Great Northern John McLoughlin

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

Here is the latest efforts on the John Mcloughlin roof project.   Thru these pictures you will see the summer progress.  Not really too impressive but it has taken a lot of hours to prep these areas.  Yes, we finally got the roof priming completed.   Now for a second coat of primer on the roof!  Next comes a coat of black paint.    This year has been a great for painting.  Hopefully, the fall will be also.    Roger 

It has been a slow progression but this beatifying project  on the roof of our heavy weight sleeper, John Mcloughlin is almost complete!   Our goal  has been to completely remove all the old rust and paint off of the flat part of the roof and prime it.   This job has been undertaken by one of our devoted retired members,  Robert Olson of Waukegan, Illinois.  He has diligently been working on the roof for more than 7 months and has recently completed his goal. If you come out to the museum on most any Wednesday you will find him working away on this project.  The other project related to the roof has been the removal, of again, old paint from the hips of the roof.  We have had another four volunteers working on this project.  These folks are still among the younger working class so it has taken a little longer to complete.   Just recently we have completed the priming of all these areas.  These four guys are;  Mark Hoffman, Matt Holtz,  Dale Steichen, and Andy Townsend.    It takes a long time and many volunteer hours to complete a project of this magnitude.   Just prepping the roof for future painting has taken about 250 volunteer hours to complete. It is just part of the big picture puzzle.   Our short term goal is to repair, replace and paint the roof Gloss black.  Along with that goal is the  ultimate goal of repairing and replacing  all areas of badly deteriorated rusty steel for eventual finally painting of the entire exterior.            We would like to operate the John Mcloughlin in our demonstration passenger train some day.  Like many projects at Irm this too is being privately funded thru your donations.    Please consider assisting us in any way possible to continue our exciting progress on this grand sleeper of the past.     Thanks    Roger