Thursday Report

I now have a lakeside cabin with none of the comforts of home, but the lease rates are reasonable, so I hope you're all envious.  Watch your step, and let's check it out. 

Hmm, if these walls could talk, they'd be asking for 9-1-1.

After a few hours of work, new woodwork is going in place, and getting another coat of primer.  And after it was done, I decided that I really ought to replace at least the rest of the paneling in the upper-right corner of this picture.  The problem in situations like this is knowing when to stop.  However, in this case the other three interior walls of the structure are not too bad, so maybe the end is in sight.

I've also had a gallon of paint matched to the final original color, so once the weather warms up a bit I'll be able to start repainting the interior.

Meanwhile, the other weekday projects were going along nicely.  On the 306, Phil continues to work on arranging the woodwork for the door engines, so the piping can go back in next week.

Gerry and John continue work on the seat frames.

And Tim continues on the interior of the 1268.  The ceiling of the east vestibule is being stripped:

The west vestibule has already been stained, and looks ready for varnish.

Diner Challenge

As part of our secondary interest in railroad or trolley car diners, our old friend Ron Smolen sent me this picture of an unidentified diner.  It's obviously an interurban car body.  Beyond that we have no information, but what a classic!  Be the first to identify it and win undying fame and glory!

Sorry, employees and relatives of Hicks Car Works are not eligible for prizes.  Do not send cash or stamps.

EDIT: Well, that didn't take long.  As for the location of the Honeymoon Express diner, that seems to be oddly elusive. A comment here suggests it was in Van Nuys, but no other information has yet been found.

Monday Report

Work continues on the 306.  Several parts of the original pneumatic door machines had to be fabricated, and here Phil is adjusting one of the parts.

Here Phil has one of the molding strips heavily clamped and glued to straighten it out.

Gerry and Phil were also working on the 306 seat frames again; here we see one that's just been welded.  Of course, now the welds need to be ground down, but when that's done, they look great.

Tim was working in the 1268 again.  And here we have lots of nice new rattan seats for the 3142.

And this is a new door for a baggage car over in Barn 3, made by Pete and Fritz.

I continued working on Jewell Road.  Here we see most of the new framing parts installed, so the roof at this corner is now much better supported.

And I purchased several new 8' pieces of interior siding and primed them in the back room.

As Frank mentioned, several compressors and motors were sent to the shop for rebuilding, and others were returned.  Here they are being unloaded by Dave and Carl. 

As Frank also mentioned, here's our latest acquisition.

Something New, Something Blue

Frank writes…

I'll get the big news from the weekend out of the way first. I arrived at the museum late Sunday afternoon and was greeted by this novel sight:

Yes indeed, Metra 614, one of the last two surviving F40C diesels, had arrived at the museum a few hours earlier to great interest from assorted railfans and diesel folks. One of the unusual things about this engine is that IRM volunteers Herb Hansen and Lois Geister were on the Nortran board when these locomotives were built in 1974 and supposedly had a hand in the addition of those unique E5-esque stainless-steel side panels to the design. If you're a fan of burning liquified dinosaurs for fuel, feel free to add a comment with more details and items of significance for our newest acquisition.

I spent most of my time in the 460, naturally. With quite a bit of help from Richard, shown above driving in some uncooperative wood screws, I got three more seats installed. These included one more rotating seat in the main compartment and two of the three rotating seats in the smoker.

Here's an overview. That seat cushion poking up is a "shorty" that goes into one of the slightly narrower bulkhead seats. I haven't yet started on redoing the bulkhead seats.

As for Richard, until I distracted him he was working on the rail display in Barn 8. The bottom shelf is now done and the second shelf, complete with LED lighting, is going in. Above, the lights are on; it's not as obvious from the picture, but it makes a big difference in person.

And here's a sample photo with the barn lights off. Pretty neat, huh? I believe there will be a total of three shelves in this display.

I made a trip over to Barn 8 to take old seatbacks removed from the 460 over to the 451 for storage and to pick up reupholstered cushions. While at the 451, I stopped to admire the handiwork of Dan, Will, Asten, Jimmy, and Steven, all of whom worked on Saturday to hoist that car's two main reservoir tanks into place. The car's tanks were removed nearly five years ago because one had a hole. In the time since, we procured a replacement tank and painted both the new and old tanks. Now, they're finally back on the car. The next step, I suppose - other than plumbing them up - will be to try and fix the car's air compressor.

In other news, Joel and others loaded three North Shore motors onto this museum truck for a trip to the motor shop Monday. The hope is that the shop can do some investigating to get to the root of the problems we've been having with motor armature bearings burning up and can send a rebuilt motor back for the 160. When these motors are delivered, the truck will also pick up several things we've gotten rebuilt, including air compressors for the 251 and Charles City Western 300 among other goodies.

Speaking of goodies, the newest toy in the car shop is this ultrasonic cleaner, which was humming along when I arrived. I was told that the item inside it being cleaned was an air gauge for the 308, so I'm all in favor of that! Other activities Sunday included more work on the IC MU cars, Joel bolting down more shelving in the shop extension, and...

...seats! The above photo was taken by Jon of Norm (L) and Steve working on refurbishing seats for the 3142. These three, with some help from Mike S, got quite a few seats for our most-used streetcar rebuilt. I also had a chance to talk with Jon about getting the next batch of CA&E curve-sider seats reupholstered. We're going to reach out to the upholstery shop about redoing all the seats I'm pulling out of the 460; those seats will go into the 451, possibly as soon as next winter/spring depending on whether we can get together a crew to repaint the car's interior while the seats are out. Stay tuned!

Wood and Canvas Repairs

One of the advantages of being a recognized expert in a particular field is that you can always count on having things to do.  Tim, for instance, is a recognized expert on rattan seats, so he gets to take a break from working on the 1268 to patch up seats for the 3142, which is of course one of our mainstays for regular operation.  And as you can see here, some of the seats need repairs.

He knows how to soak the rattan, apply the canvas backing, and so on.

Later in the day, he had help from Mike Stauber and Steve Iversen.  Steve has to drive up from Oklahoma, and he did so in order to go to the Soiree for the first time.  He said he was afraid nobody knows who he is any more.   

That's not a problem with us, but just in case, that's him on the left.  A great guy to get to know.

As for me, I continued working on repairing the structure of the Jewell Road shelter, with new wood.  I'm taking these pictures as I go along for my own future reference, and I might as well post them here.  So please bear with me.

In the northwest corner, you can see that the top rails are badly rotted out, as well as the upper parts of the studs.  The roof is sort of floating.  

So I start removing the inner siding and what's left of the rails:

Behind them is the top outer slat, which is also in need of replacement.  But I can do that from outside, later.

Here is the replacement wood for the rails.  Right now it's supported in place with temporary braces.  Additional wood will be sistered into the studs to actually support the structure, and shimmed as needed.

And that stud in the middle will be replaced.  

Finally, let's see what a couple of pieces of new siding look like.  There's a lot to replace.

Back to the Doodlebug!

Just in case you too were worried that the UP M-35 had somehow fallen off the radar, Gregg Wolfersheim sends us a reassuring update on his recent progress!

It's been a while since I've reported any progress on the doodlebug. Sporadically since last summer I have been prepping the area where the tack molding will go. Here the upper part of the steel side has been needle chipped and is ready for more primer. The side access door is open to allow work to continue, and the engine/generator set is visible below.

Some of the boards for the tack molding getting white primer.

Painting the boards all around.

The right side showing the molding applied right up to the existing wood over the rear vestibule.

This is the area over the left side of the vestibule. Some of the top plate blocking was deteriorated. A piece was spliced in, visible as a light gray piece. The last piece of tack molding will go here, covering the gap between the steel side and the wood roofing.

And, of course, the left side coming right along.

Inside Work, No Heavy Lifting

When there's a cold snap outside, it's great to have our nice heated shop facilities available.

First, a quick look at some progress towards restoring the Jewell Road shelter.  I got some more lumber and started cutting out parts for fixing the interior, which as we saw last time has missing pieces.  And then they need primer.

Tim continues to make good progress on the interior of the 1268; much of the wood is being stained, as seen here.  It's going to look great.

 

Gerry and Phil are making good progress on the interior of the 306; the correct pneumatic door engines have been installed and the plumbing is being installed.  

And the correct ceiling panels are being installed.

Phil has been making new woodwork for the ends of the car, as seen here:

Once you get rid of the electropneumatic door engines and the extra light circuits that were installed by Shaker Heights, the interior of the carbody has about a tenth of the wiring that was in it when restoration to its Fox River configuration started.

And then Gerry shows how new pieces of steel have to be welded onto the seat frames so that they attach reliably to the wall.  Most of these had rusted out.