Entries by Robert Kutella

I am very late to post this entry and was wondering if I owe you an apology.  It just seems that there is a lot going on in my IRM life and I have been really busy.  The other lame excuse is that I can blame the weather.  This weekend will be the first scheduled day of railroad operations at IRM for 2013.

The connection there is that this will be a short report.  There were six (or more) of our regular Wednesday volunteers working on a large 'switch move'.  The name is just like what it sounds.  One car at a time, one track at a time cars were being moved from several barns to be rearranged from their winter storage locations to be operator friendly.  That is so the deck of cards will not have to be shuffled by the regular operators, often needing a small diesel and towbars, to get the scheduled car out and ready to run in the morning.  That meant fewer folks working in the relative comfort of our shop areas.

Raising Panels

Work continued on the new door we are building for our station.  Victor Humphreys, Dave Rogan, and Jim Leonard have a tricky set of jigs in position to do an operation to produce 'raised panels'.  There are four solid panel inserts in this new door and first we planed, ripped, and crosscut them to size.  One of the long ones is being passed through the table saw to thin that panel around the edges, on both sides.  All done and now for cleanup and hand sanding.

The Grid Shop

Pete Galayda continues to work to reassemble the many resistance grids boxes for the Charles City Western 300 steeple cab locomotive.  He and John Nelligan have worked many weeks on this phase of the restoration, it must seem like forever to them.

Pulley

Jim Foraker is working to restore a drive pulley for the new (old) table saw restoration.  It is a paper pulley that was beginning to show wear and was de-laminating.  Here, new epoxy is being poured into a mold to consolidate and repair it.

That is right I said PAPER PULLEY.  They were fairly common a hundred or more years ago on wood working machines driven by flat leather belts.  On this one many, many layers of paper were stacked up (maybe 1500 or so) and then compressed and riveted into a sandwich.  Seems to have been very workable, but nothing lasts forever.

Steel

Jim is moving a new steel delivery into the shop, having been helped by Victor Humphreys.  These pieces will be cut to our design, welded into a frame and painted to be ready to mount that beast of a cast iron table saw upon.

Other work included more puzzle solving for parts for the interior of Cleveland Transit System 4223, and a two man crew - Jeff Brady and Norman Krentel - working on the roof for Michigan Electric 28.

I suppose ti is thoroughly off topic to begin a wood shop report this way, but yesterday IRM was going HOLLYWOOD.  There had to be over 20 semis and trucks parked everywhere, tents set up, and I am sure over 100 carpenters, technicians and players on site shooting scenes for an upcoming production.

New Station

Is seems there is a new station platform and canopy just north of the main line.  It is early in the morning of the shooting day and paint is still being applied.  "Don't lean against that post."

Actors Ready

The famous actor I am referring to is our own Nebraska Zephyr train, of course.  Just a bit after 9 AM and the trainset is already just west of the station waiting for the director to give instructions.  From reports I heard the activity lasted all day, way past the time I had to leave, and there was additional filming inside our C&NW bilevels.

The Jig

Back to reality.  Here is a very clever piece of engineering!  It is a custom designed fixture to take rough castings (of resistance grids for our trolleys) and face and surface the two bosses on both sides.  I have done well over 100, maybe 200, the old fashioned way and trust me, I wish this was there when my task was active.  And yes the design and construction lies entirely within the IRM Electric Car Department leadership.

Windows

Paul Cronin and Rich Witt are doing the final adjustments to fit the mortise and tenon joints for the two new round top windows we are making for Boston & Maine 1094.

Done

And then the special two part adhesive was mixed and slathered over all the joints for both windows.  It takes a lot of hands to do this quickly.  Paul Cronin, Victor Humphreys, and Rich Witt seem to have things under control, both windows squared up and in the press for the glue to cure.

Wired

A lot was accomplished on Cleveland Transit System 4223.  Eric Lorenz laid out some of the needed new wiring and is making a sort of harness arrangement.  He bundles the wire runs and inserts them into cable loom.  These are then strung through the car framing since we are ever closer to installing more of the car interior and the wiring must be in place before certain areas are covered up.

Paint Removal

Bill Peterson spent most of the afternoon with a power wire brush cleaning steel panels for the 4223 interior.  These are the curved panels which ultimately will hold the advertising cards.

Puzzling

Paul and Eric are into a real headscratcher.  There are many of the above mentioned panels and seemingly only one unique way to arrange them in the car.  While some were positively located, it is a puzzle worthy of some thought to figure out the rest of them.  And no, they were not marked or documented when removed from the car some 20 odd years ago.

Of course much other work went on, including Ray Pollice cleaning up the new to us old table saw to ready it for primer; and Paul and Bill assembling and gluing up the last door panel for the new station door.  Victor finished the bottom door panels for our CGW X 38 doors and the molding in in and complete.

Another sure sign of spring - a few hardy souls are accomplishing some work outdoors during the warmer hours of each sunny day.

Truck Work

Gerry Dettloff was helped by Paul Cronin as they worked to disassemble this arch bar truck  The springs are out and replacements will be used for the broken ones.  The truck and its mate will eventually find their way beneath Lake Shore Electric 810.

Out for Some Air

The first car acquired by IRM 60 years ago got some exercise as it was run over to track 41 for some attention.  I bet Jon Fenlaciki walked two miles he made so many trips in and out of the car, never having been more than 200 from it.

Door No. 1

Just like the quiz show - - -  Victor Humphreys had the finish gray enamel out for the new doors we made for Chicago Great Western X 38.

Door No. 2

And Victor made sure door number two got its finsihed gray enamel applied.

Brian Patterson Photo

We are working on a new machine base for the table saw we are restoring.  Jim Foraker drew it all up in 3D on his computer and Bob Kutella and Paul Cronin are giving it the once over.

Prime Time

Jonathan Soucek is priming the old motor for the above table saw project now that bearing issues have been resolved - AGAIN - and the motor has been reassembled.

Sanding and Scraping

There were still a few minutes left at the end of the day and Brian Patterson, John Faulhaber and Jim Foraker worked to remove flaking and peeling old paint from the saw.

The Mortise

Dave Rogan is trimming out a bottom rail tenon for the Boston & Maine 1094 windows we are making.  Fussy fitting that is all in a day's work.

There

There - the fit is almost perfect as Dave sights down the stile.

Brian Patterson Photo

John Faulhaber is sanding out and touching up any rough spots he can find for the new station door.  We have one of the panel inserts glued up and dry, the second can be seen in the background in the clamps.