Wood Shop

Yesterday we hosted five visitors from the Itasca Park District and showed them our restored Milwaukee Road caboose.  It became sort of a workshop/clinic/seminar as we related many of the obstacles encountered and the choices we made along the restoration path.  Victor Humphreys and Buzz Morisette were the real stars of the effort which included a 'field trip' to Barn 11.  THANKS!!  So I really had little time for shop work and photos.  Nevertheless the able shop crew turned out a lot of work.

Door Bottom

First out of the gate, Dave Rogan executed fourteen mortises in the door parts for a new door in our depot.  Here, Dave Diaz and Jim Leonard are shown with the bottom rail, cleaning out chips and doing the layout work for the tenons.

Assembly

Near the end of the day, Paul Cronin, Jim and Dave had done a lot of the fussy work to trim and fit each of six of the joints and we were able to dry assemble those members into what now what was starting to look like a new door.

Mortising

The set up and the tooling on our mortising machine was changed over and Rich Witt and Dave Rogan are plunging the mortises for two new windows for the Boston & Maine 1094 passenger car.

Stiles

Rich and Dave show off the results in the odd shaped stiles for the above windows.  These are to be round topped and the thinking behind these pieces is a bit different from the more typical railroad sash we have made.

Ribs

Buzz was back in the shop in the afternoon and was producing more roof ribs for the private car ELY.

More Door Work

Henry Vincent makes more progress every week on the repairs to a train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  Still one more wood piece to make this week, and then a lot of additional parts to be cleaned, painted, and installed.  An interesting feature is that this door has provision for the hang on headlight when on the front of a train.  So there is wiring in a channel through the wood door framing to the metal bracket, for two wires. 

Roof Panels

Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady went a field trip to a local supplier and picked up a load of new plywood panels destined for a new roof on Michigan Electric 28.  They were busy prime painting those for much of the day remaining.  In the shop some of our crew produced about 70 thin slats of poplar, to be used on the front bonnet of the car roof, much as Jeff and Norm have completed for the rear car roof.

These reports are fast becoming like a picture book.  For awhile my camera was not working very well, and now TOO MANY pics.

Panels

The two new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38 have solid raised panels in the bottom half.  All are done and Victor Humphreys does some finish sanding on them.

Trim Molding

Bill Peterson completed fitting and mitering all the quarter round trim molding on door number two for the plow.  Next, primer and paint.

Puzzling

We began work to create a new exterior door for our station today.  After a visit to the door in question in the depot, Paul Cronin is trying to sort out a puzzle.  We have a stack of lumber and a drawing with dimensions.  Now, where can each piece be 'harvested' from the oversize planks that were available?

Ripping

After jointing a straight edge on all pieces, Paul and Bill are at the table saw ripping the stock to the exact width needed.

Arranging

The parts have been cut to rough length and a dado set used to plow the needed grooves in each piece.  Paul is checking the arrangement with all the parts arranged in order.  This is a BIG door!

Layout

The next step involved the three of us confirming the length of each piece and then laying out the needed work for the mortise and tenon jointery.  Bill is making sure all marks are transferred accurately and both sides will match.

Brakes

The Electric Car Shop just completed new custom sheaves needed for working hand brakes on the Chicago & West Towns 141.  This is big news and I managed to snap a pic of Project Manager Frank Sirinek taking a picture of me taking a picture of him tak- - - - -

Template

Tim Peters is working on a hardboard curved template for some needed wood parts for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

Photo

Never loan your camera to ANYBODY!  As I downloaded these pics earlier today, what should appear but a followup shot to the above, with me and Tim solving the problems of the day.  The grammar does not sound right but the names go left to right as do the people in the image.

Ribbing

Buzz Morisette is laying out patterns for new ribbing as he continues to replace roof and ceiling panels in the private car ELY.

A Box

Here is new project for Union Telephone & Telegraph, my own made up name for the enterprise being spearheaded by Frank Carraro.  Buzz has made a pile of parts of oak, all of which would fit in one hand.  It is for a box that will hold jacks for line switching - IN THE OLD STYLE.

See, It Is a Box

Here are all those small parts being glued and assembled into something useful by Buzz.

Door

We made good progress on the two new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38, all while several other projects proceeded.  Jim Leonard is fitting quarter round molding (we made that also in the shop) for the two panels below the window.  The panels for all doors were completed earlier and sanded for finish.

Panels

After the molding to retain the door panels had been fitted, we took them out and Jim Foraker is applying some polyester glazing compound to smooth out and fill in any divots gained during our handling.

Back to the Door

With panels done and fitted, Jim Leonard has turned to fitting the moldings for the glass window in the top of the door.  This pic is of the second door.

Windows

FINALLY!  A picture caption with 'windows' in it!  Rich Witt is carefully marking each of the eight pieces for the cuts, at this time the table saw was 'raising' the panels for the CGW doors.

Notching

Paul Cronin and Rich are making stop cuts in the four stiles for the Boston & Maine round top windows.  These are not the typical railroad sash we turn out routinely, so some thought is required.  That leaves me out!

Sneak Peek

All of the parts are taking shape for the two round top windows.  Rich has laid them out to check dimensions.  See how they will go together?

Paint Work

Paul Cronin has been cleaning up a very old motor for a new to us old table saw.  Finally, there is primer going on.

Berlin Sander

While we were successful in using the Berlin Sander last Saturday, there were a few tell tales that maybe indicated more fine tuning and adjustments could be made.  Jim F was pretty deep into that and a quick test showed improvements.

Rare Photo

Here are Mike Alterio and Frank Sirinek during a rare working visit to the wood shop.  For now we will keep that work under wraps.

Of course I could not get pics of all the other work.  Paul and Dave Diaz cut a number of thin strips or slats of wood for Michigan Electric 28 - these to be used on the curved end roof bonnet on the front of the car.  Henry Vincent continued his fine work repairing and end door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  Pete Galayda and John Nelligan made more progress on the seemingly endless task of rebuilding the resistor grid boxes for Charles City Western 300.  And we would be remiss not to thank Bobby Knourek of Woodworkers Tool Works.  In a short time you would not think possible, Bobby made a set of custom ground knives for new door molding for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  From the time we sent a sample, to the return of the cutterhead and new knives - LESS THAN ONE WEEK!  And the price was right.  I suppose I sound like his marketing department but you just do not find that level of service anywhere today, let alone on parts for machines a half century old.