Passenger Car Department

Here is our finished recreation of IC 3345!   We have yet to apply the lettering but that will be accomplished as soon as time permits.    I  hope you think our efforts are well worth it!     We do.    As I have previously mentioned we hope to repaint another passenger car next year.   As for now our painting volunteers are going to take a winter vacation and start the next paining project in Spring of 2018. This does not mean we are stopping our progress.     On the contrary,  we will just focus on other projects.    Please watch for the future announcements.   In the mean time please send any suggestions that you have to this blog address.I cant thank these people enough for all their efforts in making this paint job happen!Yet to be completed is the painting of the vestibules.   Yes, our next big job is the stencil lettering and numbers.  Estimated cost is $437.00.   We have placed an order for them and should be arriving in the next two weeks.  I would like to thank all of you who have sent in donations for the IC 3345.    It shows our hard working volunteers that our efforts are indeed appreciated and that, you, indeed like what we are doing in the coach department.   We will, very sincerely, try to excede your expectations by improving the appearance of our  passenger car collection.   Please consider sending  donations to your favorite piece.  It does make a difference.         Thank you                    Roger    

We have been very busy this early fall.  All the volunteers that work in barn 10 have been recruited into the fall the painting crew.  As you now know various painting projects have taken priority this year.  We are trying to get all these projects completed before winter starts.  By now you have seen my blog progress on the IC 3345.   That is not the only department car being reworked. We have also been slowly restoring and repainting the roof of the, John Mcloughlin, our 8-1-2 Pullman sleeper.  The painting of  black is the culmination of our hard efforts.   Please take a look!  It might not look like much but some of our volunteers have spent over 8 months working for this moment.  In addition,  Howard Gierer and crew have repainted five roofs on our Rock Island fleet.    .   Please consider sending in a donation the help support more  restoration improvements on this heavy weight sleeper.   The John Mcloughlin  project needs your support.          Thanks            Roger

This last Tues and Wed saw the final step in the painting process on the IC 3345.   Howard, with my assist, applied the yellow yellow stripe to this side of the 3345. We had a very small but productive crew, Tuesday.  It seems like a few of  the steam department volunteers have also been enjoying helping the coach department.    This was the case Tuesday when Matt Gustafson decided to help us.   He is a very energetic young man who jumped right in and began sanding the other side of the coach in preparation for the final coat of brown.     Thanks for all your help, Matt.  Hope to see this coming Tuesday.      I can not overemphasis the amount of time/work that goes into just masking off this entire 85 foot coach.    Painting is the easy part compared to the time spent setting the lines for the yellow stripe.   For a clean straight edge we used 3M  blue tape purchased from our local Sherwin Williams paint dealer in Huntley.  If you would like to see more passenger cars painted in the future we would like to suggest a donation to the coach dept  fund or to the individual pieces listed here.     Up for consideration for future painting projects are the following pieces.    Although not in any order of importance are the following projects.     Milwaukee Road X5000, Pennsylvania  Cascade Knoll,   CB&Q 481, CB&Q 1923,  John Mcloughlin and Mount Harvard.                      Thanks              Roger Kramer