Tuesday Report

 Just another productive day in the old car shop.  Frank and I are mostly working on CA&E 451.

I've made the mortises for the bolts and attached a new casting for the next third rail assembly.  The casting will need to be machined, and we still need to make castings for the shoe and the swing links.

Meanwhile, most of the work on the 451 is concentrating on restoring the interior.  My particular task right now is to strip the interior doors so they can be repainted.  I started on this today, but it may take a while.

There are three layers of paint here: the final tan color is on top, under that is the original blue, and under that the white primer.  Since we will be restoring the 451 to its as-delivered condition, the interior will be restored to the light blue.

None of these layers is coming off easily.

But we'll keep at it.  Meanwhile, the pilot for the 306 is being rebuilt.  Many of the vertical pieces were badly damaged, and Gerry has removed all of the ones that need to be replaced.

New ones have been fabricated.

And here they are being painted.

Finally, here we see Tim doing the upholstery on the long bench seats.  This is not easy.

Many other things were going on, of course.  Ridership seemed to be quite good today.

Ron Seavers was running the 460 in revenue service.  And all of the customers seemed to be satisfied.  What more could you want?

Transport Extravaganza #35

Nothing succeeds like success, and our annual Transport Extravaganza was once again a real crowd pleaser.  Once again, I was too busy to get any good pictures of all the antique automobiles and other vehicles. Sorry!  

The three-car CA&E wood train was in operation again, and on almost every trip we really needed three cars. 

And here's our crew:  Myself as a trainman, Frank as motorman, and conductor Mike Rizzuto.

One highlight of the festivities was operation of the West Towns car:

It was certainly going direct to a zoo.

Say, did I ever tell you about the time a CA&E train wound up on the wrong track at Wheaton??

The Shay was very popular, as always.  It's also a magnet for photographers to stand directly in front of it as it approaches the station, which is naturally very aggravating for the crew.  I wish I had a good solution. 

But otherwise, everything seemed to be running smoothly.  What a great day!

News from the Steam Shop

 Buzz writes:

I happened by the Steam Shop Saturday and caught part of 1630's boiler rebuilding process. Steam team members led by Jeff are heating, then using a pneumatic hammer,  to press the boiler tube ends to the exact size needed to fit the end plates

Very impressive.  I would love to get more pictures of the Steam Team in action!

Thursday Brief

This report will be brief.  Fred Z. and Steve K. are making great progress on the wiring at the east end of the 306, and Gerry is welding the west end pilot together.  But I didn't get any pictures.

Meanwhile, I'm almost finished on the last two beams for the 451.  Gerry helped free up the bolts on one of the scrapers.  These will be the last ones we need, at least until work starts in earnest on the 453, and that's far in the future.  We now need to get the parts cast for three more shoes assemblies, however.

Tim continues rebuilding bench seats for the car with an identity problem.

And then, we're still working on arranging to have new leaf springs made for CA&E 36.  This is probably going to be expensive, more than $10,000 at least, so contributions to RCAEWOOD would be greatly appreciated.

Trivia Question:

    What do the following cars (and no others) have in common?   101, 309, 749, and 1100.

How to Spend Big Money on Railfanning

While visiting my wife's relatives in her hometown, I learned that one of the local controversies was the city's decision to spend something like $650,000 buying up some bottom land along the river to create a park, the sole attraction of which is the old C&EI trestle across the Kaskaskia River, still in use by the UP.  So I decided to get their money's worth by taking a few pictures for you.  We never saw anybody else using the park, and I hope you appreciate getting these expensive views for free!   

Tuesday Report

If you're getting bored with pictures of the same old third-rail beams, you're not alone.  So am I.  But these are the last ones for the foreseeable future, I promise you.  They're going to the 451, which is being restored for operation soon, as you may have read elsewhere.

Anyway, last week the new wood was jointed, cut, and glued.  On Tuesday it was crosscut to length, the notches were cut on the big bandsaw, and all the holes were drilled, as seen here.

In more exciting news, the famous Transport Extravaganza is coming up soon!  This is, we are told, the largest antique car show in Illinois, and it's right here at IRM next Sunday, August 2.  Among other attractions, the three-car CA&E wood train will be operating, probably the oldest operating cars in the show.  Be that as it may, I went over to 8 to fill up the oil in the compressors.  We still don't have trolley power in 8, so I wasn't able to test the brakes, but I'm sure it will be in operation.  Don't miss it, and tell your friends!

In Barn 8, I happened to run into my old friend Steve Smunt, who is continuing to make good progress on restoring the interior of the 277.  It can be lonely there, we can tell you.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the rear vestibule; taking pictures is difficult in such a confined space.  But he's doing a great job!

And then I checked the compressors, and all is well.  Be there on Sunday!

Jack continued working on the 109, and Gerry was welding up the pilots for the 306.  But I didn't get any pictures.  Tim, of course, continued his work on the 1268 -- here he is rebuilding the bench seats.

And last but not least, the third-rail beams got a first coat of primer on most surfaces.  Next will be preparing the shoe assemblies and scraper cylinders for installation.

And after that project is done, I'm sure there will be other things that need to be done.  There always are.

But you'll read about it here first, we promise!

Return to the 451

Frank writes…

It’s been a few months since we made any progress on the 451 - time-sensitive projects such as inspections, prepping the 321 for Villa Park, and public operations took precedence. But the 451 is still very much a priority.

Sunday was a slow day in the car shop, as several of the regulars were in Pullman working the IC MU exhibit there. The weather was also very hot and muggy. But I spent much of the afternoon needle-chipping in the 451. Above, the “before” picture of the #2 end of the main compartment.

And here’s the “after” photo. The odious job of needle- chipping the ceiling is now complete. Of course, we still need to finish needle-chipping the walls - that’s the next task - and wire-wheeling it all to get it ready for paint. Want to help? I've got good news! With temperatures as hot as they are, I got the okay to move the department's portable A/C unit into the 451. We can now cool down the interior of the car, to some degree anyway, making it one of the nicer places at IRM to work on a hot day. As far as you know. Anyway, if you think you might be interested in helping move the 451 project forward, drop me a line and I'll give you some specifics.

In other news, Richard, Brian, and Joel were out, and conducted some repairs to the overhead over at Electric Park. Joel was running the 431 for Take the Throttle trips while Mikey ran the 3142 and, later in the day, the 144 in regular service.

Back on Home Rails

Frank writes...

We come to you today not from Union, but rather from the Pullman neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. This weekend was Railroad Days in Pullman, and in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the electrification of the Illinois Central Railroad suburban line, there were some unusual festivities.

The highlight for me was that IRM sent the last surviving set of 1920s IC MU cars, motor car 1198 and matching trailer 1380, to Chicago to participate in the celebration. This was the first time these cars have left IRM grounds since they first arrived back in 1972, and a lot of planning and effort went into making it happen. The cars were on display at Millennium Park Station on Thursday, where there was a presentation made by the head of Metra, and their next time on display was this weekend in Pullman. After this weekend, they'll head back to Union. In the above photo, you can also see South Shore car 3, but more on that later.

My daughter and I drove down to Pullman to see the sights as visitors. The display cars were on the west side of the 111th Street platform of the Metra Electric line. It was really cool to see the IC MU cars back on home rails and in their element. Above, motor car 1198 was facing south in proper IC fashion. I think the last time an electric car from IRM's collection left the property was the "Ali" film shoot some 25 years ago; does that sound right?

NICTD, for its part, took their car 3 - part of the original order for Sumitomo interurban cars that replaced the old "orange cars" back in the early 1980s - and painted it back in as-delivered colors. This included broad orange and maroon stripes as well as fully lettered letterboards. The car looks very sharp!

Here's the inside of car 1198. The Railroad Days volunteers were bringing groups of attendees through the cars, while a few of our volunteers were there to talk about the IC MU cars and answer questions.

There were a bunch of these very nice exhibit boards displayed throughout the 1198.

Look who's escaped from IRM! It's Zach, in full IC uniform, and Nick, our current and erstwhile presidents, respectively.

Inside of South Shore 3, the railroad had removed half the seats and put up some nice exhibits. In one half of the car there were various "3-D" displays like this large steam engine model.

And then in the other half of the car were display boards about the South Shore, which of course was electrified at high-voltage AC prior to the IC electrification, but which changed to 1500V DC in the 1920s and began running over the IC into downtown Chicago to provide a one-seat ride from northern Indiana to Randolph Street.

There was also a very nice neighborhood fair-type setup in the park just east of the station, next to the Hotel Florence, where a variety of nonprofits had tents set up. And the CTA Historic Fleet even brought a fishbowl bus, on which they were giving rides. Steven, who volunteers regularly at IRM working on buses, has a "day job" with the CTA and was there helping the bus crew. My daughter and I dutifully went for a ride. I snapped the above photo of the interior, however I forgot to get an exterior of the bus. But you know what a bus looks like, you've seen them before.

Monday Mailbag

Now that Thomas is over until next year, it's time for some more pictures of progress in the car shop.

I bought the wood for two more third-rail beams and started putting them together.  These two will complete the set for the 451, and all of our CA&E cars will have a complete set except the 453, and that's far in the future. 

The woodworking seems to go faster each time, but for some reason the glue and paint don't dry any faster.  Maybe if I had a really big oven....

Be that as it may, a lot of progress is being made on the interior of the Michigan Electric 28, as seen here.

The front compartment is getting finished.

And then the smoker has been cleaned out.  As you can see, the floor is going to need some serious rebuilding.

And soon they plan to start unloading the main compartment.

Another important part of the Michigan Electric car is the Peter Smith coal stove, which will be located in the front compartment.  It's been nicely restored and repainted.

This stove came from a North Shore car, and the stove itself is correct, but the upper door was a North Shore type, which wouldn't be correct for Michigan Electric.

Luckily, we can replace it with a Peter Smith door, which will be historically accurate.  

Ah, much better!  Fritz just finished restoring it.

And by the way, Norm reports that good progress is being made on the next two volumes of his history of the Michigan Electric.  So that's something to really look forward to!

Across the walkway, the floor of the 1268 is being completed rapidly. 

And finally, among other things the 306 crew are continuing to rebuild the electrical system.  I didn't get a picture, but they were carefully checking the resistance of each grid element.

Measuring small resistance values is a real challenge, and if you'd like a lecture on this subject from a retired physicist, just let me know!

And as usual, many other things were going on at IRM that I didn't get a chance to cover.