Sunday, July 7. 2013Track Department updateSaturday's gang completed work by 10AM... but I'm getting ahead of the story.
A plan was hatched to get the gang together Friday night and go out to spike and plate. Marcus arrived way early and was out plating from around noon to 4 with Bob Olson. Around 6 the gang changed to Marcus, Mark Gelman, Mark Riemers, with a special guest visitor Bobby Ryan, and myself. First we loaded the last 12 kegs of spikes into the spiker ... just in case, and then headed out onto the main setting up an out of service at East Switch. We got out just in time for the Switch Fest 2013 to begin prep for the Trolly parade. We went out to where Bob and Marcus left off plating, and set to work. Mark Riemers started spiking the north rail and working his way back west, while Marcus and Bobby Ryan ran the plater, working East. Mark Gellman and I set plates and cleaned out cribs for the jaws of the plater to grab the rail. We worked till almost 10PM when we ran out of light. Somewhere towards the end Mark Riemers turned the spiker on the wye. We tied up for the night, with Bobby heading to his hotel in Rockford, Marcus going to pick up Gwen, and Mark, Mark, and I going to Joes for dinner. Saturday Morning, The plan... Finish the job. Start time 05:30 We tied down the machines on the main in our out of service Friday night, so it was simply fire up and go to work. And work we did. We were slightly better equipped for the cribbing job, having grabbed a couple picks and the job went well. Mark went back to spiking - South rail this time, Mark Gellman, and Marcus ran the plater, and were helped when Bobby Ryan joined us again, and I went to cleaning cribs. Mark Riemers helped with cribs when he caught up with the spiking. As we reached the end of the work, I also did some tie crane work stacking the dead wood for pick up later. In the end we completed work, picked up the plater and put it back ont he flat, and ran back to our OOS limits. On the way Bill Lygiros was found to be stacking old spikes as he walked in from Karstens. I think we surprised the dispatcher by showing up before being called to clear up. We were in 24 track long before the first revenue train left. He also left with a great deal of relief on the slow orders. Thanks to the final push by the gang, we picked up two slow orders, annulled one line of the Summary GO, and gave them a railroad they can run on. Only one slow order remains, and that is due to the swerve left over from the tamper losing it's mind. I'm working on a plan to go out one evening with the a loco and use jacks to smooth out the dipsy do, and air tamp the ties to get that last slow order off. After the paperwork, and anulling the bulletins with the dispatcher, the crew was off to breakfast at Dino's... Of course the RR gods could not let us accomplish this much without their games. As I was rolling into 24 track with the tie crane, she lost power and started smoking like an Alco going from start to run 8. It was discovered the Temporary fix of the air box intake pipe had failed, getting partially sucked into the intake. Mark Riemers delicately ripped it off the machine, and replaced it with the proper flex steel pipe we picked up later from Napa. A new battery was also picked up for the hydraulic power pack and a new battery terminal crimped on. JD is still working on a replacement hydraulic hose to replace the one that was damaged when it shorted to the battery. Marcus
and Bobby were the Car line dispatchers from the tail track switch to
the S curves for helping put away the fleet. No small task to be sure.
I can honestly say, I have never seen barns 6,7 and 8 so empty before
in my time at IRM! So
Nice work this week IRM Track crew! Job well done. We now move to
the clean up phase of the project. picking up spikes, spiking up the
last few ties on the north rail due to submarined ties, and then
regulating. Frank D. Saturday, April 30. 2011Saturday Track Report
Trying to beat karma to the punch....
The weather was beautiful today... and that was the problem... Today's plan was to get some minor repairs done on the tie crane. We are once again getting ready to go pick up about 720 ties that were changed out by Volkmann a couple weeks ago. So to avoid problems we did a little preventative maintenance. I arrived at the museum about 9AM and found Bill there already. Bill and I started to de-fuel the tie crane. Even though the fuel was out of the sight glass there was still about 10 to 15 gallons of fuel left in the tank. We drained the fuel then took the hose off the tank. We also removed the fuel sight tube to replace that as well. Jeron showed up and we ran to town to grab parts. While I replaced the fuel hose, and sight tube, Jeron replaced the damaged mirror and Bill replaced the windshield wiper. We drained the fuel out of the transfer tank, but that was a drop in the tank so to speak. Unfortunately I left my keys in my winter coat..... at home.... SO no truck key, no fuel key.... Guess I'll fuel the crane in the morning. After that it was time to take in some of the sights of the Illinois Terminal to do. I took a ride (my first I'll add) on the IT B motor, to see how the ride is after our tie change out. It's not perfect, but the 25MPH speed restriction seems to be adequate until we can get the line tamped. While out and about today I did find three more sticks of rail along the ROW, that we need to get picked up and in the gon. One is out near the Big tree, the other two are along the main line just east of the depot. We also need to re-set the whistle post along the main. I think we can just pick it up and add some ballast to hold it up. While all this was going on, Dave and Evan continued work on the 580 Motor car. They have most of the wood off now, and have started to clean old paint and rust off the frame. They bought a couple of wire wheels for my grinder and were using that to clean it up real nice. They were getting ready to spray on some primer when I was leaving for the day. It's looking really nice. I also found one of the brake leaks on a caliper thanks to all the wood being off. Nice work guys! I'll post some pictures to the Members photo section in a few minutes. Frank D. Sunday, April 3. 2011Saturday 4/2 Track report
Today was a new member spectacular!
The day started with myself and new member Keith Ziolkowski joined me and returning new member Bill. We found the model 50 missing it's exhaust circuit, under rebuild by Jeron. So a Plan B was formed. Off to 14-4 track to solve a reverse super elevation problem on the curve to this track off the switch. We gathered jacks, bars, forks, and shovels, onto the tie crane and off to yard 14. We hand jacked the track and hand tampped from about 8:30 to 11:30, picking up the outer rail from "in the mud" to out of stone. A lift of over 6". After lunch we took the regulator back to yard 14 and dragged stone from the north side to the south side to fill in the cribs that were now devoid of stone. A quick broom job and the track was back to a useable status. Before this work, when the diesel department would try to switch cars on this track they had a tendency to derail when being pulled out. Meanwhile back on the main........ Tom showed up later in the morning and fired up the mower for one last trip on the main before it leaves for a job. Tom was able to mow by Karstens crossing, cleaning up some trees that the farmer cut down and pushed over onto the property. He also was able to give a good pass between East switch and West Switch. Third trick was Jeron coming out after work and installing a new exhaust elbow off the turbo. The old 90 degree bend had been previously welded, and subsequently rusted out again, and as Tom put it, made it smoke like a Russian tank. Jeron was able to find a suitable part and had Jamie from the diesel shop weld the flange to the turbo onto the new pipe. The exhaust was then put back on the crane for the Sunday activity. From what I understand it was a real wrestling job to get the exhaust back in. During the wrap up of my tour of duty, Dave, and his young son Evan showed up having just joined the museum, and coming out to see what they can do as a team to help IRM. Work on our motorcar fleet was offered up, and they are eager to get started. Unlike last week, cameras were on hand to record the festivities. Photos from Tom and myself have been posted here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album155 Frank D. |
Blog AdministrationCategory TreeCalendar
QuicksearchSyndicate This Blog |
Powered by s9y.
Comments
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]