Wood Shop

Door Assembly

The early morning job was to assemble and glue up the new station door we are making.  I am sure you are enjoying the images of the many steps and the drama we encountered.  Wait - I was up to my elbows in that so did not have a chance to take pics.  The door is all together and John Faulhaber and Victor Humphreys are setting it into place in our glue press - manufactured by GREENLEE in nearby Rockford in 1926.

Squared and Set

Once down on the press (Victor had previously set the clamping dogs and opened it up wide enough) we proceeded to square it up and added a few more bar clamps to help hold this large assembly together.  Do not ask them how heavy it is - they will gladly and quickly inform you of the answer!

Finish Paint

Randy Hicks stopped by the shop to check on some of the work we are doing for him.  Of course he could not resist picking up a paintbrush and applying the first finish coat of red to the end door of Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.

Grids

Quick as a flash I found Randy and Paul Cronin working on a resistance box from CA&E 36.  Several grids are broken, one of the span rods is bent, and everything is coated with heavy rust.

Steam Bending

Jeff Brady had designed and set up some equipment to help him bend some of the wood for the new roof on Michigan Electric 28.  Here, he set it up for one of our projects and went on the train and explain how it is supposed to work.  Paul Cronin, John Faulhaber, and Rich Witt are ready to give it a try.

Load it Up

Rich Witt and Paul Cronin are loading one of the thin mahogany pieces of quarter round, made expressly for the new windows for Boston & Maine 1094.  After the required time under steam at low pressure, it was all hands to extract it (HOT! HOT!) and place it on our custom designed bending and clamping jig.

Wiring

Meanwhile Eric Lorenz continued to make good progress routing new wiring in Cleveland Transit System 4223.  The harnesses in the ceiling have reached the front end of the PCC.  Out in the shop we did a bit more work on the next set of metal interior ad panels, and have now started making new tempered hardboard panels for the reminder of the ceiling.

AERIAL VIEW

This is the west end of Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  A new piece of ash was made by Tim Peters and is in place on the roof.  You can see how repairs are being made, and the extent of deterioration in some places.  Tim gave me a ride up in the air using his electric lift so I could look down on his work.

Metal Fab

Jeff Brady is fabricating a metal splice plate as he and the rest of the crew (Norm Krentel and Bill Peterson) continue the roof work on Michigan Electric 28.

The Stile

Paul Cronin started making this new walnut stile for one of the passenger cars compartment doors that Roger Kramer is restoring.  We did the start of this last Wednesday and today did a lot mortising, routing, chiseling and fitting.

It Fits

Paul and Victor seem quite pleased that the book matched original walnut door panel fits right into place.  Roger Kramer was on hand for the work and also brought in an armload of mahogany window parts.  He and Rich Witt measured them all up and have a plan to make three more new windows for our heavyweight fleet.

Winterized

Spring in the Air

A sure sign of spring - although you would not know it by the weather this week.  Dave Rogan and I went out to Chicago Great Western X 38 and removed the winter blank from the window in the rear wall.  There ensued many fussy trim cuts, each one punctuated by the windy walk from the wood shop, and back to Track 41.  Finally, the window slipped into place, just like it had been made to order.  Wait, it WAS made to order.

The window is back in the shop getting any fitting cuts primed and painted but as soon as the weather cooperates, you will see it finished and in place.

Trim

With the window set in place, Dave is making a new interior window sill, and will next cut quarter round retainer molding for three sides.  That got primed in the morning by Victor Humphreys, along with more station door priming, and one adjustment to the fit of the door lower mid stile.

Primed

Henry Vincent continues on the train door restoration for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  The code string for this image is "BUM" - I wonder what that says about our crew?

Grids

Pete Galayda and John Nelligan are like bulldogs, not letting go of a long and arduous journey to restore electrical control grids for Charles City Western 300, a steeple cab locomotive.  Here, Pete is disassembling box number 7, the last one in the series.

Jointing

Roger Kramer was in the shop, working beside our crew to restore a walnut paneled door for one of the heavyweight passenger cars.  It is a beauty with a four way book matched solid walnut panel in the center of the door.  In this view, Paul Cronin, Henry Vincent and John Faulhaber are jointing a new piece of walnut.

John also spent some time making a steam bending jig, along with Rich Witt trying to locate the odds and ends to do that task.

Door Panels

Rich Witt is working on the new solid panel inserts for a new station door.  We did a pretty good job machining them but go the extra mile to sand them out and get them ready for prime painting.

More Panels

Victor Humphreys is working on one of the long panels for the doors as in total some time had to be spent.  He is doing that in this image after glazing three more windows (new) for the Chicago Great Western X 38.

Jointing

Rich Witt is running some fresh mahogany stock through the jointer for the new round top windows for Boston & Maine 1094.

Routing

Then Rich and Paul Cronin passed the stock through the router and followed that up on the table saw to set the quarter round pieces 'free'.  We hope to try steam bending them on Wednesday and if successful, that will be the last of the parts needed for these two windows.

Puzzle Solved

A few more days of head scratching and it appears the puzzle is solved.  These are the ad card panels that will get cleaned and repainted to go inside Cleveland Transit System 4223.  As the arrangement grew one panel by one panel we were very optimistic until it seemed we were one short panel missing.  Where could it be, in storage, forgotten in some work area?  As luck would have it fate was on our side.  As we had given up and started to gather up the above display to return to shelving, we FOUND the missing panel sitting in an area separate from all the others.  Paul Cronin is in the background marking reference data so we will not have to solve this puzzle again.

Wiring

While the above drama was playing out on the shop floor, Eric Lorenz continued to make up harnesses and string cable through the ceiling ribs.  Later it would be very difficult to do this after more of the interior panels go in place.  Unintentional, but I really like the halo effect surrounding Eric's head here.

A Roof

We have all watched the work being done on Michigan Electric 28.  But it seems like all the preparation is paying off as Norm Krentel, Jeff Brady, and Bill Peterson were installing panels at seemingly warp speed.  There was little to show and presto they were almost to the end of the car!

In Stile

Meanwhile back in the shop, Tim Peters continues on the Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 project.  Here is a repair in style, of a stile, for one of the doors.  Lots of tricky angles and fitting.

Where it Goes

And here Tim is checking for the exact fit that a perfectionist like him insists upon.  I guess it gets easier after you have done this twenty times or so.