Chicago Great Western X 38 Russell Snow Plow

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The first order of business is to wish you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.  And to give all of you THANKS for your support and participation in ALL of the various IRM projects in 2012.  THANK YOU.

Yesterday at the IRM wood shop there was but a skeleton crew on hand.  I can assume many were making preparations for today's time with family and friends, or traveling to do the same.  That is entirely fitting and appropriate.

In the shop we used the time to work on more windows.  There was a time not too long ago when constructing and fabricating ONE new window from rough stock was a BIG EVENT.  Yet here we are well along the process for making ELEVEN new windows, in the space of a few short weeks.

Routed

Victor Humphreys and Dick Cubabge worked on eight new windows for the cupola cab of the CGW snowplow.  All these share the same profile and shape, but of course there are four different sizes, and each pair has both a right hand and left hand version.  Last week you saw the pile of prepared blanks, we referred to as 'window kits'.  Victor and Dick worked to rout a unique profile for the beading on that stock as you can see above.

Full Profile

The next steps were done on the table saw to slice two thin grooves and drop out  the remainder resulting in the rabbet, which will be used to place the glass in the finished window.  Here that is all done, three steps on each of 32 pieces of stock.  We made fabrication drawings on the computer for each type and are using those to set dimensions and sizes.  Four of the drawings lay before you in the above image, resting on three completed glue ups of windows.  Behind them are the stacks of window kits, now with each piece shaped and rabbeted as needed.  Maybe only barely visible but the pair of stiles facing the camera has had the layout lines added for plunging 3/8 inch slots on the mortising machine - the next steps.

I was not getting around too well yesterday so this may seem short to you all.  I am posting under the CGW X38 header since most of this entry is about that work.

Gluing

We started the day with John Faulhaber and Victor Humphreys (not shown) assembling, gluing and clamping three new windows for the snowplow.  Yes the winter season is upon us and we hope to produce a steady stream of new windows  These are quite recognizable already but remember there remain seven more steps in the process to complete them.

Kits

With the frames glued and squared, John and I moved on to the next batch of windows.  A lot of headscratching and layout work on two large planks of fresh stock, use of three of our major shop tools, and the result?  A stack of parts to be used as KITS for eight more windows, destined for the cupola cab of the snowplow.  John seems quite pleased at the results (I was also - see me smiling behind the lens?).  We are doing them this way since they all share the same profiles and rabbets.  Once that tooling is set up, it makes sense to do them all at the same time, sort of mass production.

Floored

Meanwhile Victor was in and out of the shop, lending a hand where needed and yet returning to his work on the B&O wagon top boxcar.  Even in marginal weather there is work to be done, sometimes darting in and out of the great outdoors.  Earlier this week more bad steel was removed, and this revealed some flooring in pretty bad shape.  Here, Victor is grooving out one of the new boards so it can be correctly fit around obstructions and rivets.

Earlier he had completed finish painting of the door weatherstripping for the snowplow.  And of course the usual suspects were on hand.  Buzz Morisette was working on restoring deteriorated headlining and car structure in the rear end of the the private car ELY, Tim Peters working on his marathon speed run for a new roof on an L car, assisted by Frank Sirinek, Mike Stauber, Fred Zimmerman, and Bill Wulfert, Randy Hicks (guru for all things CA&E wood), and a host of others.

I even managed some sit down time and worked on new brass seat handle castings for the Sand Springs 68.

The Nose

We got a break and applied more black paint to the primed areas on the nose.  I say 'we' but Victor Humphreys did the dirty work.

On the Body

And on the body, Victor was adding more finish paint.  In an ideal world all of the areas wearing primer get at least one cost of finish enamel to protect them over the coming winter.  You can also see that the south side has been 'winterized' getting that ready for bad weather.  All openings have seen blanks installed, here you can see the south window and south door have been so prepared.

Headlight

In the shop Ray Pollice continued the patient work of paint removal on the new headlight obtained and donated by one of our remote member/supporters.

Headlight Parts

Ray finished up the paint removal and here are the aluminum castings waiting for a special primer to be applied.  The rubber gaskets are masked off, they are somewhat fragile, and we did not want to risk destroying them to be removed.