Entries by Roger Kramer

                   Saturday was a wet and dreary day BUT, the small Saturday coach group kept plugging away.                                The projects continued.                 One, my favorite, as of late, was the R I 2612 and the other was the Ely.                          Noteworthy on the Ely, was the installation by Buzz and Victor in the afternoon, of the second ceiling panel.      Before I could arrive and take a picture Victor had gone home.  Instead, here is Buzz along w/ Mark smiling for the camera.                                                                                                                         Last week, Mike and Ray pulled new wires for the future installation of the two ceiling lite fixture.      Look closely at the picture and you will see the new wires protruding from the panels, ready for the "hookup."                                                                                                                                     Not pictured, but equally important, is what the Sunday coach dept crew is working on.  Mark, Mike, Shelly and Ray are continueing the painting and upgrading of the second Display Car-Railroad Experience for future Grand opening.   On your Spring trip to Irm this year do not forget to visit the display car in yard five.  Its quite impressive and beautiful!!                                                                                                                                                                                           My excitement for the day,was the continuation of stripping the 2612 for use in the "Thomas" train this August!   I begin by throwing a few boxes left from last week.    After lunch,our new member, Brian Patterson, walked in and began the  ongoing task of scraping  the old paint off the walls.  I, in the meantime, unscrewed all of the misc screws on one wall.   They were used for xmas displays by the Crandic.       I also removed plywood from the nickelseats and placed in positon the nickelseat cushions.  By then Mark showed up and assisted Brian in scraping more paint off the walls.                                                                                   The last chore of the day was the transferring of a few of the cushions to my truck  in preparation for the removal of the old green upholstery.        At that point it was 5 pm and the door were closed for the day!     What we need now is help to strip the old green upholstery off of these cushions!!          Any assistence would be welcomed!!                       The coach dept is also appealing for donations to help pay for track storage for the 2612.              Please send a donation to the  Ristricted  Fund, 2612, and when doing so Please consider another to the..................BARN  14  Building Fund.    Thank You    Roger   Kramer 

                                    Yes,  the latest coach, RI 2612, is begining to look like a coach once more!!   Matter-of-fact one of the electric car members visited yesterday and even remarked it sure looks a lot better!!!                                                                                                      Here are the amazing results of just a few hours efforts.   Warren Newhauser and Paul Cronin are watching the old paint just fall off the celiling    Another Rock Island fan and new volunteer, Brian Patterson, really got into peeling the old carpet off the wall.  In many places it peeled off right to the bare metal.   Thanks for your help,  Brian.   See you next time,when it's a little warmer.     BTY, as you can see in this picture,  Warren was  working without his coat.  After I removed the gray curtains the sun came thur and warmed the entire car.  It was quite comfortable.    Here we all are working away this last Saturday Feb 2, 2013                                                                                                                                                                        As you can see with just two days of work the car has  been transformed into a work of?                        NO,  not yet!  Much work to be done.      Next,  removing the green fabric on the indidvidual seats and scraping more paint; then sweep,sweep and more sweep.   Want to help?         Please come out on a Saturday and/or Sunday and stop by Barn 3 to say hello.  If you can't make it please consider a donation to Rock Island 2612 fund to help  pay the track storage fund.       Remember,  with all our efforts  this Will happen.......................   More good news is coming....  Roger Kramer