I wasn't out at IRM today, but Joel was, and he was kind enough to send the exciting photo shown here. This 200-pound box contains seven newly cast third rail shoe hangers for CA&E third rail beams, courtesy of State Line Foundry near Rockford. A huge thank you goes out to Gregg Wolfersheim, who drove out and picked this up today.
You may recall that the pattern that was used for these castings is an original Wheaton shop pattern that arrived just over a year ago, as outlined here. Many thanks to the late Wendell Dillinger, who preserved this pattern in the first place; to Mike Graycar and the people of the M&H Railroad; to Bill Wall, who facilitated the donation of this pattern to IRM; and to Richard Schauer, who brought all the patterns from Pennsylvania back to IRM.
Now, the work is far from done, of course. Each of these castings will need, by my count, five holes drilled: two large ones for hanging the shoes and three small ones where the shunt and ribbon fuse bolt on. The holes where these castings bolt to the wooden beam are part of the casting, but those may need to be drilled out a bit, too. After that, it will be on to the next part of the assembly! In the end, for each of seven third rail beams we will need to make two links, the shoe mount, and the shoe itself. Want to help? This hardware will end up being used on cars 451 and 453 so donations to the CA&E Steel Car Fund are always very much appreciated!
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