Big News for Small Trains

Frank writes...

Many thanks to Jeron Glander, who sends along some photos with exciting news: construction has begun on the Model Railroad Building! Concrete forms are being put in place so that the foundation can be poured. As you can probably tell, this will be a fairly large building, at least compared with the Schroeder Store. I think it's some 90' square give or take and when done will include the Pullman Library and archives space along with the model railroad exhibits. Stay tuned for more updates!

Coming Soon

I was asked to post this announcement as a public service:

COMING SOON

The Model Railway Display will be located in the new building just west of the Schroeder Store on Central Avenue.  It will house a large collection of model trains dating from 1900 to today.  On display will be trains and accessories of N, HO, S, On30, O, and G scales.

We will be looking for help in the design and construction of the layout.  We will have 3,000 sq. feet for the layout and displays.

If you are interested in helping with this, you can contact Henry Vincent at the Museum on Wednesdays, or call 630-465-1951, or email at havj13@gmail.com

More Spring Cleaning

On Saturday the Museum was a beehive of activity of all sorts.  I didn't take any pictures of the so-called "Boot Camp" but from a distance it appeared to have a good number of people attending this introduction to IRM operations.

I started by installing the repainted grab iron in the #2 end of the 308.  It's now securely fastened and has been load tested.  Paint will have to wait until it warms up.

This end was still lacking a motorman's window shade.  I didn't have any in storage that would fit this window, so the one installed in the 321 was removed, reduced in size by about 1/2", and installed.  These window shades sometimes do come in handy when the setting sun is low in the sky.

Wooden window sash will sometimes stick.  They had this same problem when the cars were new, and the Pullman company had special levers made to help open difficult windows.  Roger loaned me an original.  It's a fairly complicated design, with a hinged part on the bottom.  I traced it as well as I could and took several pictures.  When I have some time, I'd like to try making a replica.

In the meantime, I'm sure I've seen one-piece models, which are much easier to make.  I ran one off on the big bandsaw, tried it out, and took it home for finishing.

After sorting out parts for a while, I ran out of things to do, so I had some time to wander around and take pictures!

The 1374 is over the pit for annual inspection.   It will be used more often this year.

Tim continues work on the 1754:

Hot rivets were being inserted in the 28 by the usual rivet team of Norm, Dan, Jane, and Stu.

The furnace in operation is quite loud as well as bright and hot.

In this picture I think Norm is underneath the platform with the bucking bar while Stu is on the deck with the riveter.

Ed Woytula was welding new parts in the Cleveland PCC:

Jeff Brady ponders the "builder's blueprints" for the 28.

Finger points to the current focus of work.   Actually this diagram was produced by Rich Witt and is indistinguishable from an actual blueprint, at least to my eyes.  Rich does amazing work.

Keith Letsche was working on parts for the clerestory window mechanism in the 1754.

Bob Olsen continues on windows for the 109.

Richard tests some more air gauges with our calibration equipment.

Buzz shows off the progress on the interior of North Shore caboose 1003.

New window sills:

And the steel bracing in the cupola.   They must have had problems with the framing on these wooden cars working loose.

What else did I miss?  Jon was working on the 65, Victor and Bill on the Pennsy cabin car, and John on the 68 windows.  Maybe others.

Meanwhile, the real spring cleaning was taking place outside, with major civic improvements under way.   The B&G guys were in the process of getting ready to remove the baggage cars stored at the station.  So first, the old wheelchair ramp was removed.

And Max was working on the electrical system, due to the removal of the baggage cars.

The signal guys were repairing bonds, such as the one in the foreground:

The 3142 and 415 were in operation for training new motormen.

 The ramp was removed in sections and had to be transported south on Depot St. past all the obstacles, such as street signs, light poles, buildings, and so forth.  Running the Bobcat is Tom Opolony Jr., who did an amazing job of threading his way down the street and avoiding all the hazards.  You just had to be there.

And by the end of the day it looks like this:

And I'm told these cars, and the track they're sitting on, won't be in this location much longer.   Watch this space for news!

Finally, in a smaller scale, Henry handed me a box full of old American Flyer trains donated to the Museum by a long-time member.  I'm the designated S gauge expert, so it's my job to fix these things up and clean them.  What fun!  Eventually we will have sets like this on display and operating.

The Longest Day

The longest day of the year sure got here soon, it seems.  I was able to make good use of all this daylight, as you'll see.

The first job was to patch up some gashes in the canvas on the 308.  Last year a trolley pole got pulled out of the base on the 319, and it hit the 308 on its way to the ground.  So we need to apply some patches.  This happened all the time in regular service.   In B105 there's a picture of the 309 in 1911, when it had only been in service for three years, and there are two obvious canvas patches on the roof.   So this is a routine repair.  

 Before work starts, the canvas looks like this:

Patches are cut to size, applied over caulk, stretched as well as possible, and nailed in place.

After the caulk dried, two coats of canvas paint were applied.  This will be darker after it dries, but it's still probably too light in color.   However, at least it will keep the roof from leaking if the car should get caught in a sudden rain.  And I'll try to find some darker grey canvas paint.

Car cards are a recurring subject of conversation in the car shop.  I brought out several I'd had at home that we won't need for the CA&E cars.  And while we're at it, for most of the last 40 years the smoker of the 309 has been decorated with this advertisement.  I no longer clearly recall how or why it got there.

The main objection is that Cudahy was a Milwaukee-based company, and it's unlikely that they would have been advertising on the CA&E back in the old days.  So I decided to replace it with this:

Something that's happening at the Coliseum, and which you can get to via the CA&E, seems much more satisfactory.

On a more important subject, Frank and I were discussing the problem with the 309's bent coupler over breakfast, and decided to install one from the 321 if it would fit, at least as a temporary measure.  I walked over there and checked, and the coupler on the west end certainly appeared to be the right size.  The 321 won't be going anywhere for a while, and even if it does, the west end doesn't need a coupler right now.  So I started by removing the nuts and springs and so forth.

Under the coupler you can see one car of our park train stored there.

Then I got Nick Espevik to help me, using the golf cart to transport the coupler from Barn 11 to Barn 8.  It's good to have somebody younger and stronger available for this sort of work.  Thanks, Nick!

Then Nick got to test his skills in maneuvering the car through Barn 8, and helped me install it on the car.  Then I finished up by attaching the various parts, tightening the nuts and bolts, and it's ready for service!  

Some empty space in Barn 9 enabled me to get pictures, such as they are, of the 3007 and 2903.

John Faulhaber is finishing up adjustments to the new door for the MD cars.

Jack Biesterfeld is making good progress on the interior of the 110. 

 And our friends at Arden are working on the parlor car Toledo, and wanted some advice on installing C6 controllers, which were removed many years ago.  I don't really know how Toledo Railways might have done things, but this is how controllers are installed on the CA&E.

 The base of the controller is attached to the floor with two through bolts.  At the bottom, these should go through a steel plate, part of the underframe.  The main control circuit grounds through the controller case, through at least one of these bolts, to the frame.

Here we're looking straight up at the bottom of the platform.  The bolt holds a wiring lug for the main ground cable, which runs from end to end of the car and is connected to the controller frames, the motor circuits, compressor, truck frames, etc.  If this wiring is missing or loose, you could have serious problems, such as zapping the motorman.

 The frame is attached with lag screws on either side of the case to the wall of the vestibule.  Behind the inner siding there should be a horizontal wooden brace let into the posts, to anchor the lag screws.  Also, I might point out that you can see a loop of wire at the top.   On the CA&E, at least, the ground wires for the lighting and buzzer circuits come down through a conduit and are attached to the controller case to provide a reliable ground.  It seems like an indirect way to get a good ground, but there it is.  All the cars are like that.

Next, we're looking straight down behind the controller.  The lag screws have a tube to act as a spacer between the back of the controller case and the wall.  This space is conveniently located so the motorman can spit out his chewing tobacco and throw all kinds of trash.  I've read that this was actually a serious problem in the old days, and the space behind the controller could be very disgusting.  We don't have this problem at IRM -- we're all very genteel.

Finally, this now counts as IRM progress.  We're in the planning stages for a new building which will include a model railroad display, with as many scales as possible.  I get to be the resident expert on S gauge, reporting to Henry Vincent.   Henry recently acquired an AF Northern for the Museum, and gave it to me to fix up.  Here it is on my test track:

It isn't running yet, but I'll have it fixed soon.

And if you couldn't care less about toy trains, don't worry.  They will appear very seldom.  Our blog will continue to focus on the important things in life, such as finding car cards for cigarettes and booze, and taking pictures of each other in our spiffy uniforms.