Wood Shop

This Blog entry will cover several topics not strictly related to wood shop activity, but some exciting news, and views.  To start off, Henry Vincent grabbed my camera and made the trek to Barn 2 to check on progress with painting CTS 4223, our PCC car from Cleveland.

Front

Since last reported here in any detail, the car was moved to Barn 2, where conditions are more amenable to painting.  We owe the Internal Combustion Department BIG TIME for sharing this space.  Here is the front of the car with the unique paint scheme and color separations from Cleveland.

Left Rear

The left rear in all its glory.

Right Rear

And here the right rear.  Not bad, and perhaps the dark red or maroon striping will be laid out to apply this coming week!

Let There Be Light

Henry quickly returned to our shop space and worked all day with Max Tyms to complete wiring and lighting for the shop addition.  Here, the new light fixtures are being assembled and wired, ready to be hung on the ceiling.

Windows

Tim Peters has done a lot of window work in the last few weeks.  A total of 18 new frames in three sizes have been made for Tim's project, wood CRT 1797 L car.  Here he is doing some of the trim and finish work, rabbeting and plowing out some tricky recesses to mount the hardware.  Note the stack of finished frames.

Post It

Not a POST IT note, but a new post repair for the car side. Randy Hicks has taken on the task of making substantial repairs to our Illinois Terminal 277 combine. It is planned to be in operation at the end of April for the visiting Illinois Traction Society members.

Kansas City

Mike Stauber and Frank Sirinek continue with work on our Kansas City PCC car.  Last week's post saw them working on some interior paneling, and here they have two of the rear side windows in the shop, being cleaned and repaired.  Note the two panels of glass in this one frame.  Kansas City cars were unique, I believe, in using cobalt blue tinted glass in some locations in the car.  Too bad, but the passengers were not treated to looking at the world through rose colored glass.

Frank and Mike supplied a lot of info for engineering work to continue to get new brake shoes cast for Chicago Surface Lines 3142.

Regular work continued in the shop on other projects, including seat restoration for the Vera Cruz open car, Rich Witt doing finish work to rout pockets for window lift hardware on two new windows for the Villa Falls, and more work on 11 new windows for the IC Diner 3996.  All the tenons were cut and the first new frame was custom fitted, ready for gluing.

A Frame Up

Simon Harrison is working on one of the two new frames for our VILLA FALLS passenger car.  There was a minor setback last Saturday, but that has been corrected.  He and Rich Witt are working on a new jig to plow out recesses for the window lifts.

Layout Work

Victor Humphreys made a full scale layout of the footprint of our LARGE American table saw.  After taking as many measurements as we could a scale drawing had been created to design a new steel frame for the saw.  With the cardboard template on the floor, we removed the temporary wood cribs under the saw, and set it down to compare the actual footprint of the saw to the drawing.  This most closely resembled a scene from a Hollywood movie with a cast of thousands (or at least seven guys), steel bars, wood blocking.

Turns out it was good thing we went to the effort of this extra step before ordering the steel, as 'somebody'  (ME) had slipped up on one critical dimension.  So now we can be sure that what will be built will actually fit and support the saw.

John Nelligan took several images of the above process and I will simply add them here for your enjoyment.

Higher

Lower

My Best Side

Move Left

Lift

Hmmm

Pocket Warmer

Watch Your Fingers

And now back to the rest of this entry - - - -

The Electrical Detective

John Nelligan was back on the case - working on wiring for the Charles City Western 300 steeple cab locomotive.  A lot of complex functions on the drawing, then trying to identify those with the wiring in the field, and then puzzling out modifications made over the years.  The right man is on the job!

Tenons

Two of our other stalwarts, Lorne Tweed and John Faulhaber, are making the first series of cuts for the tenons on 22 top and bottom window rails.  These products are destined for the IC 3996 diner.

Again there was a large turnout of enthusiastic volunteers at the Barn 4 shops today.  Here is some of the work - - -

Berlin Woes

The BIG JOB in the wood shop was to run a handful - no two handfuls - no, more than two handfuls, of windows for the CRT 1797 through the Berlin sander.  Tim Peters has been making these new frames for a few weeks and it was time to get to the the next phase.  The machine was set up and some time spent making some fine adjustments based on the last job run through this machine.

In short order it was determined that we need to pay some attention to the abrasive media wrapping the third drum.  I am on the floor reaching into the end of the drum, Tim is on the deck reaching in, and Bill Moran is turning the drum by hand to get at the needed areas.

Of course, an assortment of tools were dropped into the innards of the machine in the process, in places you could not possibly get them into if you tried.  Dan Fenlaciki dropped by and helped a lot with a new set of eyes and outlook on how we could get to a particularly stuck dropped screwdriver to remove it.

Production

Well, we did some good.  Tim snapped this pic with my camera while I was feeding the new frames in, and Bill Moran was acting as the 'catcher'.

Kansas City - -

Mike Stauber and Frank Sirinek were cleaning off a piece of interior trim from our Kansas City PCC car.  In this case, trying to get an unblemished panel for a good color sample for having new paint custom mixed.  Look for more work on this car later in the year.

Trim Routing

John Faulhaber was busy on the router trimming the profile beading on 22 new stiles for the IC 3996 diner windows.  This task is a necessary step to be able to start the final dry fit of the new frames.

Step Boxes

Tom Windmeier (and Jim W) were out working on RUN TWO for another six new step boxes.

Diner Trim

Tim Peters and Buzz Morisette were routing roundovers on many pieces of new trim for our diner interior.  They are using a SPRINGBOARD on the router table, something new for us, and which improves the ease of setup, consistency of the finished molding, and safety when routing small pieces.  Buzz made this jig earlier in the day.

Max Tyms was out and working on electrical conduit installation in the shop annex area.  There were several other familiar faces engaged in their projects, but you get the idea.  It was busy and productive.