Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Our fun has continued focusing on the exterior restoration of the Mt Harvard. When you view these following pictures, please realize there is a common thread here. The majority contain the pictures of people volunteering and contributing to the various projects. Please remember, without our volunteers, the museum is just a group of old machines. Thanks to all of you in barn 10 as well as the other departments that have assisted us. Anyway, both entrance doors, tops and bottom, are now completed with one side hung and in place. Both traps are also in place and functioning quite well. Here are more pictures of those events in progress.

Dale is sanding on side near the Pawnee.

With Dale in the background Robert is also sanding the car.

Top part of the vestibule door painted and ready to be installed.

Here Gregg has installed the second trap.

The entire door installed and painted.

There is much sanding entering the pictures.

Darek is working removing the old layer of paint.

Kathy, wife of Darek, smiling for me taking a break while sandblasting more parts.

Andrew is working on the other side doing the same thing.

Here Howard is removing the old Mt Harvard sign.

The next week he was sanding around more rivets.

All three from the Special Projects team working on the end of the car.

Lee working on the scaffold sanding above the buffer.

Adding to our barn 10 crew are the Special Projects folks, Ed, Paul and Lee. They will be joining us; bring their much appreciated energy and talents to help us.   More about them coming in future blogs.

Here Andrew is removing more old paint. A future picture will show this side completely primed. 

Robert is back sanding a corner post.

Now to the other major project. The John McLaughlin, as seen in the previous blog, has the interior sections completely repainted. The next far reaching project in this sleeper is the upholstering of the many torn and damaged seats and backs.

John and Jane are busy installing new fabric on the old seat frames.

June has been a busy month in spite of the pandemic taking hold of our country. The museum will be open to the general public starting the weekend of July 25.  New guideline will be issued to each visitor as they enter the museum. Some displays will be open to the public within the constants set by the governor. All in all you still will enjoy your visit to the Illinois Railway Museum. Thanks, Roger.