Painting and Pouring

Frank writes...

I was at IRM on Saturday this weekend instead of the usual Sunday. There was a lot going on.

I spent a couple of hours in Barn 7 putting another coat of orange on car 63. This makes two, and in places three, coats on pretty much the entire car, except for parts of the doors and some other nooks and crannies I need to hit again with a brush.

That was the least of the painting news, though. Over in Yard 2, Jamie spent the entire day Friday spraying a coat of primer onto one of the bi-level cars we acquired back in January, helped by other Diesel Department volunteers. Saturday, he started with the green - this car will be painted as C&NW 83 and will match our existing three-car set of C&NW bi-levels.

The first photo was taken when I arrived, before green had started going on; when I left mid-afternoon, the car had the entire roof painted green and finish paint was going onto the sides rapidly. The museum really owes the Diesel Department volunteers a big thank you for all their work on this car (and also on the second of the new bi-levels, which is currently in the shop). It will allow us to add a lot more seats to the Happy Holiday Railway event.

And in yet more painting news, Zach was painting newly acquired bus wheels. Here he is after scuffing up the powder-coated wheels, applying masking tape.

In addition to painting, there was also pouring - concrete, that is! Dave and the B&G crew were hard at work pouring concrete around the Barn 4 addition. Here we see them at work outside the door adjacent to the inspection pit; in the background, Jamie is up on the roof of the bi-level applying green paint.

Later in the day, after the concrete pouring had concluded, I grabbed this shot of a paved sidewalk along the south edge of the new shop extension.

The B&G crew is also hoping to pave the new parking lot east of the Barn 4 extension sometime soon, and just before I left, Good Nick and Dan were using a small rubber-tire crane we recently acquired to move spare traction motors out of the way.

While I was passing through the "lean-three," I snapped a photo of some gorgeous refinished trim pieces for the 306.

And finally, Bill Wulfert brought out a fascinating artifact he is working on fixing up. It's a Chicago Rapid Transit coasting clock that at one time was assigned a 2700-series open-platform Metropolitan Elevated car. That spool to the right holds a roll of paper, and at the beginning of each run, a special key with the run number cast into it was inserted into a keyway in the cover. It would make an imprint on the paper and a figure for how much time the train had spent coasting was also imprinted. Hopefully Bill can provide more info, but basically, the coasting clock would advance when the train was moving but 1) the motors weren't running, and 2) the brakes weren't applied (there was a little pipe coming out of the brake cylinder that helped register this!). At the end of the run, the motorman would imprint that key and the coasting measurement again, advance the paper out the side of this box, tear it off, and submit it at the end of his shift. Pretty ingenious! Bill says that CRT 1797 still has most, or maybe all, of its under-floor equipment for making this whole system work.

In Memoriam - Jerry Kosinski

Longtime IRM member and South Shore aficionado Jerry Kosinski has died at the age of 74. Jerry was the longtime caretaker of South Shore 40, with which he is shown above, and rode the old "orange cars" often before they were retired. He was known as a big fan of Dixieland jazz and big band music, in particular the music of Bix Beiderbecke. Jerry was a knowledgeable and amiable presence at IRM, but in later years health problems mostly kept him away. He will be missed.

Steaming Into Fall

Frank writes...

This past weekend was our Steam Into Fall event marking the end of steam operation for the year, and fall finally seemed to have arrived, with clear skies and cool temperatures with highs around 60s. Time to paint!

I spent the entire afternoon rolling vermilion paint onto the 63 and managed to get the entire left side, top to bottom, and the top half of the right side (I'd already done the bottom half of the right side) painted with a second coat. The front and back ends still need a second coat, and as you can see the rear anticlimber still needs some primer and then paint, but it's looking better and better.

That said, second coats of paint aren't that fascinating or novel to look at. What else is going on?

When I drove in, I was presented with this gratifying sight: Swift mechanical reefer 25004, one of three of this design in the collection, was sand-blasted (I think?) and given a fresh coat of silver paint during the past week. This reefer is located close to Olson Road right behind the Buildings & Grounds building in a spot it has occupied, more or less continually, for at least 20 years. Back in the last millennium, almost nobody saw the equipment back here because road signs direct visitors up South Union Road to Jefferson Street, so they approach the museum from the north. But GPS often directs people in from the south via Coral Road, so their first impression of IRM is the buildings and equipment in the south yards. Fresh paint on this now-highly-visible reefer is a nice improvement.

As part of the Steam Into Fall festivities, Jeff had the cab of the UP rotary snow plow open for visitors.

Jeff is on the left, with a couple of visitors at top and right. Jeff said the cab tour was very popular all weekend and he hopes to bring it back for at least one or two events next year. Stay tuned!

Back in the Car Department, work was progressing on the end of North Shore 250, which is in the process of being restored as a display piece. Our friend Steve was visiting from Oklahoma; he and Mike were working on the Kansas City PCC, piecing in new steel at the bottom of the center post for the rear doors, where there was a lot of rust. Zach, Richard and Steven were working on bus-related things. Most of the crew - Nick, Greg, Joel, Jimmy, Ashton, Dan, and maybe others - were working on clearing spare parts from the area behind the shop. The hope is that the piles of rock will be appropriately distributed, and the volunteer lot paved, before the snow flies.

Finally, after dark, we got to see the 1630 returning from its final trips of the year. Here, it's stopped alongside the diner while the crew chats with Greg and Joel before pulling into the steam servicing area.

Shuffling the Deck

Bill Wulfert sends us pictures of a recent switch move in Barn 4.  The 1808 was moved from track 43 to 42, and the 1268 is now on the west end with 1808 behind it on the east.

277 Progress Report

More updates from Gregg on the 277.  He has recruited another couple of members to work on finishing the restoration of the main compartment.  That's good news!

A few weeks ago, the center door was reinstalled. The seat bases were also cleaned up and painted silver like all the other hardware in the car.

Today the left side of the passenger compartment was disassembled. Paul H. and Steve will be restoring this area a little bit at a time. The seats were removed to make it easier to work around. As you can see the original stained glass is still in the car.

The area where the two seats were. The four window sash are being restored also.

Sunday Night on WGN

Our good friend Art Peterson has sent us some good news: he will be appearing on WGN's program "Backstory" this Sunday, October 6th, at 11pm. The subject of the episode will be nostalgia, of course a subject near to our hearts, and they'll be featuring Art and his collection. The episode will also be available on WGN's website starting the following day. Don't miss it!

You're Invited

...to the 13th Annual Steam Department Benefit! This is a unique and unforgettable event at a stunning venue, plus the proceeds go to help steam restoration and maintenance at IRM, of course. Click here for more info and to purchase tickets.

We Come Bearing News

It took about a year, but the brass foundry has just completed the three sets of motor bearings we need to finish replacing the ones on the 309's #1 truck.  They've already been delivered to the machine shop that will be doing the necessary machining, the same place that did the first one.  The first one was installed earlier this year and tested; it runs fine, not measurably hotter than the old ones.

We would hope the replacement process will go much faster this time.  If we can get the 309 over the pit for a day this fall, it should be possible to replace these three bearings at the same time.

There are other operating cars at IRM that could use new motor bearings, so the ability to make new ones is a good skill to have.  We have a lot of old bearings in storage, but they're usually more worn out than the ones in service.

Vermilion and Ivory

Frank writes...

I wasn't able to get out to IRM until 5pm on Sunday, at which point the rain that had been falling all day was just letting up and operations had ended. Fortunately, I still had enough time to get some work done.

Above, welcome to Track 73, or as it's currently known, the "Frank Hicks Hall of Broom Jobs." With the 205, 63, and 18 all on this track, plus the 755 right across the aisle on 74, it's quite the tableau of mediocrity. But anyway, I painted a coat of dark ivory onto the 63's belt rail before dinner and then after dinner I put a second coat of vermilion on the right side of the car below the belt rail. The ivory color looks pretty sharp with the orange. I also measured the back-to-back on the 18's wheels (Will and Ashton helped with this) so our indefatigable Track Department volunteers can look at the South Junction switch and see if adjustments can be made to help our favorite center-entrance streetcar track through there better.

In other news, the center and west portions of the car shop were cleaned out for Arnfest, which is happening next weekend. This resulted in the palletized items shown here being moved out into the new Barn 4 extension. Thanks to Nick and Greg for working with me to move some spare parts around. Hey, anyone have 2x4's they don't need? We could use them to build heavy-duty shelves. Inquire within!

And Bus Day was over, but Richard and Joel showed me the above "punch card," which I thought was a nifty idea. I guess they've been doing this for a couple of years, but I am rarely out on Saturdays so I hadn't encountered it before.

Bill Wulfert's Bus Day Bash

 Luckily, I have friends who can usually provide pictures of anything I missed -- in this case, Bus Day!

The 972 has structural problems which need to be fixed before it can be used in regular service again, but if you don't go very far very fast, it's OK.

Thus, here we can have the best of old Milwaukee transit on display:

So thanks, Bill!

Saturday Snapshot

Operations on Saturday went well.  I was the motorman on the 309-319, and was too busy to get many pictures, so you'll have to be satisfied with these three.  The 1630 was pulling the heavyweight coach train as usual, a real crowd pleaser.

Then the Rock Island Geep was pulling a very authentic-looking freight train with several tank cars, a hopper, and a single caboose.  I wanted to get a picture of it, but the schedule just didn't work out.  Duty first!  The 3142 and 4391 were providing streetcar service.

Two wood L cars were in operation, and here's motorman Zach:

Finally, the 309 and 319 were running again.  My conductor was a new volunteer, Drew Beveridge, who came all the way from Indiana to help out.  Everything went well.

  Later, he switched over to the L cars and Bob Kersey helped me put the train away.  Andrew Ossler was the dispatcher and kept everything running smoothly.   A good time was had by all!

More 277 Progress

 Gregg Wolfersheim sends us some more pictures of his impressive work on the interior of the 277:

The combine's baggage compartment looking to the rear. About 95% done.

Looking towards the front.

The divider door getting painted.