Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here’s a quick update of happenings in the shop over the past week.

On the Plymouth 25 ton locomotive, the rear cab wall was straightened and repaired, and cab glass is being replaced. At some point in its industrial life, the engineers side rear corner had taken a hit and deformed the doorway and back wall. We straightened this out with a porta-power and will stiffen the back cab wall with additional supports. The lexan windows are all being replaced with safety glass as well as replacing the engineers door and windows.

HELP NEEDED: We are in need of a volunteer welder that can weld aluminum. The cab on this Plymouth 25 ton loco is constructed of aluminum and needs some cracks and supports welded in place. If you would like to volunteer on this project, please contact Jamie at the Diesel Shop or call the museum at 815-923-4391 x261.

The back cab corner after being straightened on the Plymouth 25 tonner.

Another view of the engineers doorway.

The front lexan window was replaced with safety glass.

The GE 25 tonner is also getting some attention. The switches on the gauge stand were all solid from dirt and concrete dust. Dan has been cleaning and/or replacing them, and adding the control switch back in place along with cab lighting, which were removed before arriving at IRM. The bottom of the engineers door was rotted and also was binding with the floor, which is expanding upwards making the door unusable. Rather than replacing the floor right now, we shortened the door by a quarter of an inch and replaced the rusted bottom. Other work is replacing the failed coolant block heater and adding a heater to the bottom of the oil pan to warm the engine oil in cold weather. All the air, oil, and coolant filters were changed as regular maintenance as well.

The gauge panel of the GE 25 tonner.

The bottom of the GE 25 tonner engineers door was replaced.

Another project that has been a long time coming is the installation of a pre-lube pump on Illinois Terminal 1605, an EMD GP7. A prelube pump circulates oil from the oil pan and charges the oil system of the locomotive before startup. The oil lubrication system can take upwards of 30 gallons of oil just to fill the pipes, passage ways, and other areas. Starting a locomotive without prelubing causes excessive wear as it takes a long time to pump oil through these areas to finally get to the critical surfaces that should have lubrication right at the time of startup. Over time we will be installing prelube pumps on many of our regularly operated locomotives.

Completed setup of the IT 1605 prelube pump.

It is great having the correct tools for the custom bends.

The new pipe bender kit made the job super easy!

A view in the crankcase with the pump running.

The top deck showing oil in a minutes time.

To support these restoration projects, you can donate to the Diesel Department Equipment Restoration Fund. If you would like, follow up with an email to support a specific piece of equipment. Thank you for your support!