Wednesday Workshop

 Last week when the three-car train was running, a seat in the 319 got out of its track.  Originally there was a stationary bench seat at this location, which was later changed for some reason.  So this walkover is different from all the others in the car, and for some reason it's more prone to get dislodged.  I've installed shims to help hold it together.

In any case, it now works OK.  If the passengers would just be a little more gentle with these things, they wouldn't get out of whack.

And one of the light circuits in the 309 had a burned-out bulb, so that got fixed.  The only challenge is finding the right size stepladder to get at the ceiling fixture.

So we should be ready for nighttime operations.   We'll have more about that when it gets closer.

Tim was working on installing the ticket booth at 50th Avenue.  Here he is applying epoxy to the tenons:

And I even got to help a little, as the pieces are put together and band clamps are applied.

Notice that the door to the office has an interesting drop sash:

And on the opposite wall there's a window hinged at the top which folds in and up.

And later in the day he had it basically in the correct location:

And we even have a prospective customer.  Round trip to the Loop, please!

Here are the forms for shaping the molding pieces around the arched windows on the 306:

I did some cleaning up in the 453, and then decided to go over to the 321 and start cleaning up there.  There's still a lot to do.

Meanwhile, outside Barn 11, the dynamometer is making dramatic progress.

And that brings up the next point: the Milwaukee Road Historical Society will be visiting IRM on Friday, Aug. 13th, and several pieces of Milwaukee Road equipment are being painted or otherwise fixed up for the celebration.  The biggest one has got to be this:

Gregg is hard at work painting various parts of the 265 to improve its appearance,

undaunted by the size of the locomotive.

So stay tuned for more exciting news from IRM!