Illinois Railway Museum Blog

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   

Much of the work on coaches, this year, has been concentrated on our running fleet of Rock Island coaches and the BLE 25.    While still repainting roofs on the coaches Howard Gierer has freed  up some time to restart another  project.  This latest painting project is actually an old one!   We are now focusing on finish painting one of our IC coaches, #3345.   Incidentally, the next Rail and Wire will have an extensive article on this food bar coach.     Here are some of the early August efforts being play out in our new shop, barn 10.  August 9th was our start date and already we have sprayed one coat of orange and already sanded and prep it for the second coat.  Remember this an 85 foot coach so it takes a lot of teamwork to sand and prep each side.    Please consider coming out to volunteer and put some time into this project!  This will be a very striking accomplishment once we get it completed.   Feel free to stop by our new shop and view our interesting assortment of projects.         One of the torsion bars that support and buffer mechanism was bent many years ago.  Jerry with my assistance removed it from the coach body.  That was a difficult job.  This one will be taken to the steam shop to be straighten.   It along with the opposite one will then be painted IC brown before installation.   The prepping is the most important part of any painting project but it takes most of the manpower.  We are always seeking new volunteers as well as members that we have not seen for a while.    Lots of projects to pick from and a few more coming on line in the not to distance future.   If you can't make it out to help please consider donating to a passenger coach dept.  Pick a specific project of your choice.   How about this one,  IC 3345.                  Thanks    Roger  

The freight car department is in the need of a few more volunteers.   Right now there are only three full time volunteers participating  in the department.   As one can imagine their efforts are only concentrated on a couple of projects.   Right now the Pennsylvania Bobber Caboose and the B & O RR Wagontop boxcar are their main focus. Leading the efforts are the following:  Victor Humphreys, Dave Rogan and Bill Peterson.  Like all departments,  these three active members  are looking for more recruits to help  in the freight car department.  That is the urgency,   They would like a few good men and women  to help them.  If you have any talents such as carpentry, painting, piping  or welding they sure could use your efforts.  Matter of fact if you don't have any talents they will teach you.   See Victor on any Wednesday or Saturday in their new shop, barn 10, for more details. They share the barn with the coach dept.  AND don't forget to bring your lunch!  That group breaks for lunch around 11:30.  Contrary to some rumors, we at Irm are not all work.  We as well, do our share of socializing!                    The next three pictures are from June of this year Talking to Victor a couple of weeks ago another project underway is the scraping and painting of the trucks under the Wagon top boxcar.    He has hired a painting contractor to repaint the entire car and then it will  be stored inside for viewing,  possible in barn 11   More on that project later.  Remember to send in a few dollars to the freight car dept.    These three volunteer members certainly deserve your support!    Thanks   Roger