Hi, all:

I thought you might be interested in seeing photos of the ongoing restoration (rebuild?) of our 1896 Crossen business car, CPR # 23. There's a long way to go, but considerable progress has been made and the car is once again recognizable.

Ross Robinson is leading the effort, supported by Brian Kelsey, Doug Kolish, and others.

As you can likely guess, this fine car was reduced to a pile of rotten wood before we acquired her, and a massive amount of the car's structure is being replaced. The car has lived in our carshop for the past 15 years, drying out and being dissected as details of its construction were recorded. The car was so weak, its roof had to be supported from the shop's structure for much of this time, for fear the body would collapse.

The interior woodwork and window sash fared much better, with considerable original fabric in reasonable shape. Most of the steel and ironwork has survived intact, though many small fittings have been fabricated to replace weakened originals.

Two weeks ago, the car was cut free from the carshop structure, and it's expected it will be rolled outside in a month or so to perform some work that cannot be done indoors due to clearance issues.

It's hoped that the body will receive new siding late this year, after the framing, and window frames are completed.

http://elliottd.fotki.com/sfrmeo/sfrmeo6/

Enjoy!

Steve Hunter
SFRMEO

http://www.sfrmeo.ca/
http://elliottd.fotki.com/sfrmeo

The work is very impressive and you have earned all the compliments you can garner. A few questions. Where do you find the replacement hardwoods for the framing, in the species and dimensions to replicate the original members? Maybe Canada is easier for that, but in Illinois it is becoming more and more difficult for some woods, especially white oak.

Thanks

Bob Kutella

Hi, Bob:

The gent in charge of 23's restoration, Ross Robinson, is a great scrounger and a highly skilled woodworker. He's found quite a few logs of relatively rare species for special applications, and has a friend with a sawmill. He's called in many favours in locating what he needs. If we were paying market value for this lumber, the cost would be astronomical.

I have visions of Ross running the roads after every thunderstorm, looking for large fallen trees!

It probably is a bit easier to find these things in Canada, but even here large dimensional lumber is hard to come by.

Thanks for your kind comments, I'll pass them on to the team!

Steve

ROGER on Ross Robinson being a master restorer of Car 23 in Smith Falls
ON. He has also done remarkable things at NMST in Ottawa ON on car
27 and the CP caboose, plus other projects at the museum. Ross is
also into old time musical organs at Refrew ON.

Right now Ross is here in La Porte IN helping out at HVRM North Judson
IN, working on about 6 projects. GTW transfer caboose, D&RGW passenger car, B&LE caboose, CSS flat car and MDT reefer car. We have
set up a trailer with all the necessary tools, welder, air compressor,
generator and what ever else we can get on the trailer. Using the shop
facilities to the utmost also. Was very hot heavy work yesterday, but
today should go better. Me and Ross and Les Beckman are working with
Ross in a short window to get all these projects done as quickly as possible. So getting a lot done in a short period of time. My KUDOS to
Ross for his dedication to preservation of rail equipment, who volunteers
thousands of hours of his time both here and in Ottawa ON. Last summer
Ross came from Ottawa to work on WCHX 1114 tank car and has got
all the steel work completed in a 2 week period. It is under restoration
still, but the tank has been painted and lettering has been applied. Waiting
to do some truck work that involves jacking up the car and dissassembling the truck. Again Ross is always ready to jump into almost
any rail project with both feet

Tom Travis Restoration HVRM North Judson IN

You might have luck looking for replacement wood by finding a company that recovers sunken logs. In areas where logging was/is a industry many logs have been in the water for years and not worth the lumber company time or money. A few companies now specialize in recovering this material as some types of lumber just can not be found. If found, you could take the log whole and process yourself thus saving the finding company money. A nice sign in the interior of the car giving notice to all that the company donated the wood might be nice.

Very nice work. I find it surprising that the roof looks intact, but virtually every post needs replacement. Someone must have spent a lot of effort keeping the roof weather tight, but the water still infiltrated at the belt rail. It just shows the validity of Strasburg's method of "cocooning" a wood car for storage.

Hi, Dennis:

We acquired the car from Toronto & York Division CRHA, who in turn acquired it from the National Museum of Science & Technology in Ottawa. NMST had attempted to protect the car by covering the car sides with plywood and maintaining the roof.

This didn't work well!

The plywood didn't allow the sides to breathe, and when the canvas roof failed, there was nowhere for the water and humidity to go.

By the time we acquired the car, virtuallu every stick of wood in the sides and floor was beyond saving. The interior furnishings fared better. You're right about the roof- it was the strongest part left of the car!

This is a good lesson to those trying to protect a car- allow it to breathe!

Car 23 served as Smiths Falls Subdivision superintendent Ray Towle's transportation near the end of its career, so it had sufficient local significance to be preserved despite the effort and cost. It is one of very few surviving Crossen- built cars surviving.

Steve

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Very nice work. I find it surprising that the roof looks intact, but virtually every post needs replacement. Someone must have spent a lot of effort keeping the roof weather tight, but the water still infiltrated at the belt rail. It just shows the validity of Strasburg's method of "cocooning" a wood car for storage.