Monday Shop Report

 Time for another brief look at what's happening in the car shop these days...

Tim just never stops.  Here he is using the Museum's plentiful supply of clamps to assemble more of the new window frames needed by the 1808.

And here's a large pile of side windows.

Pete and Fritz continue making new doors for the 757.  In the rear, you can see one of the old doors being used as a pattern.

John has several side windows for the 306 in the process of being finished.

And here's one of the new end windows.  Because the ends were changed at Shaker, including moving the controllers, we're not sure exactly how the end windows should work in their original configuration.  The question came up as to whether you should actually be able to drop the window in front of the motorman.  

That seems unlikely to me.  And so far I haven't been able to find any pictures of 300's in service with any of the end windows dropped.

Finally, Gerry shows off some of his rebuilt electrical parts for the 306.   This is the Westinghouse lightning arrestor.

The roof fuse box and choke coil:

I was working on the trolley bases for the 460.  The department guys finished repainting all the parts for both bases, and I was able to assemble them on the car.  There are still a few things to finish up.  I somehow failed to get a picture of what I had been doing, but they look like this:

Once the weather starts to warm up, there will be an even greater variety of projects to look at, so stay tuned!

In Memoriam Walt Stafa

We were saddened to hear of the death of Walt Stafa, a long-time friend of many of us here at IRM.  While he always lived near Columbus, Ohio, he drove out many times to IRM to help with various projects.  He was a great friend and always had a sense of humor.  Everybody who knew him liked him.

(L to R)  Norm Krentel, Bill Fronczak, Walt Stafa

Helping Jeff Brady with repairs to ME 28.

He will certainly be missed.

Funeral services will be in Columbus.   Here's a link to the obituary notice.

The First Trolley Pageant

Seeing all the slides from the Ron Doerr collection gave me a new appreciation for pictures of IRM back in the old days.  I believe the first real trolley pageant, using the new streetcar loop, was on August 1, 1982, and Frank and I were there.  All of these slides were taken by my father, Allan Hicks, since I was busy.   We can't compete with Mr. Doerr in terms of quantity, but I hope these are interesting.

The equipment shown is generally pretty obvious, so I have only added captions to identify people where possible.

Copyright by Hicks Car Works, may not be reproduced without permission.

 

I believe the motorman is Herold Wind.

??? and Jeff Brady in the foreground.  (Stay tuned)

Is that Ray Schmid running the 604?

Not sure on this one.

This is the 309, by the way.

Bob Opal in his bell bottoms hopping the pole for me.

That's probably Ed Arnold on the rear step.

The Liberty Liner had only recently arrived.  This is on the lead to Barn 3.

The Zephyr was still stored in Yard 1.

Winter Wednesday

It was too cold on Wednesday to do much of anything in the barn, but in the shop there's always work to be done.  Let's start with a continuation from last time of refurbishing the trolley bases on the 460.  Here's the spring stretcher with two springs painted black.  

They were pulled out and replaced with the other two from this base.  

 I then sand-blasted and wire-wheeled them, and put them back in the hood for painting.

And after primer they look like this:

And here's the base, which I cleaned up and painted also.  The rag protects the bearing surface around which the upper part of the base rotates.  That's important.

Well, enough of that.  I'm hoping more of this process can be continued by others.  I also started disassembling the second base.

Tim spent all day working on window sash for the 1808 again.  I thought I got a picture of him at work, but I guess not.  Sorry.  He also helped me with another project, getting one of the roof cables on the 460 spliced back together.  More on this later.

John spent all day varnishing windows for the 306.  They look great.

Meanwhile, Pete and Fritz were working on 757 doors again.

Finally, we have more exciting news from the Track Dept.  While the rest of us were working inside in relative comfort, the contractors were outside, in the cold and wind, installing the switch to Yard 16.  This is in a bleak, remote corner of the property, and I wouldn't want to even walk out there to get a picture.  But luckily Bob Olson was there to bring you some idea of the progress that goes on IRM, no matter the weather!

So we do indeed have a Yard 16 in our future.

Update on the M-35

 Gregg Wolfersheim sends us another pictorial report on restoration of our UP doodlebug:

Several pieces of interior trim being refurbished for the doodlebug. Yes, that is a 'C' clamp in the foreground holding a glued joint.

This is one of the panels seen recently in primer. Now painted and installed over the men's restroom windows.

This is some of the trim before restoration. Paint and varnish are removed before painting.