Wednesday Excitement

We'll start with some interesting property news -- repurposing the south half of the office building.

For many years it's been used as the Signal Dept. workshop and storehouse.  But they're planning to convert this into additional office space, so all the signal department property is being moved to the new Southwest Storage building.  

When I joined IRM, this was the only heated space on the property, and served as a workshop, meeting room, storage, office, and break room -- all at once.  It was pretty crowded!  Eventually this building will be replaced, but for now this is another step forward.

And in Car Dept. news, on Wednesday I started by putting a coat of black on the bottom surface of both third rail beams, and on the front of #4.

But a more important issue with the 460 is that both train doors need serious repair, as seen here.  This is the #2 door, and the bottom rail and the inner stile have come apart and need replacement.

I unscrewed the hinges, and Fritz and Rich helped me get the door down the steps and into the shop for rebuilding.

So that's my next project.  I started on making a new bottom rail for the door.

Meanwhile, several other projects were going on.  Jon Fenlaciki was making a new toolbox and set of wrecking tools for the IR 65.

They look brand new!  Actually, all of our cars that still have their tools (that haven't been stolen by railfans) look almost new also.  I have to wonder if these tools ever got used back in the old days.

And then several people are working on the Michigan car.  Here we see Rich and Fritz working on the ceiling of the front compartment.  

And work continues on the Green Bay car.  I hadn't noticed the fancy door plate before:

Tim continues to restore the 1268:

And finally, here's what a CA&E sleet scraper actually looks like.  You can see how worn down it is, and like many of them, it had new pieces of steel welded on, rather than making a new casting.

And I'm sure there were other things going on elsewhere on the property.  Even in the middle of winter, IRM is always a busy place!