Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from August 2016

Tuesday, August 16. 2016

Thomas and Percy: August, 2016 Posted by Roger Kramer in General Blog Entries at 09:51

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Thomas and Percy: August, 2016

The attendance for the Day Out With Thomas was amazing. If you missed it remember there is always next weekend! Here are just a few views of the action.

The engineer and assistant

Do you remember who this is Boys and Girls! Yes, it Percy!

Fun

[PHOTO]

the crowds

[PHOTO]

Clowning around

I hope you enjoyed this sample of the action, crowds and various events at Irm. Thanks Roger

Friday, August 12. 2016

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

Comment (1)

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

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Comments

James Kolanowski about Milwaukee Road 33C update
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 [...]

AJ about Milwaukee Road 33C update
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...

Ted Miles about Progress update of the Multi Purpose Building
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, [...]

J Blustein about The Old Bag and the Silver Beaver
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.

Jason E about Progress update of the Multi Purpose Building
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 [...]

Thomas about It Happened One Saturday at IRM
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!

Ted Miles about It Happened One Saturday at IRM
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 [...]

bob miller about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
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?

Ted Miles about John McLoughlin Progress - Part Two
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

Jason Erkenswick about Diesel Shop update 1/29/2021
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 [...]

Alex Schneider about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
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 [...]

Matthew Maloy about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
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 [...]