Progress Report

Saturday was another busy day at IRM, and we have a few pictures to prove it.

Somebody asked about progress on the Multi-Purpose Building.  Contractors have been working on installing the insulation in the back walls, as seen here.

And then, progress has been made on the Steam Shop inspection pit.  Here Matt Gustafson is working on the rail clips.

And I saw some old friends from the good old days, Dave Conrad and Dennis Daugherty.  Dave has put the tires onto the wheelsets for the Ingersoll-Rand engine, and this week he plans to assemble the trucks for the locomotive.  Gregg Wolfersheim was helping on this project, and Nick Kallas was pretending to supervise.  

Dave Conrad also filled me in on other details about the IR locomotive, a very historic first-generation Diesel.  Once the body has been put back on the correct trucks, they are planning to sand-blast it (with walnut shells) and paint it.  Dave explained to me the advantages of using walnut shells instead of sand or other abrasives.  And he wants to repaint it in the Bicentennial paint scheme.  Now I thought at the time that the Bicentennial was pretty much an aesthetic disaster all around, but it's now history.  Sigh.  Anyway, he has also managed to free up the prime mover and rotate it by hand several times, so it will probably be functional.  It can't be started yet because it has an air starter, and the pony engine for pumping up the air doesn't work yet, so that will have to be fixed.  The major problem is that two traction motors are blown, so they need to be rewound.  That spells $$$.  But progress is certainly being made.

Jon Fenlaciki has finished painting the roof of the 65, and he will be spreading out the canvas and soaking it this week.

I was working on the 451.  I cleaned up the interior quite a bit, and vacuumed the seats and parts of the floor.  It's still very dusty, and more cleaning will be needed.

Then I attached the remaining bolts for holding up the stairwell we recently installed.  It's very difficult to access some of the bolts from the other side.

And as usual there were several other projects forging ahead, but I didn't get pictures of them.  Tune in again next time.