Museum site for members and fans.

[trolleyboy]

Hi David glad you popped by. The pans are an awfully hard collection system to maintain. Alot more working parts than your strait pole or third rail pick-up. The pan from L&PS #4 which is the one we've been slowly rebuilding was initially mounted on the glosters. Kept snagging the overhead so it was replaced. This is partially due to slaack in our overhead but also the semi non functional pan itself. We are actually the only museum in North America even running pan equiped equipment. Most similar museums either switch to pole or reserve pan requiped locomotives or cars to static display only ( Stuffing and Mounting ) We have kept #8 out of service this year for a couple of reasons #1 we had a pan snag last july which broke off two of the ears. This was a loose overhead wire problem. Yard two needs several new catenery poles then this propblem should go away. The other reason is pan parts. As common as hens teeth now. True GE still makes parts but new parts are expensive and theb1915 pattern ones used by the L&PS are not compatable with the modern day ones produced by GE. Brand new parts are out of our budget range in any event. This leaves us to make our own spares. #4's pan ( car was scrapped by CN in 1960 ) is not useable in that it has extensive frame rot so it will not hold up to the rigours of everyday use. We can however use it as a template. We will rebuild it on the ground ( this is happening now ) and then we can duplicate the process with raw materials. The vintage unit will be made functional as a static display in our new barn #4 when it's finished being built. As with everthing with us it's a slow and steady process. Rob

[Anonymous]

Lots of interesting stuff, thanks for taking the time to contribute it! Was horrified to hear about the damage to the Zephyr though. I've been looking for a HO scale E5 ever since I saw the Rail and Wire articles and photos on the IRM site, it's a beautiful loco.

Rob, I might be able to point you in a useful direction regarding operating both trolley poles and pantographs - the Blackpool tram system here in the UK runs both, they use strategically-placed bars to ensure that nothing snags. http://www.blackpooltransport.com/ is their official site, they might well be willing to offer advice if needed. They seem heppy enough to allow preserved cars to run on their system so they're obviously willing to work with the preservation movement. I found this out while researching model trams here: http://www.blackpool-in-the-box.freeserve.co.uk/questions.html there are a couple of photos there showing the prototype overhead arrangement at a crossover. Hope it's useful!

[trolleyboy]

Matt thank-you formstopping by please don't be a stranger. Thank-you for the url as well I will pass it along to the decision makers,hopefully some of their practices can help us out as well. Rob

[Anonymous]

Rob, glad I could help - I do know that they can't use bow collectors though, as a preserved car running on their system apparently had to be fitted with a trolley pole for the duration of its stay (a Glasgow "Cunarder" double-decker - read this in the instructions for the model one I'm currently building).

[trolleyboy]

Bow collectors have been an odity on this side of the pond as well. Not as predictable as poles or pans. The TTC fit several samll Witt's with them in Toronto breifly in the 1930's. they soon went back to the poles as they tracked better. The Witt's looked odd with the bows so it was just as well. Now most new modern lught rail over here tends to use the half pans sort of the best of both worlds, part bow part pole. Works well. Rob

[trolleyboy]

Hello again everyone. Now that October is here the museum operations are down to the last couple of weekends. halloween night shows on the 22 and 29th and the day running on the 30th will be the last runs of the year. One evening and one day xmas show in early Dec. This means that the maintenance and restoration work swings into higher gear. Hopefully the metal skeleton of Barn 4 will start to rise this fall. I have some new interior shots of the completed inside restoration of sweeper S37 and LSR open car 23 comming so keep an eye for them. Also some new shots of long term restoration projects on snowplow TP 11 and radial car 416 should be comming down the pipe as well. Rob

[Gunns]

Hi All I'm Back,
I just spent 9 days crewing a german balloon, (photo as soon as I get every thing d/l from the little box thing) so I havent forgotten Ya'll I just been flying....
at the work site we are preparing for our open house this weekend, so lots of cleaning and putting stuff away, after next Sat and Sun, work begins. Last Sat I got some photos of our "Layout", (BNSF main line to Raton Pass) so I will put them up so you can compaire them to the model work you may be doing.
The fiesta went well, I got two flights, both about an hour long, had a great time.
more to come,
Gunns

[Gunns]

Wends 12 oct 05

Preprations for the Open House continued, cleaning, site preperation, ec. Also the brake cyl grease has arrived, and the 9 in brake cyls are being cleaned and assembled. One down and 7 to go.



more to come,
Gunns

[nickinwestwales]

Hey ROB-nice thing youve got going here ! -good luck,nick

[trolleyboy]

Nick glad you stopped by pop by more often [tup]Kevin nice to have you back on earth hope the ballon flights were fun and rewarding [tup]I'm assuming that the brake cylnders you are rebuilding are from the main drivers of the locomotive or from the tender ? No real new news on our side. All the halloween prep is done we now pray for great weather like last year. Still no movemnet on barn 4 just yet, there are still a few details to work out with the town re taxes and services, water ,sewer ( which we don't use ) other than that have a hppy day everyone. Rob

[Trainnut484]

Hello everyone. Rob and Doug (barndad), you guys are great. Kevin, I am amazed at the progress on the tender. I'd like to hear about the outcome of your open house. Thanks all for providing pics of the fruits of your labors.

Take care,

Russell

[Gunns]

The tender has 9 inch cylinders, the main drivers have 14 inch and the trailing truck under the firebos have 8 inch..... A total of 16 cylinders.
Gunns

[Gunns]

Hi all,
I'm back after the ABIF and our open house.

15-16 Oct,05
This was our open house, well attended with live music, free hot dogs, and lots of looking at the 2926.

Here are two of our brake cylinders, the closed one is finshed.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afp?full=1
A photo from the gate,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afq?full=1
Here is the Rail Runner table, not the Ahern models.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afr?full=1
Another one made 1944.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/aft?full=1
Free Food
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afu?full=1
The Territorial Brass Band
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afv?full=1
Our opperating steamer
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afw?full=1
Rolling posters
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afx?full=1
The fuel that keeps us going
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/afz?full=1

more to come,
Gunns

[trolleyboy]

Good afternoon everybody.Kevin as always a wealth of info,seems as though your openhouse was a great success. To some more somber news. I had mentioned a couple pages back about the very real possibilities of losing the Elgin County rail museum in St Thomas Ontario. They have had one more very major setback. as some of you know they are housed in then old 1913 built Michagen central Shop building. apparently the structure has had it's structural inspection and it has been found out that one of the main roof support beams has failed ir is failing! This beam unfortunatly is the main cement slab roof support, so the building has been determined to be not safe for the use by the general public. The question is now where to move the collection too as it seems that their building is no longer safe or finacially prudent to fix. As more info arrises i will pass along. In our musuems most recent news L&PS car #8 has returned to regular though somewhat different passenger service. Seeing as the needed overhead replacement has not yet begun 8 is running in "train" service. we have fitted line car 45 with hose bags and it's providing the horsepower #8 is running as an unpowered passenger coach. The general public are apparently quite enjoying this as we don't usually run any of our equipment as a coupled train. 8 is functional we just need the upgrades to the overhead to allow for her pantographs to function properly. at least the "queen" of the fleet is riding the rails again. Rob

[Gunns]

Hi all,

Wends. 19 Oct, 05

Today we had a smaller turnout, mostly cleanup / pickup from the Open House. Howeever we did do some more work on the brake cylinders, Here our CMO is honong a Cylinder.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/aga?full=1
This is a rebuilt piston awaiting reinstallation.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agb?full=1
this is a stack of pit covers.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agc?full=1
Work continues at a steady pace.
More to come
Gunns

(inspecting the bell ringer)

[Gunns]

Sat. 22 Oct 05
Big turnout today, We jumped right in to work, and yet more needle scaleing of truck 4, repainting the spring pockets, and opening all the drainage holes in the frame of the spring pockets and body of the trucks. The sand blasting crew that sandblasteded the tender, showed up to clean up some last areas on the oil bunker, and those areas were then painted with rust bullet. In the office, all of our part controll sheets are being scaned in to the database, allowing faster access to where and what has been done in the past. This helps a lot, especillay now that reassembly, has started on the trucks. Today we finshed and aired up 3 of the tenders brake cylinders, a fourth has been disassembled, painting has begun on areas that will be inacessable after reassembly. All the brake cylinders are in very good condition with only one that had mild pitting, the pitting was cleaned up with our Hone. All the cylinders opened to date have had no rust, just 45 year old grease and dust....
Much was accomplished, and our goal to reassemble the tender this year looks secure.
more to come,
Gunns

[trolleyboy]

Hey kevin glad to see and hear that your open houses were successfull. Unfortunatly our first halloween show last night didn't go off as well as hoped. Cold rain and at sometimes a light sleet kept the numbers to under 200. we normally do 800-1000 at night for these shows. Hopefully next week will be better on then. The halooween money helps fuel the museum during it's off season. Rob

[trolleyboy]

hello as promissed a couple of shots of the museums new train service. As I had mentioned earlier our L&PS Jewett car has been unused due to some ongoing overhead woes which do not allow for it's Pan to track properly,therfore a customer favourite ha been regulated to static disply. To remedy this at least temporarily, we have fit our Oshawa Line car # 45 with hosebags and a trainline so it can pull #8 as a coach. An unusual sight for sure but 45 is a fully operational car which we don't use because it has no passenger seating.



In this shot you can see the newly installed hose lines on #45



This shot is a side view of #8 and you can see 45 leading the "train"



This is a front view of the imposing line car 45. Our toolbox on wheels.#45 weighs in around 44t and number 8 tips the scales at close to 50t ! Definatlt two of our heavyweights.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

Hello again, Anyone wonder what the inside of a piece of snow removal equipment looks like [?] here are two shots of the inside of snowsweeper S37 which is the car that appears in my signature.








In both shots you can see the tongue and groove interior wood work. Imagine that this is a piece of work equipment that the general public would hardley ever have seen and never would have been inside off. The front controller by the windows si the traction controllers, The conrtrollers off to the side run the sweeping brooms. You can see the motors for the sweep brooms beside the operators positions painted grey. These cars were built by the russel snowplow company in 1922. They are double ended ( this is why thery have two control positions )

Rob

[Gunns]

Hi all.
Wends. 26 Oct 05,

Brake work today, finshed up another Cylinder,
So we now have only 4 left to do.
here are the finshed Cylinders.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/age?full=1
we also open two more cylinders to check condition and spray them with solvent for the next work day.
Here are the ones left to do,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agf?full=1
all but one Cylinder opened so far, have been in Very good (look new except fo the 49 year old grease) One cylinder had some pitting and corrosion but the hone cleaned it up. We think the pitted one may have been next to the blow down valve, and was the recipent of the steam wash.
This is the Brake Cart, with the tools we use for the cylinder restoration.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agg?full=1
In the Office they have started the sorting and filing of our drawings, a PDF file is also planed with a searchable index.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agh?full=1
This is the oil bunker fill hatch, one of two
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agi?full=1
Another photo of the hatch.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agj?full=1
A lok down at the tender trucks from on top of the oil bunker
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agk?full=1
Used cups from the brake cylinders.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agl?full=1
the new steps installed on the tender.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agm?full=1

More photos,
Here is the buffer block from the tender
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agn?full=1
Here is the buffer spring
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/ago?full=1

More to come,
Gunns

The Wife, me, and the girlfriend (in the background)

[passengerfan]

Gunns, I really am enjoying your restoration of that big Santa Fe Northern. To think I am older than that Northern I wonder how much rust I have in me. Good reason to stay away from water I guess. Don't believe I ever got to see any of the Santa Fe steam when it was active or I was to small to remember But look forward to your restoration and sure hope to take a trip behind it when complete.

[trolleyboy]

Hello again. As always some wonderfull progress Kevin. I too am lookinf forward to a run or two behind that beauty once you guys get your restoration finished. I had promissed a while back a couple more shots of the ongoing restoration of our museums double truck Lonndon Ontario open car. # 23.This car and it's six sisters were originally built in 1901.

We originally picked up this car in 1983. It was a body only and had been used as a swimming pool change room at London's springbank park. Initially it an dtwo sisters were there as a consession stand and a ladies and mens changeroom. The original hope was to save all three but two of them were to badley dry rotted for transport ( wood body wood frame car ) 20 years of on and off restoration has occured to get the car to the state it is in now. It has been essentially completely rebuilt from the frame up.The car is operational now but still requires some resistor and controller work. It has seen some limited passenger use, most recently on the 19th of september this year. It makes a wonderfull static piece at the museum at any rate. The shots will show the interior's maple woodwork ,ash roof and a couple of nice external shoys as well.Please refer it back to the initial restoration shots I poste don I beleave page one of this thread.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

well tomorrows the second and last halloween spooktacular at the museum for this year. weather's supposed to cooperate 60 degrees and dry [tup] should make up for last weeks dismal snowey affair. the reaper is all set to haunt the rails




Happy rails everyone. Rob

[Dr.Fu-Manchu]

The Doctor is In !!! I was checking the website for the Golden Gate Railroad Musuem (in san francisco, ca.) was going to be moving because the U.S. Navy, Which has control of the Hunters Point Shipyard has cancled all leases on the base. Which means that for awhile, we who live in the S.F.Ca. Bay Area are losing one of the few places where one is able to see Steam and Diesel locomotives that used to run in the bay area on the S.P. and the S.F. Belt Line. The hope is that the group can find a new home for the #2472 and the rest of the roster. More news when I can get it.
Till My Next Missive, I Remain The Humble Yet Strangly Evil Doctor !!![}:)]

[trolleyboy]

Good Dr ? Thanks for the update please keep us posted. It's never good when museums have to scramble to find homes for their collections. Hopefully everything will pass and they can retain their current home, or at the very least find and equally suitable one.

Rob

[trolleyboy]

well now that our season is officially over for the year we are into winter restoration and maintenance mode. This will be interupted by the occational grade school charter and the two xmas trolley shows the fiirst weekend in Dec.

Our final halloween spooktacular was a raoring success on the 29th. Close to a thousand riders enjoyed the rides the show etc etc. The perfect 55 degree dry weather was a god send. Unlike the first night show on the 22nd in which the riders and crews were able to have slushball fights.

Hopefully some needed overhead work will commence as well as work on Barn 4. Interurban 416 and snowplow TP 11 will continue to be the shop forces main objectives for the busy fall and winter work seasons. Work safe everybody.

Rob

[Gunns]

Hi All,
2 Nov 05

Today saw the refurbishment of another brake cylinder. that makes 5 of 8 compleated, 3 to go. Of the 5 compleated 3 have passed the air test (holding the requiered pressure for the requiered time) and have been painted, and await remounting to the truck. One of our standard bench marks is that we dont paint it untill it is ready for reinstallation. Also paint is beeing applyed to the areas that will be covered by the reinstallation of large parts. In the office all the drawings have been sorted and filed, also they have been scaned and are beeing made up in to a document that we can burn on to a CD Rom or DVD.
More to come,
Gunns

[Anonymous]

Hi all! Since my train involvement pretty much centers around the doings of the Illinois Railway Museum, I really should post to this thread more often.
Rob, we too are now closed for the season, which in our case means no public events until Spring. That's a very impressive figure on your Skooktacular event. Any idea how much $$ you folks make from that? I\d love to see it become something we would do at IRM!
Did someone say they need a place for their working steam engine? Send it here!!!

[Anonymous]

Ouch! What happened to that "Reaper"? Is it an as-recieved runner or is that a special paint job using something easily removed (popular for filming over here - the theory is that the paint scheme required by the film crew can be washed off afterwards rather than needing to respray into the original paint scheme)?

Here's a website that might be interesting - it's run by the Railcar Association, which is an owner's club for first generation diesel railcars over here. If only I had a few thousand to spare and a bigger garden (or better, a disused rail line).... www.railcar.co.uk

[Gunns]

5 Nov 05

Big crew today.
Two more cyls for the tender brakes done to day, that makes seven done one to go.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agq?full=1
Also the brake beam was finshed today,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agr?full=1,
And receved fine adjustment,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/ags?full=1,
And installed.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agt?full=1

Work on truck 4 continues, removing paint from stuff that shouldnt have paint, and reinstalling refurbished parts.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agu?full=1

Also all the tender wheels were gauged today, with good results, most wheelsets were installed new in the last shoping.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agk?full=1

After the work session I crawled into the furnace. Here is the inside of a tube, with a superheater in it.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/agv?full=1

more to come,
Gunns