Hello everyone. Seeing as this is the Classic trains Forum, and all of us here have the love and nostalga of classic trains, I’m putting this topic forward as a place where those of us who are members of museum’s and historical societies can “strut” our stuff.This is a lose informal site please post pictures or info on your related museums etc and others with the intrest can ask questions or find out how to help out. Please for members of societies let us know a bit about your orginization, what it does etc. Post the web site for others to look at. Myself as the my web name may suggest I’m a member iof an Electric railway Museum in Canada, run by the Ontario Electrical Railway Historical Society. We’ve been at it for 50 years now and we restore and run the equipment for the public to enjoy. Have a peak at our web site for more info www.hcry.org Here’s an example of some of our groups efforts. These are the final (re)assembly of London (Ontario) Street railway open bench car #23 a 1901 vintage streetcar. Enjoy. Hope to hear from and see others work as well. 
Hey Rob! Good luck with your thread! [tup][:D]
As we both know, starting one is no problem - keeping going and on track is the challenge. Not a doubt that you’re up to it!
See ya! [swg]
Tom, Proprietor of “Our” Place, an adult eating & drinking establishment!
Hi Rob! Great idea for a thread! [:)]
My museum is the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois. I work with the Steam Team. Our current locomotive restoration project is the UP 428 Consolidation, built in 1900. It supposedly was the last UP locomotive that ran as a scheduled passenger train in 1958. The Steam Team has been working on it for more than 10 years so far.
The UP428
The cab has to be completely rebuilt
We’re also in the middle of adding a 51 foot extention to the steam shop, and making major progress on a drop table installation. I’ll keep you all updated!
Hi all,
more up tomorrow,
site for now…http://www.nmrhs.org/
gunns
Hey guy’s thanks for the inagural posts, hopefully there will be more comming. barndad we are also embarking in some museum improvements, most notably we are in the midst of finalizing the fund raising and construction of Barn #4 the Sir Adam Beck Centre. We have the new mainline conection laid and the yard switches for the new yard 4 are in. Hopefully the barn itself will begin to build this fall. It’s desparatly needed to get the rest of our fleet under cover before the weather makes the outside stored vehicles non-restorable.A sad note is that another rail museum nit far from us may soon be without a home. The Elgin County Museum in St Thomas Ontario is having it’s yard atracks torn up. They are in what’s left of the old Michigan Central shops. CN still owns the building and trackage and as it’s retired the museum soon may be without it’s historic home. Thye have a collection of Steam , diesel, and electric Traction equipment that will be hard pressed to find homes for if the worst happens. I will keep everyone posted.her’s a couple snaps of elgin count’y’s collection. Rob 
Hi Al,
Got a basket of pasterys from Tom’s Place, and a “Bullet” of Coffee in the Van.
Wends. July27,05
Sorry about the Hiatus, was vacation time .
Today saw much accomplished, with the Inspection of the valve seat for the emergency fuel shut off valve being the highlight.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abe
The inspection was accomplished with a viedio camera that was lowered in to the valve well and recorded for our records, the valve seat was found to be in undamaged condition and needs no servicing.
Also compleated was much of the prepretory painting for the reassembly of the tender, the exterior of the tender will be painted after reassembly, but all surfaces that will be inaccesable need painting now.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abg
The Foot plate,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abh
The front of the tender where the foot plate is mounted, and a look in to the Oil Bunker well.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abi
The Oil Bunker, note moved crib work and installed brackets for the wood dunnage that seperates the bunker from the water tank.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abj
The Tool Boxes that mount under the Tender sides, that will be remounted as the last part of the reassembly.
Also nearing compleation is the wood dunnage, which has recived its first linseed oil coating, and will get a secont coat then will be stacked until the assembly to prevent warpage.
In the Office cataloging and scanning of the Folio drawings continues, with the PDF files of the drawings and Maintence folio being made interactive with our “Parts removed, and location” forms. This allows us to remove a part and tag it <with a metal “Shoe Tag”> and also link it to the drawing and folio pages associated with the repair / restoration of that part.
Also the finshing touches were applied to the Hanger tha
Great stuff Kevin it’s wonderfull to see the dedication and devotion to preserving the past. Both Canada and the US owe much our countries development to the rail industry. I know with most museums vollenteers make up the bulk of the workforces so seeing anything rebuilt and running is a testament to people. Not uncommon to hear about 10 , 20 year restorations such as Doug has shown with the UP efforts by the steam shop guys in Chicago. Hats off to those of you rebuilding steam possibly no definatly the most time and fund consumming restorations.I know that our museum tends to work on several projects at once as most of the funding is donated speacificallu to the car in question therfore completion times will take a bit longer. This is going on alongside the regular maintenance and inspections of our everyday fleet of cars we use in our regular service during the operations at the museum. Inactually urge everyone to support your local rail museums or join if possible.As always please use this thread to share musuem exhibits/ information and those not members please ask questions of the museum people here. Thanks again Rob
Sat. 30 July 05
Lots of visitors to day,
Cut, set up, and started cutting the clapper of the bell.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abn
Cutting
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abq
Cutting
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abr
Close up
Out side we reinstalled the foot plate on the tender, welded wear plates on to the tender trucks, and applied another coat of linseed oil to the Dunnage that will seperate the oil bunker from the water tank. Also a Bolt that had resisted mightily was finally removed from the oil bunker fill door, and much paint was applyed to the underside of the tender.
Inside the Office copys of the drawings were numbered and placed in the ready rack, also the program that will keep track of parts removed was further refined. >>
Word has it that the bearing steel has arrived and will be avalible Wends… Lots of bearings on the way.
More to come,
Gunns
Hey Rob
Sorry I never got around to congradulating you until now. Having rode many of the TTC cars the PCCs and even the old Peter Witts I guess I can write to this column once in a while. As a boy I rode the trams of the BCER with my Grandparents from New Westminster to downtown Vancouver. My first trip on a streamliner was the great Northerns new 1947 Empire Builder in February the year of its inaugural. I think since that time I have had a lifelong love affair with rails and have ridden passenger trains and streetcars every opportunity I can. Guess that makes me a railfan. I am also a member of the California State Railroad Museum, Great Northern Railway Historical Society and Southern Pacific Historical Society.
I as you already know am writing several books about passenger trains with one at the publisher already and three more almost ready for the publisher. If I can answer any streamlined passenger car questions at any time feel free to ask.
Hi all. Thought you might like to see pics of our 504 interurban at IRM.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougsecrist/aae.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougsecrist/aaf.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougsecrist/aag.jpg
Doug
Hi All,
work day again to day,
Wends, Aug 3, 05
Today we assembled the bell and Rang it for the first time in 40 years.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abs?full=1
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abt?full=1
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acd?full=1
Where the bell lives
also work continues on the tender truck #4, the last brake Cyl mount has been removed and the springs removed.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/abz?full=1
Compleated brake rigging mount
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/aca?full=1
Freshly removed mount
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acb?full=1
Wear bearings and wear on the rocker arm
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acc?full=1
Broken Spring, the only one found so far. Also
also a few pictures,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/ace?full=1
Note 3 cylinders,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acf?full=1
Some of the drawings for the bell clapper
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acg?full=1
working on the infastructure
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/ach?full=1
Our whistle
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/aci?full=1
the brake cyilnder rebuild
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acj?full=1
a look in to the mud ring
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/ack?full=1
the spedometer…
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acl?full=1
Feed water injector
More to come
Gunns
Sat Aug 6 05
Busy today,
We had another saftey class, for new members, with 5 attending, the bell was cleaned and the inside painted, work started on the dunnage that goes between the oil tank and the water tank,
the original wood,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acn?full=1
The replacement
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acm?full=1
The #4 truck continues to recive attention, with the springs removed from the front right side and the wear plates welded in,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/aco?full=1
In the Machine shop tooling is being produced to allow the replacment of the bearings that are in the truck brake rigging,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acb?full=1
All in all things are going well,
more to come,
Gunns
Hi fellow restoration fans , just thought I would update the progress on Ex CPR Royal Hudson #2860 at our museum in Squamish BC Canada , We have started work in earnest on its return to steam , just recently the stainless boiler casing , the front smokebox door , various running board parts we all removed , then the superheater tubes were taken out and then all but 7 of the boiler tubes removed - now waiting for new ones to arrive. In the cab - the firebox door & surround ,all the firebox brickwork , regulator & brake stand together with all the gauges have been taken off - she looks a little naked but this is good news . Plans are for a return to steam next year – heres hoping … cheers
Here are a few shots of the preserved Cincinnati Car Co. curved side street car from 1923 at the Cincinnati Museum Center’s Local history museum. This is in the Cincinnati Street Railway livery of the times. Two other restored cars of this model are in the country. One is newly opened at a site in Marietta GA, this is another one from the Cincinnati Fleet. The other one is at the Seashore Museum in Kennebunkport ME from the Wheeling WVA fleet.
Wend. 10 Aug. 05
Finshed the last part for the bell, <A 3/8 inch thick 3in dia. washer>
pardon the color but it was bright out and my camera didnt like it…
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acs?full=1
Also we started using the ultra sound equipment to get a feel for what we can expect from it, our opperater used the same equipment for many years and the equipment worked as advertised.
also bearing replacment has begun, lots to do here, average of 32 bearings on the brake rigging need replacment per truck, and we have 2 of the 8 wheel buckeye trucks. Drawings and notebooks are being prepared to keep track of the work in progress.
Broken bearing above the site of the “bell crank” rocker that it goes to.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/act?full=1
In the office the copies of our drawings continue to be marked and rolled for use. This will preserve the orignals, and allow us to drag a drawing out to the work site.
more to come,
Gunns
Athelney, do you have pics to share of your restoration?
Gunns, did you want help heat treating your bearings?
barndad,
Thanks for the offer, the steel turns out to be a 1028, and has a relitivly normal heat treat, I’m going to try a few and see how we do. The club got me a pyrometer for the heat treat, my biggest worry about sending them out is keping track of the “which part goes where thing” But you can bet I’ll yell for help if I get in over my head.
thanks,
Gunns
Gunns, I’m sure you already know that there will be about a 20RC difference in hardness between 1028 and D2. Usually bearings have 58RC minimum hardness specified. Your 1028 will be able to do that if you have it carburized. IF not … expect hardness closer to 40RC. If you send me a piece of one of your broken bearings, I can cut it up and have a look to see what’s there. A “piece” would be at least a 1/2" section.
barndad sounds good I’ll talk to our CMO and see what he says. The bearings are really wear plates for the brakes, not constant friction surfaces, in our AT&SF folio the Spec calls for mild steel and case harding. I’ll let you know what they say…
Gunns
Sat Aug. 13 05
Today was the monthly progress meeting, after the meeting we went to work.
A frame was constructed to support the bell at open houses and displays.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acu?full=1
and needle scaling continued on truck #4, also on the tender trucks mesurments and a survey is being conducted to select the sleave bearings that need replacment.
On the tender the dunnage has been compleated and is now beeing attached to the oil bunker, or plased in its location on the water tank.
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acv?full=1
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acw?full=1
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acx?full=1
In the office the plans continue to be rolled and made avalible on our working plans storage area.
Last a photo of the Back head showing the ATS bracket, and also the spots where we tested the non-destructive testing equipment,
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kevinevans/acy?full=1
More to come,
Gunns