Simms Collection -- Yet More CSL

More Chicago Surface Lines photos from Al Simms.

 

#1       Argo, Mar. 1934
C&J and CSL 5508
Karl Pearson

      #2         5-26-40
South Chicago & Keefe

#3

#4         Halsted & Congress
1940

#5       State & Randolph

The next group need to be viewed through rose-colored glasses, or something.  They are all Kodacolor prints, with processing dates in 1949 and 1950.  None of them have any notes.  I don't have the tools or the talent to fix the color, unlike at least one of my competitors, so WYSIWYG. 

#6

#7

#8

#9

#9

#10

#11

This last one is not CSL, of course; it's a couple of Met cars at the Forest Park diamonds:

#12

Simms Collection -- CRT

 CRT photos from Al Simms.  As before, many have little information.  But thanks to my vast knowledge of the CA&E, I can place most of them.

#1      6-11-40
4116 & 4089

(westbound approaching Canal on the Met - RH)

#2           5-30-40
Randolph & Wabash

#3           6-11-40
2717,2514,2846
(also west at Canal - RH)

#4
(Met cars at Gunderson - RH)

#5
(also at Gunderson - RH)

#6

(Do you have steering wheel jitters?   Who doesn't??)

Days of the Diesel

Frank writes…

As always, the big news this second weekend of August was Diesel Days, when incessant rumbling and acrid smoke fill the air in East Union.

The major highlight, I suppose, was the unveiling of the newly repainted Ingersoll-Rand 91, our 100-year-old boxcab diesel. Jamie and the Diesel Department guys outdid themselves again, putting this thing back into gleaming bicentennial colors for the 250th. IR 91 was new for the 150th, painted like this for the 200th, and repainted like this for the 250th. With luck, it will be running again long before the tercentennial!

For fans of things less than 100 years old - and these fans are rumored to exist, though I have my doubts - another highlight was operation of our recently acquired SD70MAC, shown here during its stint as a Take the Throttle engine.

Late in the afternoon, Metra dropped off our Illinois Central MU cars, now safely back at home after an eventful trip to home rails in Chicago that, by all accounts, went extremely well. Metra's "250th" locomotive was one of the two engines doing the hauling, and it was brought over to the property for a quick photo shoot with the 91, as shown above. Better photos can be found in various places online.

I spent a while needle-chipping in the 451, but failed to get a progress photo. Oops. I did take about an hour off to show a friend from college around, and then after service ended, I helped Zach, Joel, Jimmy, Steven, Nick, and Greg with some switch moves to get the IC MU cars back into their usual spot in Barn 6. Above, ComEd 4 and CCW 300 wait for a block of diesels to clear the streetcar line.

The MU cars were brought in by the Army diesel as the light started to fail; ComEd 4 was the planned motive power, but its governor was being balky, so the 8537 was called in.

Simms Collection -- More CSL

Back to the Simms Collection -- we have lots more CSL and CRT to publish!  

Unfortunately, most of these have little or no information on the backs.  I've added numbers in case anyone wants to comment.  Feel free!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9      9-20-47

#10      CSL Mar 1937

#11      CSL mail car

#12

#13     S201    75th State  1942

#14       9-20-47

#15

Thursday Glimpses

This is just a fraction of what was going on during Thursday.  The CA&E third rail beams are nearly done, except that the new hanger castings need to be machined, and new shoes and swing links need to be cast.  Here's what's left of one of the old beams during the recovery process.

I also did some more stripping on an interior door for the 451.

Lots of work continues on the 306.  The pilot is being reassembled by Gerry and Jim.

Here Phil checks out the operation of the folding doors at the west end.

Fred and Steve K. made a mouse trap for the car, being assembled here.

And of course Tim was working on the bench seats for the 1268.

Don't forget that this weekend is IRM's Diesel Days.   Diesel be a really good time!

Truck Work on the Mother Car

Thanks to Jon Fenlaciki, who sent along photos of work that was performed this past weekend by IRM volunteers - mostly by Jon's son, Dan - in a heroic all-day marathon of truck work. I wasn't there, but anyone who has more information or corrections, please leave a comment.

The 65 was over the pit on Saturday for repair work following a hotbox a little while back that took it out of service.

Here's Dan disconnecting motor leads and brake rigging.

The car is jacked up and the #1 truck is rolled out. After this, the truck was lifted and the #2 axle was rolled out so its condition could be examined.

Here's the end of the axle.

And here's the burned bearing. A replacement bearing was installed, the car was put back together, and it was successfully operated. It's now back in Barn 6 but more testing is needed.

Next Trivia Question

This question is pretty straightforward.

CA&E car 321 has always been kicked around like a stray dog that nobody wanted.  It will soon be moved to Barn 13 to be worked on, and when this happens, it will have been stored in eight different barns over the years: 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13.  Is this a record?

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?