Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from August 2016

Monday, August 1. 2016

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

Comments (11)

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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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...

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Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
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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
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Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
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Jason Erkenswick about Diesel Shop update 1/29/2021
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
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Alex Schneider about Dover Strait Progress Part Three
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
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