Many Projects

It was amazing to see the many projects that were occurring on Saturday.

In the Track Department, Larry Lunden assisted me in preparing ties for installation on the mainline.  Our ties are relay ties that still have the old plates and spikes on them.

After we were finished, I went to the Fire Museum building to collect the battery that I had on a trickle-charge for the Tie Handler.  The once-dead battery once again held a charge so I brought it over to the Tie Handler TH-2, and installed it.  I also drained the fuel from the fuel tank and cleaned the rust and other debris out of it.  Then, I filled it back up with new fuel.  The machine started right up and ran great for a while.  With Xian Clere, I took the machine out on the mainline and loaded ties on the Tie Handler's flat car.  Unfortunately, there must still be something in the tank because after around a half hour of running, the machine started to sputter and I had difficulty keeping it running.  Once I got in the clear in the siding, we got it running well again.  However, I did not want to chance it starving for fuel again on the mainline in front of passenger service again, so we left it in the siding and planned to continue working after operations ended.  However, we never had the chance to do so because of so many other things going on.

Xian Clere, Aaron Mangan, and John Gasper worked on the Tie Inserter.  They re-installed the newly repaired fuel tank.  In addition, they installed a new fuel bowl and inline fuel filter on the machine.  Unfortunately, they could not get it started.  An hour or so later after everyone else had given up, I heard the familiar putt-putt of the motor after John finally got the machine started.

In the shop, John Pelletier and Scott (Unfortunately I do not know his last name) were hard at work on various projects with Rio de Janiero car 1850.  The car is in the shop for routine maintenance.  With the help of Pat McCann, a workbench was brought into the shop and brought into the woodworking area.

In the back corner of the shop, Galen Semprebon was working on the newly impregnated field coils for the Boston Elevated Type-5 5645.  He was peeling back some of the taping around the fields and replacing it.  In doing so, it appears that the vacuum impregnation of the field coils was successful.  We now have the ability to vacuum impregnate in our shop!

In front of the shop, Camilo Santiago completed the work on one end of sanding the Reading Caboose, and began to work on the other end of the interior.  The exterior of the caboose was completed by an Eagle Scout a few years ago.

Inside Kelly Barn, our current Eagle Scout project is underway.  Kevin Mitchell and his crew did some more preparatory work to get ready for the painting of the Illinois Terminal PCC Car 451.

The doors of the barn got some attention too.  One of our community service volunteers spent the day painting the interior of the doors to the barn.  Hopefully in a few weekends, he will have this project completed.

In the section house, George Contrada, Dillon Worth, and another volunteer were working on the speeder.  They flushed the radiator and did preventative maintenance.

The one project that I had hoped to work on, I ran out of time.  I had hoped to work on the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose beginning to prime the new tongue and groove side panels.

In the Fire Museum, members were hard at work on preparing a Motor Coach for a head gasket replacement.

Finally, the big event for the day was the filming inside and outside of our Chicago North Shore cars, 162 and 710 respectively.  A student from New York University brought an entire film crew to the museum from the city to do filming for a senior film project.

Busy Saturday

There was a lot of work accomplished today at the museum. When I arrived at the museum after I got out of work at 1, Galen Semprebon and John Pelletier were busy working on 1850. Last week, 1850, the Rio de Janeiro breezer, was removed from service when a clanking noise was heard in the number 1 axle. This was being caused by a bent brake beam which resulted in the brakes applying differently on the left and right wheels. The morning was spent straightening the brake beam. I got to work replacing the trolley rope on the number 1 end. The rope that was on the car was frayed in a couple of places and it needed replacing. While looking at the rope on the number 2 end, it was noticed that the trolley catcher was not retrieving properly. This is usually the result of a broken spring inside the catcher. Because we cannot immediately fix the problem, we borrowed a catcher of the same type from one of the Chicago Elevated cars. One thing that must be remembered is that the trolley catchers on car 1850 are not original to the car. When it operated in Rio, bows were used to collect power for operating the car, not trolley poles.

Just outside the shop, Chris Perry was hard at work scraping and sanding the roof of Boston Elevated PCC 3100. The afternoon was plagued with intermittent rain, which we despiritely need. Chris would alternate between working on the roof when it was sunny to working on smaller parts of the car in the shop when it was raining. From talking to him, he hopes to paint the roof on Monday or Tuesday.











Ted Coppola, Matty Doane, and Pat McCann were busy with the backhoe and front end loader cleaning up around the shop again. They were able to clear a whole spot in front of the shop to place the shop storage pod. The storage pod will be used to store oil and other lubricants that should not be stored in the shop. Also, things that are not used often like jacks will be stored in the pod. Pat then came in with the bulldozer to grade the area so the pod would sit level. Next weekend, we should be able to move the pod itself. At that point we will be able to begin moving stuff into it, which will give more room around the cars to work.





The motor was pulled out of Speeder 65594 by George Contrada and David Coppola. The motor will need a complete rebuild.



Finally, at the end of the day, Connecticut car 1326 was moved up to the shop to get some woodwork done on it. Because 1326 is used as the Birthday Car, it is hard to get the car up to the shop for any length of time to do work on it. John removed an upper window frame from the car which was rotten and plans to rebuild it at home this week. Next weekend, the two cracked windows in the car will be replaced as well.