Pneumatic News

Thanks to our Pneumatics Bureau Chief, Brian LaKemper, who has sent in an update of work performed this past weekend in the Electric Car Shop's air brake section.

Less air brake work was done this weekend due to the marathon of switching, but I managed to get one more S-16 complete and ready for testing. This one was just waiting for its electrical "box" to be built, seen here before and after installation on the body.

Mikey also did some quality assurance on one of 1374s newly rebuilt straight air valves, but I neglected to get a photo. Similarly Will continued cleaning up the form-a-gasket S-16.

Meanwhile, Saturday night we needed to relocate the CLRV wheelset that had been on track 41. The forklift and straps made a relatively easy job of this task.

S-105 and the 1129 are seen in their new home in Barn 13, although not quite in their final positions. The switching will continue.

The shuttle from Cold Springs Shops is shown waiting at Car Line Junction with L10 and B48 recovered from the land without wire and heading to Barns 6 and 7 respectively.

Tuesday Brief

Hardly a day goes by without notable progress in the Car Dept., and I can only catch a little of it.  Here's part of what was happening on Tuesday.

Over in Barn 8, Steve Smunt and Paul Hough are making great progress on the interior of the 277.  The main compartment is essentially finished, and they're now working on the vestibule.

Here Steve is stripping paint on the door frame.  Finding a good camera angle is not easy.

There are a couple of window shades and other details that still need repair in the main compartment, but it looks great.

Steve Iversen continues working on the Kansas City PCC.  There's an awful lot of rusted metal to be repaired.  But he doesn't give up.

I don't want to keep making third rail beams for another year, so maybe it will go faster if I can do them two at a time.  

Gerry and Steve K. were working again on the air piping for the 306, and it's nearly done.  

The plumbing on this car was drastically changed by Shaker Heights, but after a lot of work they finally have it back the way it must have been on the Fox River.  So this is a huge accomplishment.

Simms Collection -- South Shore

Much of the South Shore collection is unlabeled, but most of it is pretty obvious.  Captions below the photos are taken from the back of the prints unless otherwise noted. 

Mar 19, 1939   CSS&SB + Gary Ry safety

Pullman train with 17 cars

(RH: I take it this is a fan trip?)

#401

#1012

(RH: Appears to be southbound at Kensington)

S. Shore #503 Ex. Indiana RR #377
(At one time our 504 would have looked like this)

(RH: I take it this is at the shops?)

(RH: Fan trip train at Van Buren.
Note ad on the left for North Western streamliners to California!)

#222  at South Bend  Jul. 12,'38
Hauls Sunday papers from Chicago

Sunday Progress Report

Frank writes...

Most of the department spent all of Saturday and most of Sunday switching, and we've got more on that below. For my part, I worked with various other volunteers to make progress on a few of our CA&E (and other) cars. Apologies in advance if I've forgotten anyone's name!

These aren't in chronological order, but the most notable step forward was probably the progress on the last third rail beam for the 460. Greg, Jimmy, and I went over to Barn 6, picked up the third rail beam, measured the correct end-to-end hole spacing, and brought the beam back to the car shop. Here it is after Greg set us up to drill new holes on the drill press. (I should also mention that this was made possible by Joel installing dowels in the old holes last week.) This project went smoothly, so we took the beam back over to Barn 6 just before dinnertime.

After dinner, Greg, Nick, and I installed the beam on the car. Voila, the 460 has a complete set of third rail beams, I believe for the first time since it left Wheaton in 1962.

Over on the CA&E wood car fleet, during the afternoon, Zach, Ashtin, Will, and I removed the pilot from the 36. We put the pilot along the barn wall and also moved the third rail beams from the trailer truck out of the way. We hope to pull the trailer truck within the next few weeks so that we can replace broken leaf spring packs; once that's done, the car should go back into revenue service for the first time since 2023.

I failed to get any photos, but Brian also got replacement studs and nuts - plus a new gasket - and reinstalled the feed valve on the 308. We still need to complete this car's annual inspection, but lacking motors at the moment simplifies that job.

There wasn't really any progress on the 451 this weekend, but it did get moved for the first time in a few months because the CTA 2200s that have been living at the northwest corner of Barn 4 left the barn via the pit lead and the 451 had to move out of the way. (The new denizens of Track 41 west of the curtain are Sand Springs 68 and Veracruz 19.) Here's the 451 being shoved back into its spot west of the pit. But wait, what's that in Yard 4?

That's right - like the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, the storage reefers have returned to Yard 4 East. Department switch crews brought them back over on Sunday morning and refilled track 42. While the reefers to the right, on track 43, are more or less immobile, the ones on track 42 are expected to move on an occasional basis to move cars in and out of the restoration bays at the east end of Barn 4 on the center track.

The other thing I worked on was Shaker Heights 63. I touched up the grey paint around the edges of the roof and the upper rear markers; although these areas were rolled with grey paint last fall, there were some spots that needed to be filled in. I still need to climb up on the roof one of these days and put a coat of grey on the center of the roof, but except for RA emblems and a bit of door-adjacent lettering, that will complete the paint job on this car.

50th Avenue

Before we get to the switching update, there's big news over at 50th Avenue! Ever since the 'L' station replaced Yard 1 back in the early 1980s, the plan has been to install a gantlet track on the west side that would allow us to operate either narrow (Chicago 'L' width) or wide (railroad width) equipment out of that track. But for the last 40 years or so, only the wide track has been in place, making it impractical to operate elevated-width equipment out of that track for the public due to the 1' or so gap. But this past week, our hardworking Track Department volunteers all took a week off their jobs and tackled the task of installing the "narrow track" on the west side of 50th. They also replaced ties and installed a switch. The result was that on Saturday, the 431 was brought over for clearance testing. After a bit of "platform shaving,” the test was a success! Thanks to Bill Wulfert for sending along these photos of the testing work on Saturday.

This is an exciting step forward. It will make it easy to operate two different shuttle trains out of 50th Avenue, meaning that if we want to, we can operate six mainline trains as part of a regular rotation instead of five - the usual four out of the depot plus two shuttle trains out of 50th. A huge THANK YOU goes out to our indefatigable Track Department for all their work to make this happen!

Switch-A-Palooza

There was quite a bit more switching on Saturday and Sunday, involving moving cars to different spots in various barns. Barns 4, 6, and 7 in particular have seen some changes. Barn 7 is now home to at least two cars that have been redeemed from exile in Barn 13. Thanks to Bill Wulfert for the following photos.

Detroit Department of Street Railways 3865 is our only "Peter Witt" and our only Detroit car. It was brought back to Barn 7 for display.

Here it is alongside CTA 2007, lettered 1892, which has been mostly stripped of parts and is due to be scrapped.

The 3865 was the subject of an uncompleted restoration by the Henry Ford Museum years before it came to IRM, so its exterior has a lot of new steel but the interior is still partially disassembled. But its exterior, though a bit worn, looks pretty nice. Another car that moved from Barn 13 to Barn 7 was Milwaukee snow sweeper B48, which is now parked between the two Shaker Heights cars I'm working on, the 63 and the 18.

The former occupant of that spot is Milwaukee 972, shown here running itself over to its new home at the west end of Barn 4 on the south track. The west end of the barn is going to be reopened to visitors, some 15 years or so after it was completely closed off, so we are moving some presentable cars into that end of the barn.

Moving off exhibit and down to Barn 13 is Milwaukee Electric 1129, our TM interurban coach.

This car was painted as Milwaukee Electric 1111 by Bill Nedden back in the 1970s, when things like that were less frowned upon than they would be now. In fact, the 1129 was sold to the London & Port Stanley before the TM ever adopted this "speed stripe" livery, so it never appeared anything like this.

You'll note that as a single-ended car, it only has doors on one side (and the ends). The left side of the car is completely "blind."

And some additional photos taken during the Saturday switch-a-thon were sent by Joel:

Here's IT 1702, looking smart with a demonstration wire spool prototypically mounted on its deck.

Milwaukee Electric L7 runs, but its air compressor needs an overhaul.

And here's the L10, which was also brought back from exile in Barn 13. It was the subject of on-again, off-again work in the early 2000s, and there's some interest in diving back into it to see if we can make it an operating locomotive for the first time in probably 50 years.

A lot more equipment has moved around that isn't pictured here; you'll just have to visit to see all the changes!