Barely a trace

Frank writes...

I was delayed on Sunday and didn't arrive at the museum until a bit after 4pm, but still managed to get some stuff done. My priority was tracing lettering off of the 453. This will allow us to continue with needle-chipping the exterior of the car, which is the next step on the long road that will eventually see the entire thing repainted.

The 453 is the last preserved CA&E car wearing its original Wheaton-applied paint job so we want to make sure to record all of the lettering as best we can. Both the 1946 Futura and 1950s-era Roman lettering styles are evident, and as distinctive as they each are it's not a problem to put both of them on the same tracing.

I got "CHICAGO" done and didn't have enough Mylar left on the roll to do "AURORA" so instead I did "ELGIN."

I had barely enough Mylar remaining to trace the number at the #1R corner of the car on the end. I'll want to trace at least one number off of the side of the car too, as the numbers on the end - especially here, next to the retriever - may be slightly compressed. This is the only place on the car where the original Futura number is in evidence at all, as they seem to have sanded it off in the other locations. It's time to order more Mylar!

Zach was working on inspecting CA&E 431, which he finished, and then late in the afternoon the 409 was brought over to begin its inspection work. Public operation begins in only three weeks so we need to have some cars inspected and ready to go.

Zach also unveiled our new roll signs, freshly delivered from Replica Blinds by PWC in France. The main roll sign here goes over one of the side doors on Shaker 18, while at bottom right is a sample using a different material. We liked that material better, as it's more uniform when light comes through it, so future signs will likely use that material.

Of course we had to temporarily stuff the 18's roll sign into the sign box just to see what it looks like. Neat! Photo courtesy of Zach Ehlers.

At the end of the day I cleaned up and primed the second "tin can" tail light housing for the 18, shown here, and scrounged the hardware that will be needed to assemble it. Once some paint is applied - black on the outside and silver on the inside of this thing, plus Bankers Grey on the castings - then both tail lights will be ready to reinstall on the car and this little project will be substantially done.

In Memoriam Bob Rayunec

 It is with deep sorrow that I must report the death of Witold ("Bob") Rayunec, a long-time member of the Museum and a close personal friend for many years.  From the Chicago Tribune:

Witold Stanley Rayunec,84, of Villa Park, Loving husband of the late Barbara nee Koziol; Fond brother of the late Arthur (the late Mary) Rayunec; Uncle of Kimberly (Joseph) Pyle; great-uncle of Brian (Nora) Pyle, Adam (Julie) Pyle, and Sarah Pyle.

Visitation Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021 from 9AM until the time of funeral service at 10:00 AM at Steuerle Chapel, 350 Ardmore Ave., Villa Park, IL 60181. Memorials to the American Lung Association or the Illinois Railway Museum are appreciated.

Bob worked on many projects for the Museum in the early days, but of course for me the most important was the CA&E 309, and without him I might never have started on it.  His wife Barb also did a lot of work on the car, before her untimely death from cancer in 1983.  Bob later took over direction of the line department for several years.  He will certainly be greatly missed.

Friday Progress

 On Friday, John Sheldon was working on the arched window frames again.  At one point, he had all five on the north side installed, but removed them again before I could get a picture.  Anyway, the 306 is moving along quite well.

Tim made some metal grills that fit over the windows in the ticket booth.  This is really high security.

He has also been working inside the station building itself when the weather is good enough.  They are planning to replace the maple flooring, so first the baseboards have to come out.

Here's the electrical cabinet for the 600V DC wiring.

And here's where the replacement ticket booth had been installed; you can see the vertical lines on each side of the window where the walls were attached.

Souvenirs for sale:

Finally, I started by putting primer on two more running boards for the 453.

After it warmed up in the barn, reaching a little over 60F, I put another coat of roof paint on the center section of the roof.  Whereas the first coat for the center section, about 2/3 of the total area, took between 4.5 and 5 gallons, the second coat only required a little less than 2.

Then I finished off the south side of the car, and started on the north side, going down to the tack molding.  The ends will be done later.

And it's easy to keep track of how much has been used.

I must say the painted canvas looks better in person than it does in the above pictures, due the lighting and camera angles.  If you don't believe me, come on out and see for yourself.  I'll put you to work!

Busy Tuesday

 Tuesday was another busy day in the shop.

It was too cold to do more roof painting - Pete says it needs to be at least 50F.  And I don't want to disregard his advice, it might void my warranty.  But at least I brought out and installed a movable little ledge I can use to hold the paint tray, so that I don't drip paint down the side of the car.  Dripping a little onto the canvas won't hurt anything.

However, I did finish tacking down the canvas at the east end.  I then did some more ironing at both ends.  Also, I boxed up the rest of the clamps and ratchets and stored them away for the next roof project, which I hope will not be too far in the future.

And I put primer on two running boards for the 453.  Of course, other people were busy.

Frank Kehoe continued working on the motor truck for the 1754, but I missed getting a picture of him at work.   Sorry!

Here's Steve Sanderson painting some parts for the Electroliner kitchen in the paint booth:

Gerry was working on the steel structure of the 306 again; they're getting close to installing the wooden window frames.

And John was painting the frames; these are the outsides.

Buzz continued making window frames for a Pullman car.

Here Tim is running wood through the shaper, making more parts for the 50th Ave. station.

He's also making roof stock for a line of O scale Met car kits which will be available soon at your favorite local hobby shop.  Ask for them by name!

Finally, here's some trivia for you.  A friend of ours asked what is the correct identification for the controllers on the St. Louis cars, since the available books don't agree.  And the answer seems to be....

17KC54 A1

This appears on two different controllers I had available: one on the 453 and one from storage.

Now you can impress your friends.

Sunday update

Frank writes...

On Sunday I spent much of the afternoon working on the second rear end marker light for the 18.

This is how far we are now - the housing and casting rings are (temporarily) assembled and all of the necessary holes, tabs, etc are in the housing. I ran out of time before I could wipe it down and prime it, but that will be done next time. I also need to scrounge a little more hardware so that I can affix the piece of red glass to the inner ring. Many thanks to Richard for helping with setup for drilling some of the larger holes and for fiddling with the casting to get everything to fit together.

Later in the afternoon, Jack, Richard, and I went over to the 18 and pumped the car up to test for leaks and also to inspect the new brake rigging that was installed on the front truck a month or two ago. The rigging appears to work just fine and will just need some fiddling with the slack adjusters once we can get the car on the pit.

I didn't end up doing anything on this project, but you may find this interesting. This is a 3D printed latch for the folding signs on the 309 that I drew in Fusion 360 and had printed and mailed to us. We are going to try and install it on the 309 and see how it works; as long as this goes to plan, we'll print a handful for use on the 308 and potentially other cars too. It's made of a resin with glass powder, so it's pretty strong and will hopefully hold up in service.

Well hey, it's our old friend Tom Schneider from the Steam Department, stopping by to see if a couple of guys can give him a hand. So let's take a trip over to the Steam Shop.

Right now the lineup in the shop, north to south, is 1630, 5, PS 7, and 428. Here's the third and most transitory of those, Public Service 7, which was the museum's very first steam engine. It is the current focus of cosmetic restoration efforts in the Steam Department and should look very nice when they're done.

Richard and I helped Tom for a few minutes moving some lengths of pipe around so that welding can be done. Here we see Roger, who stopped by visiting from the Coach Department, Tom, and Richard discussing the best way of properly cutting down the new pilot beam for PS 7 which is next to Tom. We're standing alongside the Decapod, which is tentatively scheduled to be in operation this year along with the Shay.

As always, plenty of other work was being done too. Nick E was working for most of the day on the heaters in CA&E 409 and ended up getting them all working, which is the first time since the car came from Trolleyville that's the case. That's a big step forward. Later in the afternoon he was working on getting ready for a contractor to come in during the week and replace line poles along the main line. Jack and Joel spent a while switching, and among other things Sand Springs 68 is now back over in Barn 7 following completion of brake work on that car. Tim was out, working on more pieces for the 50th Avenue project, while Nick D and Nick K made appearances to complete the Nick Triumvirate.

Doodlebug Progress

Another update from Gregg Wolfersheim:

In the last episode, we were in the process of rebuilding several frames for the ceiling vents. This photo shows the results. It is installed over the ceiling panel between the car lines. You can see the sliding door is closed. This is over the heater room.

This is one of the frames over the passenger compartment. Note the louvers for the vent.

One of the vents in the ceiling.

The first ceiling light has been installed too. There are two more that will be  put up this week.

Another view of the ceiling vent frames. The half circle collar is for holding the ceiling light to the ceiling panel. Note the electrical conduit running through it.

Oil On Canvas

 Painting has started on the roof of the 453, as you'll see.  And of course there were other things going on, which I was too busy to photograph.

John and Gerry were working on the 306, as always.  John was staining and varnishing the new arched window frames, and they look great.  I should have gotten more pictures; there are four short arches, as seen here, plus ten long double arches, all of which were in the shop.  And Gerry continued welding and grinding on the steel structure.

Here's the canvas with a first coat of black.  The lighting in the barn isn't great for photography, but I was able to do the entire top of the car plus most of one side down to the tack molding.  The paint has about the consistency of water, so it can be messy.  I will want to finish all of the bottom edges with a brush, I believe.  I have a thermometer alongside the platform so I can keep an eye on the temperature.

Doing this much of the roof took six gallons of paint, which seems about what we expected.  Following coats should require much less per acre.

I also cut all of the running boards to length, made the lap joints, and drilled the sideways holes for attaching grab irons at each end.  On the 451 I didn't do this beforehand, and had to rig up a system to drill through the boards horizontally.  That worked, but this is much easier.

And they're ready for brown primer.

So that was another fun, rewarding day.

Today's News -- Today!

Thanks to Jon Fenlaciki, we have pictures of what was happening today!  Here at IRM, we're setting the gold standard for real-time railway preservation news -- however tacky it may be.  So...

Pete Galayda, our paint chemistry expert, was mixing new canvas paint:

Henry Vincent worked on the new doors for the 160:

Tim Peters working on the new doors for 50th Avenue:

Well, this is Rich Witt, but Jon didn't tell me exactly what he was making.

And the newly restored ventilators for the IRR 65:

So when you want to know what's happening now at the world's greatest railway museum, satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!

Tuesday Report

It's time for another thrilling episode of the Hicks Car Works blog, so hold onto your seats and don't touch that dial. 

I hadn't seen Norm Krentel for a couple of weeks, but today I saw him as he was working on painting new sheet metal parts for the 28.  He mentioned that he's been digitizing thousands of slides from the good old days, so I'm hoping we'll be able to present some of them to you soon.

John Sheldon was hard at work on the 306, as always.  The arched window frames for the north side of the car are ready for fitting, as seen here:

And by the end of the day, all five were in place.

The lumber for the running boards on the 453 arrived today, and John helped unload them.  Next time, I'll start cutting them to length, making the lap joints, and perhaps even priming them.  Until they're done, they'll just be in everybody else's way, like so many other things in the shop.   So sue me.

I spent most of the day tacking down the canvas at the east end of the car.   This looks exactly like what we've seen before.  I hadn't quite finished when I ran out of tacks, but I was out of energy too.  Anyway, this should get finished next time.  I also did some more ironing.

One grab iron has been temporarily re-installed, since that's the only safe way to get onto the roof.  The canvas shouldn't be moving any more, so punching a couple of small holes in the correct location won't hurt anything.

Speaking of that grab iron, I noticed from pictures that these cars had a second layer of canvas installed on the path a trainman has to take to get onto the running boards.  So I cut out a couple of pieces, about 16" x 4', and they will be installed later.  I want to paint the entire main layer of canvas first, of course.  There's plenty of spare canvas available, and it has several uses.

And then I spent some time collecting all the canvas clamps and ratchets and storing them away for the next roof project.  Besides finishing up a small amount of tacking still to be done, the next step will be to start painting the canvas.  Our Chemistry Department has developed a new secret formula for canvas paint, in conjunction with Sherwin Williams, and it should be ready for use soon.  

So that's it for today.  And again, our sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to the

308 motor project!