Motion Everywhere

Frank writes...

Sunday wasn't just the second day of Bunny Trolley Hop, it was a day of movement, including after the event ended.

What I spent a good part of my afternoon moving was third rail beams. The quartet of beams built by my father over the winter were taken over to Barn 8 for installation on the 460. Above is the one at the current northwest corner of the car...

...and here's the one at the northeast corner. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Greg and Good Nick, who helped install the beams. We also got the beam at the southwest corner of the car installed, but the fourth had fouled bolt holes, so that was left for remedial drilling and later installation. I strongly suspect the 460 hasn't worn third rail beams since 1962, so it's really nice to see these on the car again.

Another thing that got moved was the 453's coupler! Dan F dropped the coupler off the west end of the car and hauled it away, as shown here surrounded by the blocking used to ease it down off the car. Yours truly helped. This coupler is missing a few parts, but we have a plan to address this so that the 453 can be run in train service in the future.

And I finally remembered to test fit that 3D-printed height-adjustment plate template by trying to bolt it both to a truck frame and to one of our newly made third rail beams. I'm happy to say that it fit both perfectly, though I'll need to swap the hole positions left to right. The next step will be to send the 3D file to a couple of area foundries and fabricators to get quotes. That's the easy part - the hard part will be paying for it! And in other news, I got some more needle-chipping done on the ceiling in the 451, though it wasn't especially photogenic.

So, what else was happening? When I arrived, Norm, Jon, Dan and Jimmy (the latter two pictured here) were working on Michigan Electric 28. The 28 sits atop the trucks from long-gone North Shore combine 250, but the North Shore set the side bearings on its trucks further out from the car's center-line than was typical. Norm speculates that this may have been to reduce swaying on the 'L.' Anyway, Norm moved the side bearings on the front truck inward many years go to match the bearing plates on the car itself, but the rear truck never had this done. Until now!

Dan headed up the work to use the mag drill to drill new holes in the center bearing support brackets, then he and Greg (shown here on the left) bolted the side bearings into place in the new, correct location. The truck was then moved back under the 28 and the car was set back down, this time with all four side bearings correctly aligned.

You'll see more about this below, but Kansas City PCC 755 has shown up in Barn 4, and here we see Steve lying down on the job as he examines the steel work that will be needed at the right rear corner of the car.

Brian was hard at work on air brake stuff, as usual. Above is a completely rebuilt air gauge for the 306 that he just completed.

As part of his project to rebuild several S governors at once, he's had to fabricate a missing retainer clip for the internal filter on one governor. Above is how they're supposed to look.

And here's the replacement on the left with the original on the right. Both of those photos were taken by Brian LaKemper. In other shop news, Joel and Jimmy completed the inspection of Veracruz 19 and Joel was up to various other things, including moving spare parts out of the west end of Barn 4 and distributing first aid kits to the operating fleet.

And now, it's time for our ever-popular series, Switching Roundup! With the vast amount of equipment that is being moved around as part of the Barn 15 project, IRM is really living up to its "Museum in Motion" tagline. We start with an update from Saturday. The below photos were taken and submitted by our redoubtable roving reporter, Bill Wulfert.

Kansas City PCC 755 is the subject of a long-running restoration project, but only now is it being brought over to Barn 4 so that the crew has readier access to tools. Above, the car is seen on the tail track.

And here it is on Station Track 1 as part of a wye move. I don't think it's been to the depot since I painted the car in KCPS colors about 25 years ago, and for all I know, it's never been through the depot. As for my corn-broom paint job, I'm pleased to say that its mediocrity has held up nicely, and the quality is just as middling now as it was when the paint was fresh.

The switch crew extracted the Cleveland PCC from track 42.

The lettering and striping on this car isn't 100% done, but it's close.

And back into Barn 4 it went, but this time on track 43 instead of 42.

That opened up a new spot for the 755. Here, the diesel has run around the car and is pushing it down the west leg of the wye.

Next stop, Central Avenue! One of these years, the 755 will hopefully be calling at this same spot, but under its own power and full of passengers.

And into the work barn it goes.

Here's a very happy Steve next to the car.

The front of Barn 4 is now far too modern for my tastes, between two PCCs and a pair of Budd 'L' cars, but what can you do?

With that, let us progress to Sunday. Although I was on the property, I was busy messing around with third rail beams and couplers and neglected to get any photos of the fun. The focus for the day was extracting the AEM7 from the west end of track 52. The AEM7 was the recipient of enough donations to purchase it indoor storage space, so it's going into Barn 15.

Here's an unusual sight, courtesy of Brian LaKemper: a train of lightweight passenger cars in Yard 6.

This photo by Jeron Glander shows track 52 completely emptied out.

And the final result, in a photo by Brian LaKemper, has a pair of IC Highliners at the west end of track 52 in the spot formerly occupied by the AEM7. All four Highliners are lined up on this track, in fact, with the two most recently operational ones to the east, where they can more easily be extracted.

Take a Seat Fundraiser Update

We are thrilled to announce that our Take a Seat fundraiser is now FULLY SUBSCRIBED! We are incredibly grateful to the 20 donors who between them sponsored all 71 double seats that we will be having reupholstered for curve-siders 451, 453, and 460. One particularly generous donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, sponsored no fewer than 29 seats. Overall, the results of this fundraiser exceeded our wildest expectations. A huge THANK YOU from all of us to everyone who donated!

A bit more information is available on the fundraiser web page (though this page will probably come down at some point) but here are the next steps:

• Delivery of the custom seat material is expected in June or July 2024. At that time, the first batch of seats to be reupholstered will be removed from car 451 or 453 and sent to the upholstery contractor.
• The first car's worth of restored seats will be installed in car 460, which is in regular service at IRM.
• The second and third car's worth of seats will be temporarily and securely stored. We are currently hoping to strip and repaint the interior of car 451 sometime in the next year, after which its newly reupholstered seats will be installed. Stripping and repainting car 453's interior will follow that.
• Additional work that is required:
• Car 451: air compressor repair; installation of replacement air tank (the tank was delivered in early 2024); wheel truing; reinstall one trap; reinstall end hardware; paint lettering onto car
• Car 453: exterior stripping and repainting; repair of one coupler; air compressor repair

Not all the work listed is necessary to put cars 451 and 453 into service hauling people at IRM - in particular, car 451 can be operated in mid-train service even without a repaired air compressor. Once the car's interior is repainted and the seats are reinstalled, you should start to see it out on IRM's railroad. The same goes for car 453, except that it will need a paint job and some coupler parts first.

We Know You Have Sand, Illinois

 Today's educational subject is sandblasting, so be sure to take good notes.  

One of the many current projects is restoring our big North Western crane 6363, which has been up on blocks south of Barn 9 for a while.  So our semi-portable sandblasting equipment has been moved to that vicinity so Gregg could sandblast the entire thing.

On Tuesday, as they were getting set up, Frank Kehoe suggested that they could also do a couple of baggage racks from the 453 while they were at it.  He called me to get permission, and then moved the two that had been removed from the smoker down to the work site.

Here's an example of one which has been partly blasted (on the left).

And here it is complete.

The "sand" is actually crushed glass, mixed with water.  I take this to mean we're using old whiskey bottles and broken windows to do the work, rather than excavating beaches and sand dunes.   Save the environment and recycle! 

When I arrived, Rick Marzek was helping Gregg, and he also helped with my baggage racks.  Later, project manager Mark Secco arrived.

I transported the two baggage racks over to Barn 4 and rinsed them off, then left them to air dry for a while.

Frank K. was a great help in handling these large, heavy racks, and the we managed to remove two more for eventual blasting.  It's not easy, because several of the machine screws were frozen and had to be drilled out, but we got the job done.  Here's a not-very-good picture of him in the process of driving an impact hammer on a difficult screw.

With the two racks removed, the main compartment looks like this.

And for now, the racks are stored alongside the S-105.  Next step: primer!

My thanks to Gregg, Rick, and Frank for all their help today.  I couldn't have done most of this without their assistance.  As I mentioned, these racks are big and heavy, held in with way too many screws, and are evidently designed to hold a load of lead bricks.  Not at all like the brass racks the wooden cars are equipped with. 

By the way, is anybody missing a door?

In other Car Shop news, John Sheldon was hard at work on the curved molding strips for the 306.

  

Here's his setup outside the shop, with the boiler to the left and the steam pipe on the right.  Once the 306 is finished, our next product will be "bourbon".

Oh, and after straightening up the baggage racks, I spent some more time needle-chipping the letterboard.

And by the middle of the afternoon, a lot of progress had been made on the crane.

I believe that's Marko in the white suit.

And that's what we have for another interesting and productive day at the Museum.  In a little while, I'll have another armchair travelogue for you to enjoy.

More Needle Chipping

I would much rather be working on lobster traps for the 714, but in times like these you have to take whatever jobs are available.  And so as long as the 453 is in the roof booth, it's either continue needle chipping or stay home.

Today I decided to see how it works on the lower side of the car.  Very little of the side is accessible because of the shelves in the scaffolding, but here's one section.  I verified that Frank had indeed traced this particular number, and then started with the needle chipper.

After a few minutes, it looks like this.  The red comes off easily, but the original white primer underneath just will not come off at all.  That's actually pretty much the same results as the letterboard, except that the red is more fragile.  We believe the red was probably repainted at Wheaton after service ended, and they were making half-hearted attempts to preserve the 450's for possible resale.

I asked Pete Galayda, our paint expert, to take a look at it.  He suggests that after needle chipping, it should be sufficient to sand down the primer until it's smooth, and then apply a new coat of primer.  That sounds much easier than wire-wheeling the entire surface to bare metal.

So I spent most of the rest of the day needle-chipping the letterboard again.  I finished the south side.

One needs to take frequent breaks, or your hands will seize up.  But slow and steady progress is good.

It's sort of strange how the original red Futura lettering has survived so long.  You may have noticed this with the number 453 up above.

And after the letterboard was done, it was time to start on the end.   Before:

And after:

Working around the corners is more difficult because of the layout of the scaffold.  It's important to be very careful in this dangerous situation.   Remember, this was the first day of fall.

Meanwhile, Pete and Fritz continue to do excellent work on the beautiful interior of the 160.  They're going along so fast it's almost a blur.

And here's one of the doors, waiting for installation.

Meanwhile, tomorrow will be the first day of the annual Arnfest at IRM.  So a couple of guys were here getting things set up.  The Car Dept. graciously allows them to use the Lean-2 and Lean-3 each year, and here we can see how unusually clean and empty they both are.

So step right up, ladies and gentlemen, if you're interested in old woodworking machines we can sign you in right here.

In other news, Bill W. was working on cleaning and repairing various parts, but I didn't get a picture.

The 101 was on the inspection pit.  A couple of weeks ago, since headlight circuits have been under study, I looked at the 101 when it was over in Barn 8, but I was unable to find where the headlight plugs in.

But once the car's over the pit, the receptacle is fairly easy to find.  I hope.

So that's our educational information for today.