Wood Shop

This was another busy day in the shop.

Windows

Paul Cronin and John Faulhaber are doing the fussy work of fitting window parts for our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  I managed to get one more to fit, and so did Buzz Morisette after he did some more work on roof parts for our Private Car ELY.  We now have four more windows ready for the glue press and this will mark eight new ones made this season for the cab cupola, in addition to the three already done and being painted.  Victor Humphrey did some work on those.

The Chiseler

A worker is only as good as his tools.  After the other work was completed, Buzz Morisette did some sharpening and honing of chisel blades.  He achieved a quality edge that could literally shave the hair off your face.  There were no volunteers to take that test.

More Tack Molding

John Faulhaver was running new stock through our planer to make the last two pieces needed for tack molding for the Lake Shore Electric 810 traction freight trailer.  These are two larger pieces, of a slightly more complicated profile that are to be used for the curved ends of the car.

Roof Boards

Dave Rogan and Jim Leonard were sanding, and then prime painting the many new tongue and groove roof boards produced over the last two weeks.  These also are for the Lake Shore Electric 810.

Mortising

Jeff Brady was at the mortiser making many many wood blocks for the Michigan Electric 28 roof project.  These are fairly complicated wood blocks which cap other metal bolt ends on the roof and serve to insulate or protect anyone working up there form a potential ground and hair raising shock.

Engineering

Rich Witt was on station in the engineering department.  Much progress was made on a service project to Dave Diamond and the Buildings and Grounds Department.  New double hung windows have been installed recently in the Spaulding Tower, and now we hope to make some custom profile interior wood window sills.  A small sample is on the work table at his right elbow.  New router bits for the profile have been ordered so look for sawdust to be made in the next few weeks on these items.

Rich also spent some time on a future task, this one of making two new windows for the B&M car in Barn 3.  One old rounded top window was removed from the car, the other is missing.  If you look behind Rich, back and above his right elbow, a sharp eyed reader may discern the old sash. This one we will use as a sample but it has been extensively repaired and reworked at some time in its life and is in VERY POOR condition.  This is a complicated wood working task and will involve many specialized techniques and wood working setups and jigs.  For now it remains a coming attraction, pending the engineering drawings and getting some increasingly rare mahogany.

Another coming attraction is a request from the folks working on the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car, a 1929 product built by the railroad in their shops.  This work is for specialized tongue and groove ceiling lining boards.

Other work in the shop saw Henry VIncent working on the new table saw, Pete Galayda and John Nelligan working on the seemingly endless task of restoring seven electrical grid boxes for Charles City Western 300, Randy Hicks warming up and working on CA&E strap hanger restoration, a visit by Ted Anderson of the Pullman Library, and Cheryl Lint stopped by.  We noticed a massive stack of new window parts on a rolling cart, these made by Tim Peters for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

HELP WANTED:  This is in the way of an apology for the recent poor picture quality by me.  With recent eye surgery and old man's shaking hands disease, most of these are unacceptably blurred.  So if there is a cub reporter out there wanting to take over this job, or to merely help out, there is an opening,.  You readers deserve better.

There was a good turnout yesterday, and very many individual projects were being worked upon.  Here are some quick views of some of that.

Tongue and Groove

While I was away John Faulhaber led the way to produce over 300 feet of new tongue and groove boards for roof replacement on the Lake Shore Electric 810.  Yes, we made that ourselves including the last two steps on our shaper.  But these pieces are destined for the outer edges of the roof where there is the tightest radius and they have to lay down as flat as possible around that.  The railway solution is what we did today.  Essentially making a beveled tongue and groove.  Cheryl Lint is helping John on this step.

Priming

No sooner than the stock was cut did Cheryl set up and begin prime painting the many boards.  Meanwhile, John was breaking down the fences, featherboards, and other tooling so others could use the saw.

Windows

The first three new windows for Chicago Great Western X 38 have their two coats of maroon on the exterior, and Victor Humphreys started the finished interior gray enamel.  We also fussed some more with the next batch of eight windows for that same car.

Window Post Caps

One of the more exciting pieces of news for me was the arrival of newly fabricated window post caps for the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  The old ones are almost universally rusted out at the bottom or especially in line with the car belt rails.  We tried to figure a way to uniformly repair and weld them up, mostly to no avail.  So here they are, all new and ready to go.  Eric Lorenz is pictured, much as a proud papa would show off his newborn.

In the Car

It did not take long to start trying the new post caps and here you can see several posts covered as they should be.  Do not be fooled.  The car has had such extensive repairs to the carbody, that many of these will need tweaking for the best fit - no two posts on the car are the same.  As these go in, it will allow progress in a hurry with installation of the side windows.  Who knows where this might lead??

Roof Boards

Nick Espevik and Jerry Saunders are planning to add roof saddles and trolley boards to CTA 30, one of our Chicago 'single' rapid transit cars.  First step is prime painting a LOT of lumber.  That will allow the car to operate by itself over our line, drawing power through a trolley pole.

More Wood

Buzz Morisette has some new nice looking Douglas Fir here.  He is taking big boards and making small boards.  Oh yes, these are for the interior roof framing repairs Buzz has been doing on our ELY private car.

Still Smaller

After chopping them to rough length and jointing the timbers, it was time to run them through the planer to reduce the size further.  It is pretty much the same drill for any of the woodwork we might need to replace during a restoration.  Stock sizes of today just will not fit the bill.

I would like to introduce Mr. Paul Cronin.  Paul grew up in Boston and did  volunteer work for the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine when he lived out east.  Fast forward to today when Paul has relocated to our area in the Midwest.  He is now becoming a regular volunteer in our shops on both Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we are happy to have his help.

Priming

Paul started the day by applying primer to the new tack molding for Lake Shore Electric 810.

Windows

With the tack molding finished, Paul moved on to add the first coat of deep rich maroon finish paint to three new windows for our Chicago Great Western X 38 snow plow.  He seems willing to tackle almost any job, and is a careful and thorough worker.  To end the day, Paul helped me a bit planing and sawing a new front panel for a wood toolbox.  WELCOME ABOARD, Paul

Windows Again

Speaking of windows, we got some more done, this time for two new front windows for the CGW X 38 plow, these to go in the elevated cupola cab.  Some tricky fitting, depending on how lucky you are, and then gluing.  Victor Humphreys has squared up the frames in the glue press and applies one last squeeze with the handwheel.

Paint Removal

Ray Pollice was on hand to do some more of what is becoming his specialty.  He is removing layers of old paint down to bare shiny metal, and he really does a GOOD job.  This piece is a handhole cover from the table saw that Henry Vincent has been working on.  Ray also did three more items for the motor and drive set up on this saw.  Thank you, Ray - stop by anytime!

End Beam

Tim Peters has moved on in full swing to his THIRD all wood elevated car, this time the Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  One of the next things to address are structural issues, and in particular the car needs its wood end beam replaced by a new one.  First step, make a paper template showing size and shape, and the locations of multiple holes.  Next he transfers that to a rigid piece of thin tempered masonite, as shown here.  I expect it will not be too long before the sawdust will fly.  That itself is not a trivial task as the first step is to move and setup the first cuts on a massive 12x12 timber salvaged last year from the demolition of a feed mill in nearby Huntley.