Illinois Railway Museum Blog

This was another busy day in the shop.

Windows

Paul Cronin and John Faulhaber are doing the fussy work of fitting window parts for our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  I managed to get one more to fit, and so did Buzz Morisette after he did some more work on roof parts for our Private Car ELY.  We now have four more windows ready for the glue press and this will mark eight new ones made this season for the cab cupola, in addition to the three already done and being painted.  Victor Humphrey did some work on those.

The Chiseler

A worker is only as good as his tools.  After the other work was completed, Buzz Morisette did some sharpening and honing of chisel blades.  He achieved a quality edge that could literally shave the hair off your face.  There were no volunteers to take that test.

More Tack Molding

John Faulhaver was running new stock through our planer to make the last two pieces needed for tack molding for the Lake Shore Electric 810 traction freight trailer.  These are two larger pieces, of a slightly more complicated profile that are to be used for the curved ends of the car.

Roof Boards

Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard were sanding, and then prime painting the many new tongue and groove roof boards produced over the last two weeks.  These also are for the Lake Shore Electric 810.

Mortising

Jeff Brady was at the mortiser making many many wood blocks for the Michigan Electric 28 roof project.  These are fairly complicated wood blocks which cap other metal bolt ends on the roof and serve to insulate or protect anyone working up there form a potential ground and hair raising shock.

Engineering

Rich Witt was on station in the engineering department.  Much progress was made on a service project to Dave Diamond and the Buildings and Grounds Department.  New double hung windows have been installed recently in the Spaulding Tower, and now we hope to make some custom profile interior wood window sills.  A small sample is on the work table at his right elbow.  New router bits for the profile have been ordered so look for sawdust to be made in the next few weeks on these items.

Rich also spent some time on a future task, this one of making two new windows for the B&M car in Barn 3.  One old rounded top window was removed from the car, the other is missing.  If you look behind Rich, back and above his right elbow, a sharp eyed reader may discern the old sash. This one we will use as a sample but it has been extensively repaired and reworked at some time in its life and is in VERY POOR condition.  This is a complicated wood working task and will involve many specialized techniques and wood working setups and jigs.  For now it remains a coming attraction, pending the engineering drawings and getting some increasingly rare mahogany.

Another coming attraction is a request from the folks working on the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car, a 1929 product built by the railroad in their shops.  This work is for specialized tongue and groove ceiling lining boards.

Other work in the shop saw Henry VIncent working on the new table saw, Pete Galayda and John Nelligan working on the seemingly endless task of restoring seven electrical grid boxes for Charles City Western 300, Randy Hicks warming up and working on CA&E strap hanger restoration, a visit by Ted Anderson of the Pullman Library, and Cheryl Lint stopped by.  We noticed a massive stack of new window parts on a rolling cart, these made by Tim Peters for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

HELP WANTED:  This is in the way of an apology for the recent poor picture quality by me.  With recent eye surgery and old man's shaking hands disease, most of these are unacceptably blurred.  So if there is a cub reporter out there wanting to take over this job, or to merely help out, there is an opening,.  You readers deserve better.

It was now one year ago when IRM got the opportunity to save a complete railroad.  In this case in HO scale.  We made arrangements and carefully dismantled the full basement sized empire and moved it to storage at IRM.  That in itself was not a trivial effort and many hours of volunteer work, and driving trips to Wisconsin were involved.

What has been done since then?  The good news is that we are about 45% of the way to our fundraising goal to construct and furnish a building along the Main Street alignment for the exclusive use of the models. THANK YOU to many donors who have supported this project!!  Many preservation sites have a model railroad for the enjoyment of the visitors, young and old, and this would be another step in IRM efforts to broaden and diversify railroad themed displays for the entertainment of our visitors.

We have a purpose designed building plan, with proposed interior use plan, and costs and estimates from builders and suppliers.  We have designed a period appropriate facade in keeping with the theme of Main Street.  We have completed and submitted two grant applications which are pending at this time.  Thank you to the many IRM volunteers who have done a lot of this legwork and planning.

We are privileged to be able to share the following images from Mrs. Lavonn Olander, taken as her late husband was constructing this magnificent and extensive railroad.

The Benchwork Takes Shape

You can see some idea of the extent of the project and that it was built to LAST.  Much of the ultimate development of the railroad followed a plan and the benchwork went in first.

Roadbed

Soon the surveyors were out in force and roadbed was being installed at a fast pace.

Tracklaying

Do not leave out the gandydancers who followed to lay track.  It is all well done and features many complex combinations of components and specialwork.

River Scene

Detailing of many areas included exquisite scenes, fully detailed such as the above view.

Union Station

A very impressive Union Station was included to serve the passenger traffic.  Any modeler would be proud to have constructed just one of the diorama like scenes, yet this railroad included one after another.  No idea where we should look first.

So what is next?  This is where you all may help with donations to restricted fund RMRD.  We can make this happen, sooner rather than later with your help.  We are about halfway to the fund goal of where we need to be to place orders and release contracts for construction.  Whether you are a modeler or not this will be an asset to increase the enjoyment and visitor experience at IRM.  I firmly believe IRM needs to be more 'entertaining' to the typical visitor we get today, and just as we completed a Childrens Playground area in 2012, this could be the next big thing!  Please help with donations to

Illinois Railway Museum

Box 427

Union, IL 60180