Entries by Robert Kutella

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.

I will group all this under the wood shop banner this time, although of course activity encompassed many different projects.  We will start with work related to our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.

Headlight

This is the headlight donated by one of our members and it is now completely restored and painted.  Looks good, doesn't it?  Now if we had a few weeks of warm weather, it could be installed on the plow.

Mortising

Victor Humphreys is standing at the mortising machine as we plunge 3/8 inch wide slots into the stile of the new windows we are making.  Not done with all of them yet, more work for the Wednesday crew.  These parts are also for the X 38.

Planing

Victor and Buzz Morisette are working at our planer to size new lumber for the work Buzz is doing to repair the roof structure in our Private Car ELY.  This is an 1889 Pullman product with a long history on the railroads AND at IRM.

Next Steps

With the wood properly sized, Buzz moved on to shape new roof ribs (carlines) and here is making a brace to hold them in place during installation.

The Scheme of Things

Eric Lorenz was studying newly arrived electrical schematics to work out details of the Shaker Heights 63 PCC car.  That car was built as a single car by St Louis Car Co for Minneapolis but when it went to Ohio, they converted it to be able to run in multiple unit with their other PCC's.  They made it work, now we have to figure out how, and probably take it back as a single car without the MU feature.  We have no other MU cars to run with it, and it becomes more complex and harder to maintain.

Many other volunteers were busy, including a crew decorating CTA 6000 cars for the upcoming Holiday Train, and a switch move to bring Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 to the west end of Barn 4, Track 42, for restoration work.  That car was built by Pullman in 1898 as car 24 for the Northwestern Elevated and came to IRM in 1958.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The first order of business is to wish you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.  And to give all of you THANKS for your support and participation in ALL of the various IRM projects in 2012.  THANK YOU.

Yesterday at the IRM wood shop there was but a skeleton crew on hand.  I can assume many were making preparations for today's time with family and friends, or traveling to do the same.  That is entirely fitting and appropriate.

In the shop we used the time to work on more windows.  There was a time not too long ago when constructing and fabricating ONE new window from rough stock was a BIG EVENT.  Yet here we are well along the process for making ELEVEN new windows, in the space of a few short weeks.

Routed

Victor Humphreys and Dick Cubabge worked on eight new windows for the cupola cab of the CGW snowplow.  All these share the same profile and shape, but of course there are four different sizes, and each pair has both a right hand and left hand version.  Last week you saw the pile of prepared blanks, we referred to as 'window kits'.  Victor and Dick worked to rout a unique profile for the beading on that stock as you can see above.

Full Profile

The next steps were done on the table saw to slice two thin grooves and drop out  the remainder resulting in the rabbet, which will be used to place the glass in the finished window.  Here that is all done, three steps on each of 32 pieces of stock.  We made fabrication drawings on the computer for each type and are using those to set dimensions and sizes.  Four of the drawings lay before you in the above image, resting on three completed glue ups of windows.  Behind them are the stacks of window kits, now with each piece shaped and rabbeted as needed.  Maybe only barely visible but the pair of stiles facing the camera has had the layout lines added for plunging 3/8 inch slots on the mortising machine - the next steps.