Wednesday Report

Another busy and productive Wednesday results in the following report, which as usual covers only a small part of all the things going on at IRM.  Hey, I'm mostly trying to work on my own projects.

Such as the thresholds for the 451.  The two pieces for the #1 end were painted on the bottom and bolted in place.

And then I did the cutting and planing for the two blocks for the #2 end.  A lot of planing was required, and the sound is very annoying, but that's the price you pay for progress.  The metal plate has some significant surface rust, but is still structurally sound. 

The wooden blocks will be covered with metal tread plates.  This one had gotten bent, so I asked Gerry to heat it up and bend it back.  To his surprise, it started to melt!!!  It turns out these plates are partly made of lead.  It's an unnecessarily complicated design, if you ask us.

But Gerry was able to bend it cold, with the use of the right tools.   Thanks!

So it looks like this.  There are two other plates to cover the rest of the wood.

And the first block is bolted in place at the #2 end.

  I will have to chisel away some of the rotted floor behind it before the second block can be installed.

Well, let's see what other people are doing.  Over the past few months, Norm has gotten excellent help on the Michigan Electric 28 from a new member, Rich Castagna, seen here at right.  They're working on installing the floor in the baggage compartment.

Jack Biesterfeld is polishing hardware for the windows in the 109.

Henry is working on seat frames for the 306.  John Sheldon has been making good progress on rebuilding the floor inside the car, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Tim has a long row of new rattan seats for the 1754. 

Rich Witt is drilling holes for assembling the complicated windows for the 109.

Finally, I helped Bob Olson a little with a Track Dept. project.  He needs new wear plates for the tie inserter, and got a block of some sort of nylon material.  We tried cutting it on the table saw, but it started to melt.  That doesn't happen with wood!  The big bandsaw turned out to be a better choice.  With care, you can cut a very straight line. 

At home, I'm in the process of making new frames for the sign boxes on the 451 and 453.

They're held in place with about a dozen machine screws.  And I needed to check that the tapped holes in the various boxes all have the same pattern.

More on this later!