Wood Shop

This was another busy Wednesday in the shops in Barn 4.  One of the volunteers said to me "Wow, there are 17 people here today!"  I counted 18, so another weekday record for attendance - and PROGRESS.

Milestone Event

The lead photo today has to be Mike Alterio and Frank Sirinek alongside Chicago & West Towns 141.  Work has been ongoing to fabricate new parts and linkages and yesterday the brake rigging under the car was COMPLETE!  The trolley pole went to the wire, the air compressor charged the brake system, and the brakes were applied from the control stand inside the car.  THEY WORKED!  This was very much a team effort with many contributing to the success.  The tests pointed to some adjustments still needed but the brake cylinder, rods, bars, pins, bushings, new clevises, the many parts salvaged and made new performed as designed.

Fitting

Dick Cubbage and Jim Leonard are trimming tenons on the bandsaw for a rail on the new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38.  It is a fitting job and quite fitting that volunteers new to the work are doing and learning the skill sets.

Trial Assembly

Each mortise and tenon joint is custom fitted one at a time.  As we go along it is too tempting to resist assembling what is ready so far.  Jim Leonard, John Faulhaber, and Dave Rogan seem pleased.

Sanding

Jim is using the disc sander to take off just a 'whisker' to make the joint nearly perfect.  The smart folks do this carefully and only a little bit at a time.  Slower perhaps, but little risk of taking too much and ruining a piece.

Shaving

Dave and John are using a tenon jig on the table saw to just shave a bit off the thickness on one side of the tenon.

Results

Results are what count.  Near the end of the day Dave, Jim, and John have the entire door assembled for the first time.  They look very proud and OUGHT TO BE!

Door Repairs

Henry Vincent has been working at repairing an end train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  He has moved on to the fussy work of plunging mortises (seen here) and trimming tenons for the final fit before the gluing stage.

New Ceiling

Buzz Morisette is already at work on new lumber for creating tongue and groove ceiling boards for the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car.  Our volunteers yesterday got what I estimate to be over $1000 of new hardwood lumber and hauled it to our site in our truck.  It barely had a chance to get warm, and the work was on.  Yes the raw materials alone can be costly (donate now to MILW X 5000, CRT 1024, or ME 28) but the value of the fabricated work we do is easily five times that.  And we have the opportunity to pass on the skill sets every week to the volunteers.

Windows

What would a BLOG entry be without mentioning windows?  Volunteer Dave Diaz has returned to the fold to help out, and he and Simon Harrison are working on the metal sash windows for Cleveland Transit System 4223.   This PCC car had a lot of window work done last winter in the shops, and now it is time to finish off remaining items to make them ready to install on the carbody.

The driving was certainly poor in the morning but many hardy souls came out to help.  It did not help that GATE 5 was inoperable when I showed up (the first one?) and I was not dressed to brave the snowy winds to unlock the secrets and get it reset.  But I did - I wonder what I did right?

Cupola Windows

Victor Humprheys is applying the first coat of finish grey interior paint to the cupola windows for Chicago Great Western X 38.  It is very satisfying to see this taking place, remembering the rough boards and resulting sawdust that got us this far.

Fitting

John Faulhaber is starting the fussy work of fitting together the first pieces for the new doors for the X 38.  Earlier we did the trim work to prepare the rails and stiles at each mortise.

OJT

Bill Peterson is working his way into our graces every Saturday.  He is willing and seems quite able to take on additional tasks.  Here he is demonstrating how we fashion double tongue tenons to fit two matching mortises for the mid rails of these doors.  The OJT caption?  On the job training!

Panel 3

Victor also assisted in gluing and clamping 9 pieces of wood for the third panel to be made for the new X 38 doors.  It is a good thing the glue we are using has a good pot life and we can usually find the seven or so extra sets of hands to do the assembly and clamping.

Coming Attraction

Buzz Morisette is holding two small pieces of wood.  The old brown ragged one is from the head lining of MILW X 5000, our dynamometer car.  The new one is a test piece for cutting the profile and groove on new lumber.  The shaper is set up now with the proper tooling and ready to go once the new lumber is delivered.

Molding Profile

Here, Buzz is routing a fancy profile on a curved piece of new molding that was created for his restoration work on the private car ELY.  I am sure the car builders did this mass production fashion, but when there is a will there is a way.  We have some very talented and creative volunteers willing to share some of the tricks of the trade.

Windows

Lorne Tweed is going over the many windows needed for the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC.  We are all eager to see enough of the interior panels and trim installed to allow windows in the car sides.  Glass is a GOOD thing!

Wood Windows

Tim Peters is in the final stages of his window making marathon for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024, with some help here from Bill Wulfert.  The few left on this bench are all that are remaining to be able to say they are ALL glued and assembled.

Clean Up in Barn 4

It reminded me of the announcements often heard in supermarkets, but here Bill and Tim are cleaning up layers of old paint from the brass lamp bases and window lifts fro CRT 1024.  Someone should be taking time lapse photos of this project, it is moving along too fast to capture everything on these BLOGS.

Engineering

And of course Rich Witt continues in the Engineering Department.  Sometimes we push him pretty hard and are set up and cutting stock as the lines go down on paper.  And of course Rich also does a lot of the shop work and finished up a very nice piece today.

Wow!  Wednesday was a very busy day in the shop and without spending a lot of time counting, I think I can name SEVENTEEN volunteers on hand.  They are a bunch of likable, friendly, hard working guys HAVING FUN and enjoying fellowship with like minded individuals.  I may have missed a few names so maybe there were MORE.  As a result this will be a long post with lots of pics, and even then some activities did not get recorded.  A lot of people, a lot of work, a lot of projects, and a lot of PROGRESS!  Over the past few years we invested a lot of time and effort to expand the Barn 4 shop space.  Just like in the movie FIELD OF DREAMS - build it and they will come.

Engineering Dept

Rich Witt continues to be a valuable resource in the Engineering work.  You need to have a plan before starting to build anything and he has been involved in producing working drawings and making decisions about two new round topped windows for the Boston & Maine 1094.  These prove to be far more complicated than a traditional rectangular window for our railcars.

Plans

Ted Anderson is the Curator of our Pullman Library and he found original plans and drawings for these type of windows.  Ted reviews them with Rich, and we were pleased to determine that many of our choices and decisions are justified and were the way the originals were constructed.  In this case we needed to make common sense choices based on historical examples since the remaining one window is in bad shape and has been patched several times,  Not much of the original fabric to go by.

Door Panels

Progress continued on the scheduled winter shop work for Chicago Great Western X 38.  John Faulhaber and Dave Rogan are laying out and preparing pieces for gluing up another of the four solid panels needed for two new doors.

Cupola Windows

Victor Humphreys was adding the first exterior primer paint to eight new completed windows destined for the X 38.  There are many steps to making a new wood sash and almost as many for the finishing process, with only being able to do one side at a time and waiting for drying time.

Mortises

John Faulhaber breathes a sigh of relief beside the rails and stiles for the X 38 doors.  Drilling square holes with a rotating drill is a touchy operation requiring some care and finesse.  Note all the completed slots (mortises) in the stack of parts beside him.

Tenons

Jim Leonard is laying out parts for one of the doors after he helped cut the tenons.  This should give you a good idea of the size and shape for these heavy doors.  Now for the fussy work of custom fitting each of the eight mortise and tenon joints to allow assembly.

Panel

Dave and John have assembled one of the solid door panels they prepared in the morning and are trying to use almost every available clamp in the shop to hold it flat and square.  New volunteer Jim Foraker is learning and helping at the same time.  WELCOME ABOARD, Jim!

Door Repairs

Lets move on from the snow plow work to Henry Vincent continuing his careful work to repair a train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 36.

The Next Table Saw

We have talked before here about our efforts to bring an old larger table saw back to life.  Jim Leonard is working to clean the innards and outards(?) of the disassembled motor for the saw.  Also this week a troublesome motor bearing problem was resolved with some machine shop work (Thanks Rod), so we may be close to reassembling and testing the motor.

The Saw Body

Jim Heinlien helped a lot as we strip and clean the failed paint finish from the saw.  Jim Foraker is just outside this view but he pitched in on the task.

Interior Panels

The next few relate to the PCC car, Cleveland Transit System 4223.  Lorne Tweed is studying old prints as he tries to decode the many parts removed from the car maybe 20 years ago.

More Panels

Jim Leonard is busy cleaning up some of those old CTS 4223 panels.  They were primed at the time of removal but primer is somewhat of a porous coating and years and years in storage has not been 100% kind to them.

Still More Panel Work

After the panels have been cleaned up we see Lorne wiping them down to remove any dust and debris before adding new primer.  There are many panels and no two seem to be the same.  Many had received the new primer by the end of the day.

Rear Window

Last week we showed you how we made a new mahogany bottom rail for a rear window in Indiana Railroad 65.  Jon Fenlaciki quickly checked the work and set about sanding the many layers of old paint.  The new wood is the piece on the right side with no paint as you view the image here.

More Windows

Tim Peters is not to be outdone in his quest to manufacture 72 new windows for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  He is now to the stage of making the new clerestory windows, each with three lites or panes of glass.

Tack Molding

After all, how much window work can you do?  Frank Kehoe and Tim are working on creating the right dimension stock for more 1024 tack molding.  With the upper tack molding under their belt, they are now working on the lower tack molding, this one mounted where the lower hip roof meets the car sides.