Visit to Mid-Continent

We just got back from a nice trip to the Dells region, and we got to visit Mid-Continent Railway Museum at North Freedom for the first time in a few years.  My old friend Bill Buhrmaster gave us a tour of the car shop and there are a couple of very interesting projects to look at.

Of course, we will start with my favorite, Munising Railway #64, built by the Hicks Locomotive and Car Works.  It is being completely rebuilt from the frame outward.

Currently the MCRM crew are rebuilding the roof.  Looking in from the end of the car, you can see a lot of daylight.  Hmm, that's unusual...

But up on the platform, we can see all the work that's going into the roof, including replacement of much of the structural elements.  I never had to disassemble the roof of the 309 to any great extent, although much of the ceiling was burned away, so it's fascinating to see the similarities in construction.

Of course, it's easy to see where the new wood has been installed.

This is the overflow tank for the hot-water heating system.

The roof corners are much different between the 64 and 309.

New windows for the 64:

The upper-level working area is very spacious and has a lot of nice facilities.

Even the stairway.

The next project we get to see is the sleeper Duluth, built by Barney and Smith about 1909.  This was part of a house for many years, and over the past few years they went to a lot of work to replace underframe parts, trucks, brake rigging, and so on.  It's now more or less operable, and the guys are working on rebuilding the opulent interior.

Finally, the EJ&S #2 is being restored; the exterior is pretty much done.  The only thing now is to canvas the roof, so we talked about various tricks and techniques for doing that.

Everybody needs a 45-tonner.  It's an extremely useful tool of production!

Since I was last at North Freedom, display barn #2 has been opened to the public.  It has several nicely restored pieces of equipment on display.

This is an early EMC doodlebug much like our own, at least to my uneducated eyes.

Finally, perhaps the only fish car in preservation, the famous Badger.  It's always been one of the jewels of the MCRM collection, and has recently been nicely restored.

Meanwhile, down by the depot, the revenue service train is waiting.

Notice the signs applied to these Boonton cars.

And then there's the outside display pavilion.

Quiz: what's missing from this scene?

North Freedom is always an interesting place to visit, especially if you have friends to show you around.  And stay tuned for some more vacation slide shows.