Once those jobs have been completed we will sweep and clean the floor and begin painting it. Next week, once the floor is dry, we will begin cleaning by washing walls and cleaning windows. Lastly, begin moving in all seat cushions and backs. We shall then have reliable clean interior permitting us to focus our future attention on other projects. We need some help to clean the interior and move/ fit the seat cushions back into the coach. Please consider volunteering. The more volunteers we have the more fun there will be. Remember, Day Out With Thomas is soon approaching, August 13 and 14, and we would like to have the help to make things easier on all of us. Please consider helping!! Thanks Roger

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