Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I recently asked for volunteer help to document cars in our collection where the lettering and other important information is succumbing to the weather.  I had two replies from folks that had some interest in helping but no results, and winter is coming on.

This week I had a very pleasant surprise from long time member Kevin Brown.  THANK YOU KEVIN!!!  Kevin took it upon himself to photograph and improve our records for the MILWAUKEE ROAD 970954 covered hopper.

The Whole Picture

Here is the north side of the car (the best side), and you can only see the shadow or hint of where much of the lettering once was.  Kevin trooped out to Yard 14, took several images, and sent me very good prints.  WOW!

Details

In this view of one area, even a good photo will not allow us to reproduce the entire text and data.  Look above the white dot symbol and tell me what is there.  What was put in the area of the consolidated inspection blocks?  Kevin was unable to get a good spot to record the ends of the car with photos.  So the work is not done.

As good as these photos are, there is a process to reproducing any of the lettering on a repainted car.  We need good measurements for placement of the blocks of lettering.  In the case of the above image, I would take a heavy black Sharpee marker and ruler and carefully trace the shadows remaining so they are legible.  Then I would recommend taking a sheet of mylar, again with ruler, and trace over the Sharpee letters with pencil to have a full size hard copy of what remains.  Include the size or height of each letter line, the spacing between lines, and measurements to reference points on the car for placement.

With this info, I can redraw and clean up the tracing, and cut it out.  This should be done for each block or large character on the car.  We can work to some degree with these very good photos but it is inexact due to the angle of the pics not being 100% dead on straight.  Not a criticism of Kevin, but without some help or a ladder to use, it can be difficult.  Anyone out there in webland with PHOTOSHOP and the software skills could help here by 'correcting' for parallax and shoot angle.  And when taking the pics it would help a lot for corrections if two yardsticks, ruler, or homemade story boards were placed at right angles, sort of framing the lettering block.  The real goal is for a record as exact and accurate as possible. 

And Kevin put his money where his mouth is by including a substantial donation to fund R97054.  The other part of the equation is that I have been assured that we have money on hand to place this car inside the next Barn.  But as previously mentioned, it has not yet cleared all acquisition charges and track space, so it is not 'eligible' to go inside in a  technical sense.  Several donations have been received into this car fund since my first request for help to clear the red ink and we are on the way.  Please do not let this car be left out in the cold.

And of course this is not the only piece of equipment where DISAPPEARING DATA continues.  We cannot as a Museum let this happen to other pieces, yet I have limited time and ability.  It is not challenging, hard, physical labor and if you contact me in advance, I will furnish material and instruction on exactly what is needed.

Celebrity

We were all happy to see Al Reinschmidt visit the shop.  Al is a long time member, volunteer, supporter, booster, and worker in many of our missions.  Circumstances have curtailed his participation but he managed a visit yesterday to the delight of many, and got updated on many of the projects.

Ceiling Panels

Simon Harrison resumed work on our Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  Here is one of the salvaged ceiling panels made of hardboard composition material.  The goal is to preserve and use as many of these as possible.  In the near corner you may see the first work in trying to sand off the many old layers of cracked and failing paint.

Progress

By the end of the day Simon has completed about 1/4 of the paint removal, and doing a very fine job.  This is a new task so many techniques and tools were needed to see what was most effective.  The panels are of a size that merely replacing them is not an option.

The Old Saw

Henry Vincent and Pete Galayda have just succeeded in removing the arbor nuts and old saw blades on this double arbor table saw.  One task at a time, Henry is doing well along the path to restoring this to operations and providing another tool in the restoration wood shop arsenal.

Now, on to the 'making sawdust' tasks, where I spent most of my time.  All the following is for work on our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.

The Current Saw

John Faulhaber and Dave Rogan are slicing new 3/8 inch hardwood quarter round from stock on our table saw.  We have to make this ourselves, it cannot be purchased from any of our suppliers.  The process involves a sort of production line, setting up the router table to make a roundover profile, and then taking that stock to the saw to cut the piece free.

Results

John Faulhaber, Jim Leonard, and Dave Rogan all were involved.  Here they show off almost eighty lineal feet of completed moldings.  That should be enough for the eight new cupola windows on the plow.

Tenons

The next steps involve cutting tenons on the two rails for each window.  Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard draw an audience - everybody is fascinated by work.  There are about five distinct steps for producing the tenon, each requiring a different set up on the tools.  And each pair of these new windows is a different size or shape.  Tenons are now done on four sets of the parts.

Assembly

As fast as the rails could be tenoned, John Faulhaber started the custom fitting of the parts for each one window.  Haunch the tenon, trim to length and thickness, clean out and adjust the mortise, miter the beading.  Times FOUR for each frame.

Engineering

All of this does not happen by magic.  Each window must be designed, drafted, and drawings created for the sawdust guys to make the cuts.  Rich Witt is very reliable in this task and spent much of the day on the drawings.  Sometimes we were pushing him hard to complete a set for one design, and the tools were put to use at once.