A Comedy of Labours

Forsooth, good friends all, wis ye not that to-day hath been proclaimed "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" throughout all the fair province of Illinois? Wherefore we shall write as we do speak, and cast scorn upon all that ken not our fair words. (Sorry, folks, I don't have time to put it all into pentameter.) But admit me, then, as Prologue to the comedy.

Scene: Fields near Union-Upon-Kishwaukee

Enter first the burly knight, Sir Rodrigo, the leader of this noble band. Most of his time he doth spend directing his men what worthy tasks they shall perform, and imparting his subtle wisdom as to what is the best way to accomplish any thing. But here we see him as he painteth some window sills on IT 518.

Myself at first did start by removing the remaining masking tape and paper from the windows of the 518, as well ye may see. And then with Joy did we pull the car outside to complete the job.

And, of course, betimes there were many other projects which the merry crew did apply themselves unto. Enter the thrice-renowned Don Francisco and his trusty squire Michael; note how they do valiantly strip the paint from the wooden seats of the Veracruz open car. Verily, the gods do prosper their handiwork.

And here, the noble Sir Henry, the whilom General of our army, hath forsaken arms to take up the implements of peace, and installeth an addition unto the dust collection system in the new shop extension.

And next, the learned Doctor, clothed as a rude workman and disguised as a follower of Rodrigo, doth paint the handrails on the 518 with paint as black as pitch. Not that I really know what "pitch" might be.

And later I did also repaint the side doors on the car, and touch up the paint here and there. And replace a window, and so on.

Enter next Dan Fenlaciki and his worthy sire Jon, the father of this brave young whelp. They labour hard to clean up the windows of CA&E #451.

I then did travel with them on the dusty road over to Barn 2. Here did I grasp the repainted controller cover, which Jim Followell had prepared, and carried it with toil and care unto the 319, whence it came. This ought to keep dust out of the mechanism whilst I prepare to repaint the vestibule, methinks.

And also did behold with amazement as the Fenlacikis did install new windows in the 451.

And then, last but not least, enter the noble Geoffrey, one of my eldest friends, as he doth examine window frames in the Michigan Electric 28. With unflagging zeal goeth he about his wonted tasks on this long-term project.

By the end of the day the 518 looketh like this, which the many did behold with glee. Thereby, next week, shall our honored guests be carried with regal pomp unto Kishwaukee Grove and back.

And to be sure, there were many other players in this fair day, the which I had not time to record. Sorry! Many were the volunteers who were working hither and yon, and indeed we had also a goodly number of visitors, although there was no revenue service. And we were even graced by the occasional presence of the notable Duke Nickolas, who scorneth not (or at least not much) the acquaintance of lowly folk such as we.

Here ends my humble tale. And may this temple,
Which from the Muses Nine doth take its name,
By those same Nine be blest and consecrate,
That they who labour hard within its bounds
Shall prosper, and much thanks be unto them
Who help in any way at IRM.

Illinois Terminal 518 Progress

Thanks to IRM member Pete Pedersen, we have some photos of the ongoing painting of one side of Illinois Terminal coach trailer #518. As many of you know, the 518 spent many years as a "one sided car" as the side typically away from public view was in primer. That has now changed. As Randy pointed out earlier, the IT meet is coming up at the end of the month, and work is ongoing at a feverish pace to get everything ready.

T minus Two Weeks

Time is ticking away on the contest clock as we try to get ready for the Illinois Terminal extravaganza on Saturday, April 30th. Just like July 4th last year, this will probably be down to the wire, but we'll have things ready for you. In the morning, I started by putting the window shade boxes and the remaining window shade tracks into place in the 518, and installed enough screws to hold them in place.

On the 319, I started working to get the hand brake system working. This was disconnected when the car's trucks were removed for shipment, and in any case I believe the hand brakes were not functional even on the CA&E, at least at the end of service. But I can fix this. The hand brake at the #1 end now works. At the other end, there are some missing parts which I'll need to get from storage, but that should not be too difficult. And then I'll start on the other cars.

Frank and David worked on fixing a burned-out grid on the 308, and we tested it. So the 308 is a motor car once again. Since they were around, it was a good chance for me to check out the roof on car 36.

On the whole, the roof is in good condition and will not need major repairs for the foreseeable future. The only serious part is that the end of the running boards where the hook should be connected seems to be rotted out at both ends. That needs to be fixed, by replacing one section of 2x6 running board. Otherwise, the canvas and the rest of the running boards are OK. Nonetheless, this is our oldest interurban car and it will not be cleared for operation in the rain under any circumstances.

In the afternoon, we went to the Safety Meeting, which was held in Marengo at the Legion, and conducted by Harold Krewer. The American Legion hall in Union has now turned into a restaurant, so we'll be getting another restaurant review soon!

After the meeting, Frank and David helped by putting all remaining screws in place in the 518, and we cleaned up the interior. The interior is now ready for service and looks great. I don't know what went wrong with my camera. Must be something it was pointing at....

Ed Oslowski has been doing a yeoman's job on the front compartment of the 277 for several weeks, and here he is in the midst of this project. This will be a great improvement to the car!

And in other news, here's the rear solarium compartment on Michigan Electric 28. The Michigan Electric crew have been working steadily on this car.

And new siding is being installed on the Schroeder store. This is a composite material of some sort which has a wood grain cast into it, so it looks like real wood.

Bottom line: you should be making plans now to attend the IT meet in two weeks. If you don't, you'll miss a lot of opportunities for riding unique equipment, photography, and informative talks and slide shows. You'll kick yourself. Or we can do it for you.

Color and Light

The first priority today was to install newly repainted windows in our IT coach 518. I started by removing the paper and masking tape from the outer storm windows, seen here in progress. Then they were pushed up in their usual stored position, and the inner windows were put in place, along with the window shade tracks and shade boxes. Each window has a large number of screws to drive home.

When done, this is what it looks like from the outside:

(I was asked to leave the paper in place on the car in case touch-up is needed.)

And the inside.

I also did some painting on the new parts of the 277 I recently completed. Here's the double window post. Rod got the old orange paint matched very closely, I think. Of course, the car is somewhat faded, and if we were going to completely repaint it a different shade would probably be needed, but for now this seems to work well.

And here's the new window sill section. It may not be obvious, but these two pictures show the same car and the same color. Who ya gonna believe, me or your own lying eyes?!?

A couple of days ago B&G inspected the various barns and gave us some useful advice on things to fix. Dave suggested pulling the rugs out from under the blue cars, which I did. And then it would be a good idea to block our scaffold so younger visitors aren't tempted to climb up. This piece of Masonite was once part of the temporary end of the 308. It's just the right size and rather decorative. I suppose now we should finally letter the faux-faux-folding sign. I also spent some time sorting and storing parts. And I removed all of my personal things from the 234.

Several other projects were in progress. Tim continues to work on the 1797; the west end appears to be nearing completion.

And Max turned on the newly-installed lights in the shop extension for the first time! Woo hoo!

Focus on IT

We're working hard to prepare for the Illinois Terminal Society meet on April 30th, and everybody is invited. This means you. Please be as numerous as possible, and bring lots of spare cash to donate. (If you can.)

After two or three hours of chiseling and fitting, I finished the replacement window post sections on the 277 as seen here. I would like to wait for a warmer day and paint everything before final assembly. To the right is a test fitting of the metal plate which will cover the double post; we also have the two vertical metal trim pieces for each side. Now that's it's essentially done, I guess I can say that was fun!

And I don't usually like to admit to being a chiseler, but it's for a good cause.

Then it was time to look at the 518. There was a section of window sill that had rotted out, as seen here. Actually, I'm afraid there's more that needs to be replaced, but not today. I brought out my chisels again and started turning this wood into kindling.

I was surprised to find that the sills had been installed with cut nails. I don't think I'll reproduce this detail, although cut nails are still available. (R) It was a big relief to find that the structural wood under the sills was in good condition.

Lots of other IT work is being done. All of the windows from the 518 are being repainted by Danielle and maybe others. A few of them are seen here on the bench.

Joel has repainted all of the baggage racks for the 277.

Max is installing the lights for the new shop extension, helped today by Henry Vincent. Here we see Max on the platform drilling holes for attaching the fixtures.

Tim was working on parts for the 1797, as usual. Here he is painting one of the many new window frames.


He also helped me with rabbeting the window sill section for the 518, since the dimensions are slightly different from the 277.


So we're putting our heated shop facilities to good use. Of course, we could always use more help!

IT 518 Progress

As is usual on a Saturday, there was lots of activity on various projects today, most of which I won't be able to cover. Suffice it to say that a hermit wouldn't fit in.

Under Rod's direction, work has started on fixing up the 518 in preparation for the IT festival on April 30th. Here we see Danielle and her friend Kiki painting windows. I removed several inner windows on the south side of the car for them to repaint over the next couple of days, and Danielle will also sand down the north side of the car so it can be repainted. It doesn't usually show up in pictures, but one side of the car is in badly faded primer, and the car fund has enough to pay for this work, thanks to generous donations from IT fans. Like you, perhaps.

Later in the day, we see Danielle sanding down some of the outer (storm) windows for eventual repainting in place.

I also took several pictures of the interior of the 518, which will be added to the IT folder.

Nature note: I needed lights in the 518 to remove the windows, and it has been at least a year since I stopped working on this car. I put up the pole, but nothing happened, and it felt like the trolley shoe was clogged with some big clump of sh---, uh, stuff. Who would do such a thing? Joel came along, climbed up a ladder, and found it was yellowjackets. They had decided the shoe was a good place to build a nest. They're dead now, so we'll clean it out one of these days, but that was good for a laugh!

After that, it was time to retreat to the 319. I did some more sanding on the filler on the corner moldings on each side of the ceiling, then a final coat of primer. The first finish coat will be next.

And then I did some more paint removal, and sanding in the vestibule. I put a first coat of primer on part of the ceiling, as seen here. I will probably want to sand it some more and put a second coat on, but there should be more noticeable progress from here on out.

518 Report

Now we're waiting for the trucks from the 36 and 319 to arrive sometime soon, but I'm not sure when. Tim Peters was working as usual on the 1268, but there was no one else from the Car Dept. around.

So I did some more work on the 518. I had completed two windows a couple of months ago, but they had not yet been installed. The outer storm windows are generally in good shape, so I just put them down while the inner windows are being repaired. Here's (L) the double window sector with everything removed. And after the new windows were installed and all screws installed, it looks (R) like this:

Then I removed the next two inner windows and took them to my workshop in the baggage compartment of the 277. Both windows were stripped and sanded. Here's one of them. The space heater doesn't get the compartment really warm, but it's certainly comfortable enough for working.

And here's one of the windows after a first coat of brown primer on the outside. I only have room to do one at a time.

277 Update

After all the excitement during the Museum Showcase weekend last week, today seemed rather quiet by comparison. Sort of a calm before the storm.

I installed the last ventilator on the south side of the 277, as seen here. Later, I got the rest of the ventilators from storage and started painting them with brown primer. I also put some spare window glass that had been in the 277 into storage, and did some other sorting.

And I painted two windows from the 277 and varnished two from the 518.

Finally, I started fixing the roof of the 518.

The roof is generally in very good condition, but it had one hole for some reason, as seen here. Also, the top grab iron was loose, which isn't good. There's also one missing, which I'll need to replace. I can use the ladder at the other end to get on top of the car, fortunately. The roof is entirely canvas (with some small spot patches) and no tar paper, so it's much better than the 277.




I cut away the canvas to check the condition of the wood. The wood that needs to be replaced is limited, as I had hoped, so this should go pretty fast. I have some tongue and groove boards and canvas left over from the 277 project, which I can use here.

And I showed Wally and Les the inside of the 277, which they hadn't seen for at least 20 years.