Wabash Business Car #6 Comes to the Monticello Railway Museum. Updates.

[illinoiscentral]

Hello Community,

After years of negotiations, Wabash Business Car #6 finally found a home at the Monticello Railway Museum.
This car came to the museum earlier this month riding on a KTTX flat car and was then placed on it's own wheels at the museum where to is being stored in our Camp Creek Yard Car Barn.
There is plans to restore #6 to it's original appearance and it will be part of the Wabash passenger train the museum is gradually constructing.
Unfortantly, the website has not been updated therefore no pictures of it are there.

In other news, Southern 2-8-0 #401 is in the final cosmetic and mechanical stages and is targeted to be running a part time basis by the third quarter of 2010. We have been working on her since 1995 and have owned her since 1971.

Illinois Central SD40 #6071... has still not arrived on the property, the museum is trying to get money to transport it to the museum via Norfolk Southern.

A big thanks to any of you who may have come out for Polar Express, it was a huge success leading to some developing news...

It is not official, but our third IC Coach, Illinois Central #2855 could possibly enter restoration for needed capacity on trains such as the Fireworks Special and Polar Express.

Illinois Central Diner #4112 is coming along very nicely.
Restoration is both cosmetic and mechanical, when completed it will once again be a functioning dining car.


I hope you have enjoyed these updates and please feel free to reply with any suggestions for the museum, any comments are appreciated.
We hope you'll visit us sometime!:wave:



Woody

 

[illinoiscentral]

Pictures of Southern 401 Progress.

Here are some pictures of 401's progress...

Fuel Tank:

Primer:

Numbers n' Letters:

Painted:

In true fashion:

Chug a Chugga:

More to Come...

 

[illinoiscentral]

Continued...

Let there be air:

Blowin' Steam:

Boiler Insulation:

Side Valves:

The End.



Cheers,
Woody:wave:

 

[gericat]

WOW!

Live steam...... MMMMMMMMM!!!

your in Monticello IL right? I'M in Decatur IL. I drive by there all the time, on my way to Urbana. I need to stop by there sometime.looks like you have a metal shop there. Do you'all, do your own work or do you farm it out.

 

[illinoiscentral]

Hello Gericat,

We do pretty much all our work there at the shop, by our own all-volunteer shop forces.
The only things we hire out are severe brush clearing, and we had 401's boiler built in St. Louis.

I'm familiar with the area, spent 10 of my 15 years living in Tuscola, right down US 36 from you.

The museum is all volunteer and has of 60 pieces of rolling stock and locomotives.
I hope you can stop by sometime!
We run the train from May through October.

Give me a private message and I'll get back to you no later than Wednesday if you would like some history and information on the museum.


Woody:wave:

 

[UP5521]

great job with the 401's restoration so far and for obtaining the Wabash business car!

 

[motorbreath]

Woodrow, that's really cool that you get to have some hands on experience with the old trains. Being a bit of a gear head, I'm quite envious.

 

[illinoiscentral]

Many thanks for the congrats 5521.


Motorbreath,

It has really been a pleasure working on the museum's stuff.
Although I'm pretty much in train service as a car attendant, I've helped paint our 50' Illinois Central boxcar, helped install an air hose and washed three of our locomotives.
I can never thank the people out there for their patience and encouragement, in a crowd of a billion other people, my friends at MRM stand out, boldly.
Their guidance has, and will help me in the future.


Cheers,
Woody:wave:

 

[SR6900]

It'll be nice having all these Southern Railway steamers trotting around again. Joining H-4 401 next year in their return under steam will be Southern Ks-1 630, here in Chattanooga, and G 154, in Knoxville. All are Consolidations. I think it'll have been 12 years since one's run, the last being Ms 2-8-2 4501, in 1998.

 

[UP5521]

It'll be nice having all these Southern Railway steamers trotting around again. Joining H-4 401 next year in their return under steam will be Southern Ks-1 630, here in Chattanooga, and G 154, in Knoxville. All are Consolidations. I think it'll have been 12 years since one's run, the last being Ms 2-8-2 4501, in 1998.

I agree!

 

[UP5521]

the locomotive & its tender looks good from what I'm looking at, I'm sure you and the others would be proud of the work that went into it and to to tell you the truth,I would be too and by the way, do you know the amount of oil she burns in her firebox because I did not know if she burned oil until after I saw the oil tank in the picture!

 

[illinoiscentral]

SR6900,

What pleasing news!
It is so exciting to here that Three River Rambler got that engine up and going again, they have a nice set up over there.
I'm very pleased to hear that #630 is steaming again, that will be very nice to see, I'll have to make plans to come down and see it.
If only the funds were there for 4501, gosh she is a beautiful locomotive and so graceful too.

UP5521,
I'm not quite sure what the exact capacity is on the tank, I'm sorry.

Here are some more pictures of it since there seems to be interest, these are older;

Just two years after the startup of the Monticello Railway Museum, Southern 401 was a part of it. 401 rests on a flat car in Decatur, Illinois.

We then began to dis-assemble the locomotive, jumping ahead to 1995.

401's wheels rest in the building where it's now Norfolk Southern brethern rest, in Birmingham Alabama.
NS re-built the wheels here, 401 is home.

Here you see the restoration beginning.

There's the new boiler in St. Louis.

It fits!

A new cab is built.

Taking Shape.

The tender pre-restoration.




Cheers,
Woody:wave:

 

[illinoiscentral]

Continued...

Here we see the 401 crew re-building the Tender frame.

The new tender frame, ready to be turned over.

What better way to turn it over?

Assembled and painted.

And now it gets it's tank built.

 

[UP5521]

Thats alright,I understand,thanks!

 

[SR6900]

SR6900,

What pleasing news!
It is so exciting to here that Three River Rambler got that engine up and going again, they have a nice set up over there.
I'm very pleased to hear that #630 is steaming again, that will be very nice to see, I'll have to make plans to come down and see it.
If only the funds were there for 4501, gosh she is a beautiful locomotive and so graceful too.

Neither are running, yet. 630 still has to be flued and needs a tender. Most of the running gear's back on.

154 's status can be found at www.southern154.com

 

[illinoiscentral]

Oh, okay.
Thanks for the correction.

 

[nikos1]

Good to hear you guys got 6071, glad it will be going somewhere where it can run and not just stuffed and mounted, hope you guys paint it GM&O red and white, that would look real sharp! Some other really nice work too.

 

[dh2k3]

I've been to Monticello before but where does the museum hook up to the railroad (ie UP, BNSF, etc. track)? Isn't it true that you have a model railroad display inside a boxcar?

 

[illinoiscentral]

Hello dh2k3 and Nikos,

I'll do my best to answer your questions.
First off, MRM connects to Norfolk Southern's ex-Wabash Chicago Line in downtown Monticello.
If you have been to the downtown depot, you may have seen a black overpass to the west of the depot down the tracks behind Viobin USA.
There is a wye that leads off a switch next to Hardee's and runs through the Viobin complex over to the grain elevator.
The othe side runs from the elevator to the bridge.

Concerning IC #6071, There is much debate on the final paint scheme it will receive, our chief mechanical officer is pushing for Electro-Motive Demonstrator paint because 6071 was originally the EMD SD40 Demonstrator.
However, our President (MRM not Obama:hehe is a huge fan of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, he also owns GM&O caboose 2954.
He wants it painted as GM&O 950.

Where do I stand?
I go with GM&O all the way, personally, I don't care if it stays IC black.

The traction motors are off therefore it does not run, worse, CN kept them and we don't have any to replace them with.

But it is our plans to return her to operation, better yet she serves a purpose!
We need the SD40 to haul our growing number of storage cars, we are beginning to get many and they are too heavy for our GP11 and F7.
6071 is vital to our collection.

Oh, and yes we do have model railroad which two good friends of mine built and operate on special events.
I also run it on Railroad Days.
It is located in Illinois Central RPO #404 on the display line north of the Nelson's Crossing Depot.



Cheers,
Woody:wave:

 

[UP5521]

Good to hear you guys got 6071, glad it will be going somewhere where it can run and not just stuffed and mounted, hope you guys paint it GM&O red and white, that would look real sharp! Some other really nice work too.

I agree!