A Beautiful Day Along Van Aken Boulevard

Frank writes...

Saturday of Trolley Weekend saw spectacular weather in the mid-70s and what seemed like a pretty big crowd. Various unusual consists and pieces of equipment were in operation.

My job for the day was an enjoyable one: running the 18 during its first foray into revenue operation in nearly two years. The track adjustments at South Junction that were put into effect a few weeks ago had their intended effect, and the car ran all day without a hitch. I took the above photo while my motorman, Charlie Voyda, was giving a car talk at Electric Park. We even had some riders from Shaker Heights itself, who live within sight of the rapid transit line and were quite surprised to see a car signed for Van Aken Boulevard.

I really didn't get a chance to take any photos because we didn't stop all day. There were just two cars on the streetcar line, us and the D13, and they were boarding at Central Avenue - using some very tall metal stairs - and then running "express" around the car line to unload back at Central. As such, for all the other streetcar stops, we were the only car all day. This worked out pretty well, as it turned out - we had fairly heavy loads on most trips, including a couple where we were really packed. The D13 would load at Central and start moving when we got to Barn 9, then we'd depart Central by the time they returned.

The D13 was very popular, no doubt - it's not often you get a "fully open-air" ride around the streetcar line! Nathan, Mikey, and their crew put picnic tables in the dump section for people to sit at, and this seems like it worked great. Hey, you know, Hops Aboard is coming up in August...

In addition to the 18 and D13 on the car line, CTA 2243-2244 - which also haven't seen much revenue operation recently - were in shuttle service running out of the 50th Avenue west track. I didn't get any photos, but on the main line, there was a three-car North Shore train consisting of the 251, 714, and 749; the caboose train, hauled by Charles City Western 300, recently back in operation; the coach train, pulled by ComEd 4; and North Shore "MD car" 229, which was carrying riders in the center freight section.

Finally, apropos of nothing, but we get all kinds of interesting things donated. This fiberglass "engine" (of sorts) recently showed up, courtesy of a generous donor. Whether it makes a future appearance on the IRM playground - either with or without its current weird animal-themed livery - remains to be seen. Anyone know what that logo on the front is?

WANTED - M15 Brake Handle

Calling all collectors! IRM is looking for WABCO M15 brake handles, of the type shown above, so that we have a spare or two in case we need one. These are typically solid cast iron, and you'll note that the D-shaped hole for the stem is at a 90-degree angle compared with the more common M22/M23 handle. If you're interested in trading, selling, or donating an M15 handle, please drop us a line!

Simms Collection -- Texas Electric

None of the pictures in the Texas Electric folder have any information on the back.  Almost all seem to be fan trip photos.  The last image here, though, is a postcard sent to Al Simms, so we have an exact date it was sent.  And the 360 is basically the only car which has been preserved in good condition.

And last but not least, a penny postcard:

Thursday News

Another newsworthy day in the Barn 4 carshop.  And as usual, this is only a small sample of all the activity. 

I've pretty much finished work on the current crop of third-rail beams.  These two go to the 319, on what is currently the south side.  #2 is seen here from the back; I finished attaching the various parts to hold the fuses in place, and painted everything black that still needed it.  

And this is what they look like from the front.  They are just too heavy for us old guys to transport over to Barn 8.

Meanwhile, Jack was hard at work all day making new door and window frames for the UP doodlebug.  He does excellent work.  Even when the boss isn't paying attention.  :)

On the other hand, this is what can happen when you get the IRM bigwigs angry at you.  Steve Keller is trapped in a diabolical torture chamber.  Fred tries to sneak him some food when he thinks nobody's looking.

Actually, of course, they're installing the rebuilt pilot on the 306, and making necessary adjustments to the door mechanism and brake piping under the vestibule floor.  

Finally, Tim is installing seat frames one by one, and they're all different although not labeled.

This one is located over the triple valve and brake cutout.  There's a similar arrangement in the 309.

Another ongoing project is getting new leaf springs made for the 36.  We want them to be as identical as possible to the originals, such as this one:

So I made a crate of the correct size, and the spring seen above has been shipped off to a company that specializes in this sort of thing for reproduction.  We'll let you know as the project moves along.

IRM will be very busy this weekend with lots of interesting trains operating, so don't miss it!

A New Home for the 321

We have big news about our CA&E collection. Car 321, which has been owned by IRM since it was purchased from the railroad in 1962, will be leaving for greener pastures. The car has been deaccessioned and donated to the Village of Villa Park, which will be putting it on display next to the original CA&E Ardmore station. Formal arrangements have only recently been finalized, which is why we haven't posted about this earlier. The car is scheduled to be moved soon, but the date hasn't been set.

CA&E 321 in 2009

Why is the 321 going to Villa Park? The reason is that we firmly believe it is in the best interest of the car, and of historic preservation and education overall. In Villa Park, the car will be housed under a specially build shelter and will be cosmetically restored. It will be seen by tens of thousands of people a year - and will be located on "home rails," so to speak, the only Chicago-area interurban car to be preserved where it ran every day in service. In contrast, at IRM, the car would likely just sit forever in a closed-off barn. It is a duplicate in the collection, it's incomplete, and its body is in very poor shape. It would likely take north of $1 million to restore the car, and there are dozens of other pieces in the collection that even we CA&E fans say would be better uses for funding at that level.

The Villa Park proposal includes a shelter for the 321 patterned loosely after this one.

We've also kept in mind that the 321 was originally purchased from the railroad by IRM members, not by the museum itself. It was donated to IRM for the purpose of being a parts source for other cars - chiefly the Milwaukee Electric interurban cars. The 321 already contributed its trucks and motors to the 319 back in 2010 (this also permitted us to put the 409 into service), and since it will be a static display piece in Villa Park, our volunteers have removed other electrical and mechanical components for use in the restoration and maintenance of our fleet. Besides being beneficial to our collection without impacting the 321's future use, this also aligns with the aims of the car's original donors.

The car has been in Barn 4 for the past few weeks for removal of electrical equipment and preparation for transportation off-site.

We realize not everyone will agree with sending the 321 to Villa Park, but we hope that even the skeptics will give the folks there a chance. We paid a visit to the 321's future display site, where the village has already built a short piece of track right next to the Ardmore station. It's a very nice area, with a bandshell a few feet to the west, a new condo building down the block, and a busy meadery across the street (I didn't know what that was, but it's like a winery, but for mead - you learn something new every day!). And, of course, there's the bike path on the old CA&E alignment. There are other cities, from Lynwood, Washington, to Corsicana, Texas, that have had interurban cars on display under shelters like this for decades. We hope that the 321 will prove even more popular and visible than the cars in those locales.

Tuesday Projects

Just a sample of what was happening on Tuesday:

I believe I have pretty much finished up the third-rail beam project for the time being.  The two currently on the bench can be installed on the 319, and that should take care of all our operating cars.  The 453 will eventually need a set, but that's far in the future.

I attached the scraper onto #2, nailed down the pentagons, and painted everything black.  They're both ready for service.

I also did some work on the CA&E service cars, but DC is temporarily unavailable in 8, so there were several things I was unable to do.  I'm hoping that gets resolved soon.

Meanwhile, Jack was working all day on woodwork for the doodlebug.  He made several of these parts using maple blocks left over from the third rail project!

Work continued on the 306: John was testing electrical parts, Gerry was doing body and fender work on the pilots, and Phil was working on the interior.  Tim, of course, was installing and adjusting the clerestory windows on the 268.

And then, Steve Smunt is doing a great job on the interior of the 277.  These are sort of action shots of him rolling new paint in the rear vestibule and the heater section.  It looks great!

And of course, there were several other things going on.

Simms Collection - Arkansas Valley Interurban

The Arkansas Valley Interurban operated between Wichita and Hutchinson in Kansas, and has an interesting history as told by Hilton & Due.  Passenger service ended in 1938, but freight service continued until 1942, when the rails were requisitioned for a wartime scrap drive.

None of these pictures have any information, except for the location of #202.

#2

#2

#12

#202
Oak Valley

Soggy Sunday

Frank writes…

Sunday was a productive day despite a light rain that fell constantly from noon onward.

I divided my time between a handful of small projects. First up was installing the last two third rail beams on the 409. These were completed by my father a couple of months ago, and they've been sitting alongside the 451 in Barn 4 awaiting installation. They're "summer" beams, so I was able to install them myself because the lack of sleet scraper equipment means they're about half the weight of the "fully equipped" beams.

The bolt heads as well as the fuse clips on one of the beams still need to be primed and painted, but there's no tremendous rush on that. All three of our regular service steel cars now have a full set of third rail beams (though admittedly the 409 is out of service at the moment for air compressor work).

I also sprayed the bolt heads on the new beams on the 460 black, as shown here - it may not be obvious, but that's the point! And there were a couple of other things I worked on that I failed to get any photos of. I did some inspection work on the 18, checking out the air compressor among other things. WANTED: a conductor for the 18 for this coming Saturday, June 27th, during Trolley Weekend. C'mon, you know you've always wanted to be a conductor on the Shaker Heights line! Go to VSP and sign up today!

I also spent a while working on fixing up a couple of spare air tanks for our spare parts supply - thank you to Zach for his help with this. There was plenty of work being done around the shop. Nick was working on inspecting the CTA 2200s; Tim was working on the 268; Jimmy was working on diagnosing the issues with the 600V power supply into Barn 8; Brian was working on air brake stuff; Richard and Steven were working on rebuilding a trolley catcher for Veracruz 19 that will replace the retriever currently on the car; and Zach was conducting line training. Joel and Steven also had a rare opportunity: a man who spent his childhood living in Fort Wayne-Lima 91, back when it was a house, came out to visit along with his kids and grandkids. The family toured the car, which is located in Barn 13, while Joel and Steven spoke with them and recorded some of their reminiscences. We hope to be able to publish some of this material in the future.

Busy Saturday

Saturday was one of the busiest days at IRM that I can remember, apart from special events such as Thomas or Vintage Transport.  And as luck would have it, there were some problems with the signal system early in the morning, which could have made efficient operation impossible, but these were fixed by the rapid response of our Signal Dept. experts.  Thanks, guys!  The Shay was pulling the usual coach/caboose train, the 6976 pulled the heavyweight special during the morning, there were Take the Throttle trips running, and the CA&E steel cars held down regular passenger service.  Am I missing anything?

Here we see a lineup of main-line power.

The Shay passing the heavyweight special.

The CA&E steel car train was busy all day.

For our first trip, we had a large group out from Chicago, and it was standing room only in both cars.  That's pretty unusual at IRM, but just the way it was at rush hour on the CA&E!

Our crew for the first half of the day: myself and Jeff.  Michael Miller, a newer volunteer, was the trainman all day.  Later in the day, Marcus Ray took over as conductor.  They did a great job, by the way.  We were busy, and had little time to get together for a second crew shot.  So being in a hurry, I handed my phone to a man who had never used a cell phone as a camera before, and the result was a series of pictures with his finger covering our faces.  Maybe we'll have better luck next time.  :)

Thursday Car Shop News

Thursday was another productive day at the Museum.

Brand new third-rail beams have been installed on the 460.  A couple of them still had the fuses unattached at one end, so they were sort of waving in the breeze, and might pose a hazard.  I was asked to fix that, as seen here.

Work continued on the 319's beams.  #1 got its sleet scraper attached, and #2 got its shoe assembly installed.  

Then there was more painting to do.   Yeah, I know, you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

But you haven't seen this before: Jack is building a new vestibule door for the UP doodlebug.  On the table, it looks very short and fat, but that's because it opens over the stepwell.  And of course the doodlebug isn't designed for loading from high-level platforms like our L-compatible cars.

My next priority is to get new springs made for the 36.  Here's the crate I made at home, which is custom fit to a single leaf spring and will be shipped to the manufacturer as the guide to making new ones.

Out in the shop, the 306 crew (in this case, Fred and Gerry) were working on pilots.  They need some body and fender work.

The east end control stand is essentially finished and in its original configuration -- something nobody has seen for about 90 years.

Work continues at the west end of the car.

And last but not least, Tim is making sure all of the clerestory windows open and close properly.