Wednesday Report

It was cold and drizzly again yesterday -- when will this ever end?  Work continues on the Multi-Purpose Building; they mostly seemed to be landscaping the ground around the exterior.  It struck me that we should see what the facade of the building will look like:

The Milwaukee Road society offices and library are on the left, the gallery space is in the middle, and the model railroad displays are on the right.  This will be stunning.

And in Car Department news, four of the five trucks for the Electroliner have arrived, and are temporarily stored under a tarp:  

Once the final truck arrives, we'll schedule the operation for putting the train back together.  And we'll capture it here if at all possible.

Most of the usual Car Department projects were underway.  Here Chuck Meter continues the arduous task of cleaning up every single part to the PCC truck.  And Tim Peters was working on the 1754, Pete on the 160, John Sheldon on the 306, and so on.  And Tim Wills was out yesterday and worked on cleaning up 451 parts.  Thanks!

In spite of the dreary weather, daily revenue service continues.  Ron Seavers was running the 4290.

And the 141 was in operation for training, and for limited passenger service.

All of the drop sash for the 451 were trimmed and installed, along with many of the track parts.  Now I just need to find the spring latches....

And with some more cleaning and straightening, it's starting to look better.  I think.

One interesting thing I found was this:

At first glance I thought it was a grinding wheel of some sort, but it must be the speedometer mechanism.  The metal wheel is connected to a generator via a flexible shaft, and I suppose the wheel itself must rest on the tread of one of the wheels on the truck.  This is completely different from the system on the 460, which is mounted directly to one of the main bearings and driven by the axle itself.  That one didn't work either.

In any case, I see little point in trying to get this to work, other than as a science experiment.  Of course, I like science experiments, but right now it would be nice just to put the car back together and get it to operate.

UP With People

It's always good to have friends, and the Union Pacific has always been a good friend to our Museum.  Today was our annual UP Family Day, and so we had a lot of UP employees and their families enjoying a day at IRM.  There were several tents with various activities set up near the 50th Ave. station, and plenty of trains running.  And we even had several former and current UP employees among our volunteers running the operations.

And then, as requested, here's the floor plan for the new Multi-Purpose Building.  The building faces north (up), so the public facade is at the top of this diagram.  The Pullman Library will occupy the south half of the building, as it's not normally open to the public.  The model railroad display is in the northwest corner, and the library/archive portions, mostly occupied by the Milwaukee Road society, are in the northeast corner.  At least that's the current plan.

Construction continues on the building itself.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination.   Beyond it lies another dimension....

 As I mentioned, there were lots of trains running, despite the dreary weather.  Here the 1630 is passing the wood L cars at 50th.

And the CA&E steel cars were running.  I meant to get a crew picture of Larry Stone and Brian Patterson, but we were all too busy.

And the 411 pulling the waycar train is very impressive.

Everybody likes to look at the steam engine.

And speaking of friends, I met some new volunteers who are friends of Frank through the train show business.  Kristin and Jeremy Dummler were manning the waycars.  Welcome!

In the morning, I spent some time cleaning and sorting in the 451.

I also spent some time going around begging for money.  Not for me personally, but for the 453.  I got some (tentative) results, but more is needed.  Send in your money now, before I start haunting YOU!

And of course several Car Dept. projects were in full swing.  I was too busy to capture most of them.  Here Ed Woytula and Chuck Meter are moving PCC truck parts with the overhead lift.  

And Bob Sundelin arrived, and explained the exact requirements for a circular plate to hold the 309 bearings in place on the lathe.  This is a complicated setup, but the main thing is that we needed four holes of about 1 1/2" diameter bored through this plate, which is about 1 1/4" thick.  That's a lot of steel to remove.  So I spent most of the afternoon on the big drill press.  We start by drilling a small (1/8") hole, then bigger and bigger holes.  It takes a while, and also uses up plenty of tap fluid.

Anyhow, by the end of the day the plate looks like this.  The holes require one more drilling.  We have a big enough drill bit, but our biggest drill press won't handle it.  So Bob will take it over to the Steam Shop; they'll let us use their drill press as long as we bring the drill.  That's more than fair.  The press itself is currently set up for a job, but once that's done, we can continue on the bearing project.

So bear with us.  Hey, no, put that down!!!

In conclusion, though, don't forget the 453.  Let your conscience be your guide, but I won't take "no" for an answer!

Tuesday Report

This will be brief, as I didn't take many pictures.  Construction of the new building is progressing.

I spent basically all day working on the 451, mostly sorting parts and installing various pieces that were removed for painting, many years ago.  For instance, on this side we now have the four folding steps installed.  The machine screws will need touch-up paint.  And then we worked on sorting out the drop sash windows and things like that.

I had a new helper today: Tim Wills came out to do Car Dept. projects, and plans to be here about once a week.  He worked at IRM for a while, about twenty years ago, helping Frank Sirinek for a while, and we're glad to have him back.  When the regular motorman for today was unable to work, we had to take a break and figure out what to do.  Dan Mulvihill agreed to run the 415, and Tim went along as a helper and for orientation, since he's interested in getting into operation.  So that's good.  But I never got around to taking his picture.  

After some technical difficulties, I found a light string that would actually work, so at least we have some low-level lighting inside the car.  Being able to see what you're doing often makes the work easier.

 And I'm glad to report that we're already getting some significant contributions to the 453 fund.  We really appreciate the support.

RPO Day Photos from Chuck Amstein

Chuck Amstein provides us once again with great photos from yesterday's RPO Day.

The usual warnings against unauthorized reproduction apply.

 We should point out that Gregg Wolfersheim and Nick Dey spent the last two weeks repainting and lettering the Burlington RPO.   It looks great!

And Chuck's video is posted at this link.