Wood Shop

Yet more rain to start the day.  The deluge ranged from 3-8 inches in our area, most coming down just ahead of morning drive time.  Needless to say it was a slow trip to IRM, and some did not make it, as they were engaged with wet basements and property.

Showy

John McKelvey is doing work to make the Chicago Great Western X 38 snow plow cab the envy of the industry.  Old passenger car seats had been recycled to this duty, and here John shows off an upholstered panel for the first seat he is working on.

Prime Work

Of course we were chased back inside the shop when the rain continued.  Jim Leonard is priming the many boards we cut for the interior lining for the plow.

More Prime

Jim is priming an interior frame post for the plow while Victor Humphreys assumes the duty of quality inspector.  That is fair since Victor helped make the timber.

Cab Cupola

Buzz Morissete kept the disk sander busy making ever more parts to go into the plow cab/cupola in our effort to have all new windows up there.

Hoser

Not in the derogatory sense, but here is a control hose that Randall Hicks repaired.  It was needed to test the prospect of operating a four car wood CA&E train as one unit.  Success.

Retriever

John Nelligan, Henry Vincent, and Pete Galayda are taking the short course in trolley rope retrievers.  Here they are making up a new rope for the Charles City Western 300 locomotive.

Tenons

Rich Witt is cutting stub tenons for doors on the six CA&E replica first aid boxes he is constructing.

Welding a Platform

Gerry Dettloff is welding a new steel deck plate on the west end of Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  The old one was pretty much a lace doily as far as strength and integrity.  Wait a minute, the doily would probably have won if there was a contest.

Bending in Action

Tim Peters and John Faulhaber are bending a new piece of tack molding for Lake Shore Electric 810.  This piece was custom milled from new stock and has been in a soaking tube for about three weeks.  They are wrapping it around the end platform with guide blocks to hold the proper curves.

Bent

Gerry D is helping secure and adjust the above piece of molding.  They prepared and successfully bent two pieces, one for each end.  Now all we need is drier weather for three weeks to get the water back out and have the wood take a set.

Roof Is Ready

While the wood has been soaking John and Gerry have made all the necessary repairs to the 810 roof and it looks to be ready for new canvas - once the bent tack molding is installed on the ends.

And as usual, other work continued even if I was not there to take a pic.  Henry Vincent worked on the table saw restoration, Al Reinschmidt did some more work on CA&E parts restoration with Randall Hicks, and the CTS 4223 team was sweating out the humidity inside Barn 4.  They were clearing out stored material from beneath the car.  That is always a handy place to stow things you know you will need any minute.  But in a week or so there are plans to move the car and roll it outdoors for display as part of our 60th anniversary special Trolley Pageant on July 6.

The same storms that rumbled through Union on Friday continued through the night and into Saturday morning.  So we adjourned to inside the shop to begin the day.

Windows

Lorne Tweed immediately went to work inside Cleveland Transit System 4223 installing the parts and panels needed to allow the window tracks to be installed.

First Window on Left

Eric Lorenz was on duty also working on many of the same tasks on the left hand side of the car.  Look closely and you will see the first window on that side installed

Hinged

Victor Humphreys is in the shop installing new (old) hinges on the door to be installed on the south side of the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  Earlier that morning John Faulhaber and I made four new backer inserts for John Mc Kelvey to use on the first cab chair for the plow.

Sawing Proud

Bill Peterson went to work cutting about 40 pieces of wood to length for the next interior lining in the plow, sanding them and now ready for priming.

When the rain let up, Paul Cronin reinstalled the roller bearing cartridge keeper castings on the ICG caboose,

It quit raining and started to dry up by lunchtime so we mustered a crew and went to work outdoors on the plow roof and cupola windows.  Buzz Morisette did the window framing work and Bill Peterson, Paul Cronin, Victor and I needlechipped a lot more, ejected the old metal roofwalks from the roof, painted maroon on all the vertical cupola surfaces, and primed the newly cleaned roof areas.

WELCOME

The first order of business today is to extend a welcome to new volunteer Steve Muchow (on the right).  Dave Diaz and Steve fabricated the last four new ceiling lighting panels for Cleveland Transit System 4223.

BIG Difference

Dave also applied the first coat of finish paint to eight previously fabricated and primed ceiling panels for the 4223.  This is a BIG step forward and they look really good, and took up a lot of the space on the west end of the shop.  The large center panels are behind Dave, several of the smaller lighting panels can be seen on the left.

Out in the Carbody

While the other fellows labored inside the shops (it rained heavily in the morning hours), Lorne Tweed and Ray Pollice are drilling many holes and installing the screws.  With a lot of planning and prep work, well over 100 of the interior panels and trim pieces were aligned and fit into place, and are now being permanently fastened.

At the Saw

Tim Peters is at the table saw and most of us watch his progress eagerly on the Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 project.  What can he be making now, what is he thinking, does he have a plan?

Southwest Car Corner

The answers to the above questions posed by all the inquiring minds are shown here.  Above, Tim fabricated a new sub sill from some old growth nearly century old southern yellow pine.  Here, you can see the deteriorated pieces removed and now the new timber framing being fitted.

Platform Knee

In recent weeks we have been following along the steps needed to repair the platform knees on the west end of the car.  The final results are in.  Both sides have new steel, new wood, and are ready for final touchup and painting.

Chair Shop

John McKelvey is at it again with a new lounge section armchair for the Passenger Car Department.  You recently saw the stunning finished work on a similar chair, here is the starting point showing how poor the condition is, and the fact that nearly every facet of the piece will receive attention.

The Roof

Norm Krentel is fastening down one of the last roof board slats on the north side of the Michigan Electric 28.  I would hazard a guess that over 90% of the roof now has the new surfaces installed.  Not that any of that was simple but what is remaining is the very tricky bonnet and end roof at the front of the car.

Windows

The Passenger Car Department has requested that we make several new windows for one of their cars.  The sample is leaning against the drafting desk while Rich Witt makes the necessary measurements and transfers those to paper for a good working drawing.

And of course there was lots of other wok happening in the shop and the barns.  The CGW Russel Plow continued with Buzz Morisette working on the new windows and cab cupola repairs, Victor Humphreys adding more interior lining and trim pieces, and of course we always try to make up the next needed pieces for priming so the work can continue, whatever the weather gods bring us.