Inspection #2

Today inspection started on car 319.  Joel told me in advance that the car could be left over the pit until Saturday or Sunday, so there was no pressure to get everything done.  In particular, lubrication will have to wait, because otherwise the car would be dripping oil into the pit.  Having to put off lubrication was almost enough to ruin my whole day....

But it was nice weather, perfect for this type of work.   Here the 319 is on its way into the barn.

There aren't a lot of things in this process that are very photogenic, but here we are looking straight up through the bottom inspection hole, after the plate is removed.  That's a dipstick that we use for checking pole piece clearance, and above it is the commutator.  The dipstick makes sure that we still have plenty of clearance between the rotating armature and the stationary pole pieces.  If they were to start hitting each other, it would be bad, to put it mildly.

And looking down at a motor through the top inspection hole, we can check that the brushes and brush holders are in good condition, nothing has come loose, and so on.

Jeff Brady is working on making new steel pieces for the 28, helped by Joe, a recent recruit who works as a welder at Belvidere, and is currently on a temporary layoff while the factory is retooled.  Joe also helped me remove the covers for the contactor box, which would be difficult to do alone.

Elsewhere in the shop,  Norm is working on other new steel pieces.

Victor showed me some pictures of the late Dana Ishman he had on hand.  For now, I was reduced to taking pictures of pictures, and at an angle to avoid glare, but it's the best we have so far.  He says these date to about 1988.

At IRM, we have from left to right, Roger Kramer, Dana Ishman, Bruce Bergman, and another volunteer and his son whom I don't recall.

And Dana helped Victor and the other coach guys with moving some Rock Island coaches from Iowa.  Above, he's helping clear out a disused grade crossing.

We haven't seen what's happening in the Electroliner for a while.  Ed Oslowski is still hard at work.

Here he's cleaning up the door to the little closet in the motorman's compartment.

Below, we have some reproduction castings in aluminum of the North Shore herald. which will be on sale in the gift shop for about $200, he says.  All proceeds go to the Electroliner fund.

And next, we found some of the water flasks from the dining section in storage.  They look quite nice.

Looking into the cab, you can sort of make out the closet on the right, minus its door.

The Electroliner cab is very cramped.  Ed points out that it's almost impossible to get past the controller to work on the front part of the compartment.  Luckily we have a couple of young guys who are skinny enough to fit through this space.

Tim is making progress on spraying the imitation gold-leaf outlining on the 24.

Finally, by the end of the day I had finished most of the inspection items that needed to be addressed, without any major issues.  I took the controller cover into the shop, and after looking at it in better light, decided to wire-wheel it down to bare metal before repainting.

 And here's the white primer.

We'll finish this up on Saturday.  Anybody who wants to come on out and help will be most welcome!

Prototypical Train Day

Frank writes...

I wasn't able to spend much time at IRM on Sunday, but the time I did spend was mostly spent helping with a switch move. Joel, Jeron, and Richard did most of the work of moving cars around and in the end most of track 83 was emptied and then refilled. The purpose, of course, was to re-create some prototypical interurban trains of days past!

First, we have an authentic Trent Tube Employee Tripper consist from the days of the Municipality of East Troy Railroad:

And then next up is a Federal Yard caboose hop from the joint Illinois Terminal-C&NW operations in Alton:

...so you're not buying that, eh? Well, your skepticism is well-placed. These strange trains are just results of unusual car placement on track 83. The goal of the switching was actually just to swap the positions of Milwaukee Electric (later METRR) box motor M15 and wooden "L" car 1754 so that the latter is under wire. As such the 101 was used to tow out the North Western caboose, which was behind it, and the same with the M15 and the 1754.

Speaking of unusual operations, there's a CC4 air compressor that's been sitting just inside the door at the east end of barn track 43 for many years. With the M15 out of the barn the decision was made to put the compressor into the car, seeing as the M15 is one of only one or two cars we own that has a CC4 pump. So the 43 east doors were opened for the first time in years, presenting the sight above (the air compressor in question is in the right foreground). At the front left is a trap from CA&E 318, hiding for quite some time behind the quantity of "stuff" at this location. So THAT'S where I left that!

And here's here's Richard on the forklift and Joel inside the M15 loading the CC4 into the car. After this operation was concluded all of the cars went back into track 83, with the M15 now right behind the Russell plow and out from under wire (though it can easily be retrieved if and when we want to run it again). The 1754 is now a bit closer to the door, under wire, which will allow some electrical issues that cropped up the last time it ran to be diagnosed and, hopefully, fixed.

As usual, other projects are seeing progress as well. Inspection work on the 4391 is being done, work is progressing on the Kansas City and Cleveland PCC cars, and the indefatigable Norm and Jeff were hard at work on the front end of the Michigan Electric car as usual. And the big news for Sunday was that the 1630 passed its hydro test! So mark your calendars now for Memorial Day Weekend, which is the first scheduled steam operation for 2017.

Painting Outdoors

Today was a beautiful spring day, perfect for painting outside.  It's lucky that what I want to paint has wheels.  I hopefully put away the space heaters and drop lights that were cluttering up the 319, and did some switching to put it at the door, since it will be the next in line for inspection.  

The 36 poses on the connector:

Followed by the 319:

And it was then parked outside the barn for painting.  The lighting is much better, and you don't have all the extension cords and drop lights in the way.  It was windy enough that the car actually rocked a little sometimes, but not enough to make me seasick.

Vestibule #2 is nearly done.  Compare to last time.

And by the end of the day, much more on vestibule #1.

The 4391 was over the pit for inspection.  Joel and several of the new guys were hard at work on it.

Tim is applying the complicated masking to the 24 in preparation for spray painting the gold color.

Later in the day: 

 The Track Dept. have been working for a while on the diamond and tail track:

You never know what might show up on the interchange track.  Here we have two beautiful PV's paying a visit to East Union while in the area.  They're in the Chicago area to serve some corporate clients, as I understand.  I asked Nick how much it would cost to charter a trip to Kishwaukee Grove and back, and he said I don't have enough.   That's probably true.

The dome car was built for the UP, and the obs car started life as an 11-double bedroom sleeper on the IC.

These cars are absolutely spotless.  A little dirt and dust got on the trucks, so here we have two guys washing and scrubbing them.  I'd be happy if my windows were this clean!

Anyway, we all got a nice tour, courtesy of the owners, and guided by Mike McCraren.  Here are a few interior views.

The silverware is authentic, and came from various lines.

Note the dinner chimes.

That was very impressive, but our clients will just have to be satisfied with interiors more like this:

Doodlebug Carlines

Gregg Wolfersheim has been making great progress on the UP doodlebug.  This is just what many of you wanted to see.  He writes:

On M35, the water tank is finished with both sight glasses back in place with their red handles.

All of the carlines over the engine room were installed during Wednesday and Thursday.

Another view of the new carlines. Some touchup will still need to be done.

The view looking up showing the square headed bolts and nuts that sandwich the carlines with the steel ribs.

In Memoriam: Ed Rosengren

Sadly we must report the death of Ed Rosengren, a long-time IRM member. Ed was active in the Operating Department as a department officer and trainer. He was in charge of Publicity for many years and was always active in setting up IRM displays at local train shows. Ed also played a large role in running the Day Out With Thomas events held during the past several years, including managing ticketing operations for the event. His dedication to the museum over many years of volunteering was an inspiration and he will certainly be missed.

Ed died Wednesday morning after a long battle with cancer.   Funeral arrangements are as follows:

Visitation: Sunday, Apr. 9, 3 - 9 pm

Funeral Service:  Monday, Apr. 10, 10 am

Both at the Pedersen-Ryberg Mortuary
435 N. York Street
Elmhurst, Ill.  60126
630-834-1133