Wednesday Report

As always, we have several different projects in the Car Shop to report on.

Gerry is moving a traction motor for the L4.  This will be taken to Calumet for rebuilding, so the locomotive can be put back into service.

The inspection process continues.  The 4391 is over the pit.

Pete continues painting windows and finishing interior trim.

Tim has refinished more interior pieces for the 1754.

Gerry is doing welding repairs on the 306.  Many of these replacement parts were fabricated almost 30 years ago, before the project took a temporary halt.

Ed is finishing up another of the ceiling panels in the Liner.  He mentioned that before they reinstall the panels, he needed somebody to check the light circuit wiring, but wasn't sure what to do.  That sounded like a fun project that wouldn't take long, so I got out a ringer and the megger, and checked all the light circuits for continuity and isolation from ground.  

The Liner uses 30V bulbs in 20-bulb series circuits, and everything in this compartment appears to be fine.  And the rest of the train used to work, so it should be good to go.

And as it happens, next door Tim was working on the light circuits in the ceiling for the 1754.  This is a much earlier version of car wiring, and it looks just like the way Jewett wired up their CA&E cars.

I spent some time sorting parts and putting together a new set of shelves for storage.  I also made some modifications to the wooden frame for sanding down axle bearing surfaces.  As seen here, the two blocks are beveled on the bottom surface, where they will ride on the axle.  The cross beam will support weights of some sort, yet to be determined.

And then two outriggers will be attached to the plate and fastened to the truck frame with C clamps.  All of this probably has to be adjusted from one truck to another.  In any case, this should be a definite improvement.

 And work continued on the Cleveland PCC truck and other things, which I somehow missed.  Tune in next time!

In Memoriam Ray Bellock - UPDATE

Ray L. Rhodes with Ray Bellock

It is with deep sadness that we must report the death of long-time Museum member Ray Bellock, who died earlier today after a long illness.  Ray contributed greatly to many aspects of IRM over the years, most notably by funding and overseeing the construction of the playground, which has been enjoyed by our younger visitors for many years.   He wrote a train-themed children's book, Amy Loved Weekends, which was reviewed here.  He was a North Shore enthusiast in particular, and worked on the long restoration of the 749.

Here we see him engaged in one of his favorite activities, explaining how railroads work to young people.  He was one of the friendliest and most interesting people I've ever met, and he will be greatly missed.

Funeral Arrangements:

See the obituary here.

Visitation on Sunday afternoon at Miller Funeral Home in Dundee.

Visitation 9:30 - 10:30 on Monday morning at St. Thomas More Church in Elgin, followed by funeral mass at 10:30.

Pipe Schemes

Nobody took me up on the Tinker Toy challenge from last time, so here's the answer:

It's a frame for holding the axle bearing halves inside the new oven, whenever it gets wired up and tested.  The oven itself has a maximum temperature of 500F, but that is more than sufficient for the type of silver solder we'll use, which has a melting point of only 360F or so.  They say the oven should be wired by the end of this month, so we'll see.  Impatience is killing me.

Spin the Wheel

Yes, friends, it's time once again to try your luck on Spin the Wheel!  IRM is certainly a social organization, and if we as a group can't decide where to eat tonight, we now have this handy wheel of fortune to decide for us:

Speaking of games, it's been a long time since I had a set of Tinker Toys, so today I spent a while happily putting together some of the Museum's vast collection of half-inch pipes.  And Joel suggested I should submit this as a contest: the first person to guess what this is actually for wins fame and adulation!

By the way, there's an interesting mathematical theorem involved: because there's a closed path in the above system, a union is unavoidable.  But anyway....

That's enough fun and games, let's get down to work.  The PCC truck which is being prepped for use under the Cleveland PCC has gotten lots of attention.  Here Ed Woytula is working on it, and he, 

Eric Lorenz, and Chuck Meter have been putting in long hours to make sure it's in top shape.

John Arroyo is finishing up one of the last ceiling panels for the Electroliner.   Soon they will start to be installed in the car.  And while there have been delays, reassembly of the train is now scheduled for June, I'm told.  Among other things, it can't take place any sooner because the roads are posted until sometime in late April.  Your patience is appreciated.

The 431 was switched out today, so the 409 could go over the pit.

As seen here:

This car was flagged for sharp flanges.  We have made it a policy to be more strict on the condition of wheels used in regular service.  I must admit, in the past it was more a matter of banging on the wheels with a hammer and saying "Yeah, that looks good enough to me."  But we have a lot of members who work on regular railroads, and it would be good to adopt the same standards for wheel profiles.  In this case, the solution is relatively easy: the car has its brake shoes replaced with special profile cutting shoes, as seen below, and then run until the flanges are within spec.  

And so the 409 should be cleared for revenue service again this year.

And in velocipede news, which I'm sure you're all eager for, Buzz was hard at work on the lathe, restoring or making new parts.  We're lucky to have skilled workers of all sorts available.

In this picture, you can see one of the new parts he started making:

And speaking of spinning wheels, I was in an inventive mood and started making a sanding block mechanism for the new wheelset we'll need for the 36.  We've talked about this before.  This should be an improvement over the previous system.  It's upside down in this picture, but when complete it will enable us to sand down the bearing surfaces efficiently and safely.  And you'll see it here first.

Doodlebug Update

Another installment showing work on the UP doodlebug over in Barn 2, by Gregg Wolfersheim.

 Some more pics of M-35. This is the upper wall arch off of the divider between coach and smoker. The veneer was peeling and was removed. A new skin of 1/8th inch balsam birch plywood is about to be glued on.

This is the half arch in the smoker and the heater room wall. Again, new plywood was applied and painted before installation.

This is the heater wall with the arch removed. Notice that some of the wall has been stripped of some of the peeling paint. The old varnish under that needs to be removed before we reapply primer and paint.

The half arch has been out back up. Also, you'll see that 4 of the roof carlines have been removed and slid to the left to provide room to reinstall the metal heat panels. These go on the other side of this wall, and the one next to the aisle.

The back heat shield is now in place and the carlines have been put back in place.

Now the side wall is in place, too. The large 3 inch pipes are part of the hot water system. An expansion tank fits in between them, with a safety valve that will go up thru the roof. This will be installed after the ceiling panel is back in place.

Another angle showing the Peter Smith heater with the new walls surrounding it.

Time for a Quick-Footed Ride

Today, we'll start out with an unusual subject: velocipedes!   Buzz has been hard at work restoring our velocipede, at Dave Diamond's request, so we can put it on display.   Whether we'll ever get to actually try it out on rails is an open question, I guess.  Here he shows us the metal parts being cleaned up and polished.

And many new wood parts, as seen here.  New and old.

I had asked about whether there were any left-hand velocipedes.  Buzz scoured the internet and found a couple of pictures of velocipedes in museums that he suspects may have been re-assembled wrong.  So we're still not sure.

But he also found this hilarious ad for the Sheffield company.  One man is pedaling the car along while the other is sitting side-saddle and smoking.  Nice work, if you can get it!

Now back to our regularly scheduled projects.  Ed proudly shows off the new ceiling panels being fitted inside the Electroliner.

Sorry, I guess I didn't get him into the picture.  But the panels look nice.

Pete is working on interior parts for the 160.

And two side windows need to be replaced.

Bill was stripping paint off parts for the Pennsy bobber.

I spent some time investigating the 309 bearing project again.  We'll have more to report shortly.  Meanwhile, another project we want to start on is making new drop sash windows for the 1218.  Most of the old wooden parts are badly rotted.  

As seen above, they're fairly simple, with no mortises or tenons.  The only difficult part is all the insets that have to be routed out for the drop sash handles.  So I gathered up some spare lumber and made a router guide that will hold the new wood firmly in place while a hand router is used.

Photo by Jon Fenlaciki

 It's not quite done; I took it home for finish adjustments.  Also, one seat cushion from the 309 needs to be recovered, so that went home also.  As well as the new bearings, so I can make a steel frame to hold them inside the big oven.

Car Shop Report

There are many separate projects in progress in the car shop, as always, but here are a few that caught my eye during a brief visit yesterday.

First, the center ceiling panels are all in place in the 1754, and the fixtures have been installed.  Everything appears to be up to Tim's usual exacting standards.

And on the next track, ceiling panels are also going into the Electroliner!

There are others being prepared over in the Lean-3.

Buzz is restoring the velocipede.   Some of the wooden parts need to be replaced.  It's mounted on a frame so you can crank it up and check the mechanical action, which seems to be fine.

I wonder if they ever made left-handed velocipedes?  Finally, here are some seat pedestals from the 757, which is still receiving interior work.  These have a fairly complicated mechanism.

I spent some time discussing what we need next for the 309 bearing project with Bob Sundelin and Richard Schauer.  Once the big oven is wired up, we should be able to solder the two halves of the bearing together.  Stay tuned!  And then there was more sorting and storing of parts.