Entries by Robert Kutella

I have a number of images for one project today, Cleveland Transit System 4223, a PCC car.  Lorne Tweed took several of these so I will split this weeks news into two BLOG entries

Switch Cabinet

Dave Diaz is painting a new switch cabinet for the car.  It has been fabricated new, and a lot of prep work has gone into adding the needed attachments and holes for mounting under the front dash of the car.

Left Rear

The next few images were taken inside the car, left side rear.  We have all the panels and trim for the car, but they have been out of it for many years.  It is like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle without benefit of the picture on the box.  Wise advice to budding restorationists:  Take a lot of pics, mark each piece where it came from with a paper tag, and write the id on each piece.  Surely one of those pieces of information will be lost to memory or time.

Wall Panel

There are wide wall panels to be mounted below the row of standee windows and above the ordinary passenger windows.  Simon Harrison is holding the first one, working from the rear to front on the left side.

Upper Trim

Simon Harrison is now fitting a piece of trim above the row of standee windows.  Many of these pieces appear to be the same, but have subtle differences, different hole patterns.  You really need to lay out and sort out each group of pieces.

Side Windows

In the shop the seemingly endless task of preparing the side windows, passenger windows, goes on.  For this car there is an upper and lower for each opening.  Simon is applying a clear protective finish to the cleaned aluminum frames, in this case one of the lower sash.

A very busy day in the shop Saturday and a lot of hands at work!

Plow Door

Work continued apace on the second new door for Chicago Great Western X 38.  John Faulhaber did a lot of the fussy work of fitting the joints and I pitched in when I had some free time.  The second door is ready for assembly and glue up.

Jointing

The BIG job of the day, volume wise and manpower wise was making stock for new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28.  So you will see a lot of pics of those steps.  The goal is to have about 1200 linear feet of stock sized and planed for milling a tongue and groove on each piece.  Henry Vincent, Paul Cronin, and Buzz Morisette got the ball rolling by running the remaining rough boards through the jointer to make one edge true and straight.  I should note that Paul Cronin had knee replacement surgery a little over four weeks ago and he is back in the shop working.  TWO THUMBS UP for Paul!

Ripping Done

All the wide boards were cut to the needed two inch wide strips and Paul, Bill Peterson, Henry, and Buzz were stacking them completed around midday.  But these guys are like the EverReady bunny, they just will not stop.  They were ready for MORE!

Planing

So we have this stack of something over 100 pieces of stock and the next step is to plane to about 7/16 inch thickness.  Buzz, Henry, Paul and Bill took on that task.  It is fairly simple if you have two or four pieces, but 100?  A lot of handling and the consideration of where do you stack it up along the process.

Planing

Buzz and Henry were feeding the stock, and Paul and Bill were acting as catchers.  Every 15 minutes or so an intermission was called.  We have a pretty good system to collect the dust and chips.  But you have to watch the collection barrel and make sure it gets emptied!

Second Wind

Henry and Buzz continue feeding the planer while Greg Kepka pitched in moving and staging still more stock to feed that voracious machine.

Second Pass

Still these guys wanted more.  Paul and Henry are at the infeed end of the planer for the second and final pass to produce the finished 3/8 inch thickness.  Bill and Greg are at the outfeed end acting as catchers.

The Result

Whew! With all that done, now what do we do with it?  Bill, Henry, and Paul are stacking off the finished work while others help to clean up the work area near the planer.  A BIG job DONE!  With much of the center stage area of the wood shop and its machines busy, that did not mean all the other work stopped.  You merely had to take a number and wait your turn.

Windows

Rich Witt was measuring and laying out cuts on new beautiful mahogany stock for the Boston & Maine windows we are making.  That got processed and is ready for the next step.

Fittings

Tim Peters filled some of his time waiting for machines to be available by cleaning and wire brushing some castings needed in the next steps for rebuilding a door for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

The Skin

Then Tim was back on the saw with a tricky set up for slicing a thin skin of quarter sawn white oak to be applied to one of the stiles on the above door.  The skin was not particularly loud but the nearby planer was still howling away, thus the ear protection.  Either that or he thought it was cold in the shop and likes warm ears.

PCC Cars

Two of our PCC cars saw more work.  Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber were in the shop stripping old paint and cleaning interior panels and trim for the Kansas City Public Service PCC car.

Cleveland Too

Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz continue work on the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  They claim they were involved in some planning and engineering work, but it looks to me more like something shady was being discussed as I caught them in the act with some drawings and plans.

I suppose many of my regular readers here are wondering where the report for this week is.  I will try to explain.  Departing from the usual format, the commercial comes first.

I have spent a substantial number of hours this week, going over donation reports and constructing our own ledger sheets.  Other departments are doing the same.  GOOD NEWS!  It is looking from our unofficial tallies that we are very close to reaching the funding goals for Barn 14.  That does not mean the donations should stop.  To my knowledge no single piece of equipment has its own restricted fund balance high enough to pay its own way in 100%.  But each department realizes the importance of this opportunity and other funds can legitimately be applied to the project to reach full funding.  There have been unspecified donations to the project and in the past the Board of Directors has 'shared' that out to five departments.  Each department has received donations for indoor space for their equipment and that may be applied to one or more cars under their umbrella.  And finally, each department has other donations not specifically for one car or project.  That may also be partitioned to get the most cars inside the quickest.

The final thing to mention is we are working to an estimated cost of the project, and we should not be surprised if the bids come in and the total rises marginally.  I would consider a good, really good, estimate to be within 5%.  So you all have the chance to continue your remarkable support of any particular car or locomotive, any particular department fund, and know it will yield results soon.  For the rest of us, we are anxiously awaiting the confirmation from our Financial Department that our unofficial numbers are accurate.  On to the news.

Tenons

I always like to start the reports with progress on the Chicago Great Western X38 snowplow.  Why not?  It is my department project and my team.  Here, Dave Rogan is trimming just a whisker of thickness from a door stile tenon.  Our motto is you can always take more off but not moron.  Hmm, that did not come out quite right, but I am giddy with the prospect of the Barn.

Assembly

Dave, Jim Leonard and Rich Witt are assembling and fitting the parts together for the second new X38 door.  The first door fitting is complete and it was assembled and put into the press after gluing.

Roof Parts

This view shows Victor Humphreys and John Faulhaber with a pile of new lumber on the cart.  It has just gone through the planer and is destined to become many feet of tongue and groove millwork for the new roof on Michigan Electric 28.

Ripping

The wide lumber is ripped to two inch wide slats before being ready for the shaper to do the T&G milling.  These are LOOONG boards and a dedicated crew of five ran them through the table saw at the rate of one cut every fifteen seconds or so.  Seen above are Victor, Buzz Morisette, Jim Leonard, Jeff Brady, and Dave Diaz.

Paint

Dave Diaz also painted a whole slew (is that the technical term?) of window post caps for Cleveland Transit System 4223.

More Tenons

Henry Vincent is at the small band saw trimming tenons on a new bottom rail for the door work on Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.

Cut Fit and Repeat

That is the sequence on any wood work project, perhaps more so when you are patching in new wood for a repair, such as this work for CA&E 36.  Henry is touching up the thickness by hand sanding as he fits, and then perfects the fit.

Round Top Window

We continue to move ahead on two new windows for Boston & Maine 1094.  Here, Rich Witt is working on a masonite template for the top shape of these windows.  It will be critical to using that to guide two routing operations, establishing the needed cross sections.

A Better Look

Buzz has a good eye and a careful hand and this final version of the template is being checked by Rich.  Smooth!

Roof

Gerry Detloff is applying the first piece of new tongue and groove wood slats to the roof of Lake Shore Electric 810.  We made those only a few short weeks ago and despite the cold temperatures, Gerry was out in the barn nailing them on.

And as usual a lot of other work went on.  One that comes to mind was making a new wood piece for the awning on the Frisco Decapod in the Steam Shop.