Mostly Michigan Monday

Monday's news is mostly Michigan, as in Michigan Electric 28, one of the Museum's really long-term restorations.  A lot of work in the woodshop involves interior woodwork and other parts for the front and smoker compartments.

Here we see Pete varnishing woodwork for the ceiling.

And next, one of my favorite details in any old car: the wrecking tool box!   Fritz has put a lot of work into fixing up the tools and the box.  He did this astounding job of lettering the tools.  The car was built for Michigan United Traction, which became Michigan Railways in 1916, and then Michigan Electric in 1923, or something like that.  You have to buy Norm's book to be sure.  But in any case, parts like this would have retained their original lettering.

Of course, you have to wonder how people are supposed to saw or chop their way out of a steel car....

It's not quite complete yet, as the sledge hammer is still to come.  It will be outstanding.

Finally, for a change of pace, Phil was installing doorway parts in the Fox River 306.

And as for myself, I worked on adjusting some of the door stops I made for the 460, and then glued them together.  Pictures next time.  And I spent a lot of time and effort on the next defective seat frame in the 309, without success.  Some of these frames are just going to have to be replaced.  

Compressor Cleanout

Frank writes…

Sunday saw the completion of our quick in-house compressor fix-up project on car 18’s National BB2 air compressor.

Thanks to Richard for fixing us up with replacement ring terminals on a new lead, replacing an old one that had been damaged. After that, it was time to flush any remaining old oil out of the pump. This involved putting some diesel into the sump and cycling the pump a few times so that the "slingers" could distribute the diesel around. Then, drain, repeat with a bit of sacrificial compressor oil to get rid of the diesel, drain again, and then finally fill with good compressor oil. Many thanks to Steven (shown above about to unscrew the drain plug), Joel, and Nick for all their help with this! Cycling the compressor on low power was done by hooking it up to a welder. Next up: testing on 600V!

And in other news, Richard spent a while in the 18 working on adjusting the thermostat. The great news is that the thermostat works! After a bit of fiddling, we got it to turn the heat on at about 61 degrees and off at about 70. That's a bit warmer than we'd like, but it's pretty close. Joel is looking for any documentation we have on these Consolidated bi-metal thermostats so we have a better idea of how to adjust ours; anyone have any manuals they can share?

And in other news, Nathan and Mikey were finally - after a lot of percussive effort - able to remove the armatures from the L7, one of our WEPCO steeplecabs. The L7 has been "sort of" out of service for a number of years, ever since its rare (and enormous) CP-19B air compressor went to ground. We've run it a few times coupled to something else that was providing it with air, just to keep away the "sit-itis," but repairing that CP-19B is a big challenge. The compressor won't fit through the cab door, so the guys had to disassemble it in situ.

Curiously, the New York Central S-motors used CP-19B air compressors as built (all were later replaced by more modern types), and I came across this diagram during my research for my article on our S-motor. You'll note that the CP-19B has a dual-armature design with no gearing: both armatures are attached directly to the crankshaft. Sounds kind of like the gearless design of the S-motor itself, but I digress. The above cutaway shows why the armatures are shaped like big basins, with a largely hollow interior.

But that sure doesn't mean they're lightweight! Here, Nathan on the forklift and Mikey directing the action lift one of the armatures onto a pallet. Neither armature had obvious mechanical damage, like holes in the comm or bad arcing, so that's a good sign. We'll examine both and see what the next step toward getting the L7's compressor fixed might be.

ADDENDUM: After writing this, I tried Googling information on CP-19 air compressors and found this link from the University of Wisconsin. A list of TMER&L expenditures includes this entry from 1930: "R-614, purchase of 17 second hand air compressors of the CP-19-B type." That's one year before the L7 was built. And remember how the NYC S-motors had CP-19B's as built? Well, they were all replaced by newer-model air compressors in the 1920s, possibly during a 1929 overhaul of the S-motor fleet. Did the L7's air compressor come out of an S-motor? There's likely no way to know for sure, but it's an interesting thought!

Fast Photofinishing Behind the Redline Stairs

This car card, which was incongruously installed in Shaker Heights 18 when the car arrived, probably dates to the early- or mid-1980s. The Cleveland RTA added color designations to its rapid transit lines in 1979, so it's certainly no older than that. Dodd is still in business, though these days they go by Dodd Camera.

Thursday Brief

Thursday was another productive day in the car shop.  We're making good progress on the 306.  

I even got a chance to help install the pilot on the west end of the car.

While walking down the street minding my own business, I was accosted by Marcus Ruef, who wanted me to publicize the spiffy new meeting room and office space.  Well, the board room certainly looks great.  The offices are very nice also, but I wouldn't want to invade anybody's privacy.

In the morning I spent some time talking to people from Villa Park who have volunteered to prepare the 321 for shipment.

And then I was working on trying to fix one of the 309's seats.

A recent donation is this heavy-duty table saw, which Buzz just brought back from Beloit.  I guess you can never have too many vintage table saws.  The frame in front is a roller outfeed table that drops down for movement.

And we'll have news on some other projects soon!
 

Carl Illwitzer, continued

We noticed that this picture was hanging in Nick's office, and it's a good likeness of young Carl, among others.  The date is approximately Jan. 20th, 1983, the 20th anniversary of North Shore abandonment.  Photo by Jeff Brady.  Those were the days, my friend.

Harold Wind, Ralston Taylor, Nick Kallas, Dan Gornstein, Jim McAlpin, Jon Fenlaciki, Carl Illwitzer

The Wagon Wheels Go West

We'd like to extend a huge THANK YOU to our good friend Paul Krot, who has arranged with a specialty tire shop out in Oregon to replace the badly deteriorated solid-rubber tires on our Chicago Surface Lines air compressor wagon, AX545. Paul is also handling some important work that's required as part of this process, such as sand-blasting the tread surfaces. This work was also made possible by donations from viewers like you through contributions to the "RCAR" Electric Car Department fund - thank you to everyone who donated! With that, let's hand the mike over to Paul for the latest on the wheels.

I stopped by the tire shop twice last week, on Monday to be certain the wheels made it like the tracking information indicated and Friday to see Dave in the back room to see how things were progressing along.

These two pictures, from Monday, show two of the wheels fitted up on his lathes for him to check set-up. So far, so good.

I spent about an hour with him Friday afternoon discussing the project and set up.  He’s impressed that these wheels have only about .0625 of runout in them.  The pics from Friday shows his finalized holding fixture.  He was going to work on making up the side plates next that will be necessary to use with the application machine.  Dave is planning on doing a single wheel first to see how everything works out before tackling the other three.

When he’s ready to give up the first wheel, I’m going to take it to get the tread surface sandblasted here locally.  It’s necessary to give the surface the proper tooth for the new rubber to adhere too.

We’re still a ways off from any rubber being applied but are certain now the pieces can be made to work.

In Memoriam Carl Illwitzer

 It is a great shock to learn of the death over the weekend of B&G Assistant Carl Illwitzer.  He was 66.

Good pictures of Carl are hard to find, because he was always at work, and generally preferred not to even look at photographers.

I believe he joined the Museum about 1979 -- at least that's when I first met him.  He was one of Bruneau's electrical/mechanical experts and often did rebuilds on various components - air compressors, reversers, etc.  As the story goes, he was the last person ever to run the D22 line car - after it arrived, he tested some circuits out on the thing and then briefly moved it back and forth under power by holding a "hot stick" up through the gaping holes in the roof to contact the overhead wire!  He was trusted enough to know what he was doing that he was the only person, we believe, to ever have his rulebook list him as qualified on "all electric equipment" (or something to that effect).

In later years, of course, he was one of the few full-time paid employees, and was always to be seen busy on various B&G projects and general maintenance.  We cannot imagine how he will be replaced.

There will be a remembrance for Carl at the Museum sometime soon, and we will post a notice when arrangements are made.

Monday Report

 Another busy Monday, with various projects going on.  This, as usual, is just a sample.

Pete was refinishing molding strips for the ceiling of the 306.

Phil was refinishing the door between the main and smoker compartments.

Fritz and Norm discuss what needs to be done next on the Michigan Electric 28.

The ceiling is making progress.

This is the smoker bulkhead looking forward.

And I was working most of the day on the next seat frame in the 309.  As it turned out, this one will be more difficult than I expected.  But it will certainly be fixed.

BB2 Update

Frank writes...

The rest of the department was out on the railroad working on the overhead on Sunday, but for me it was a return to the "lean-three" to continue working on the 18's National BB2 air compressor.

It took another hour and a half or so, but I finished slotting the commutator. Above, it's hard to tell, but this photo was taken with only six or eight slots to go.

After I took a break to head over to the 18, Richard provided guidance in the next step, "raking" the slots. This just involves drawing the pointed end of a file down the length of each slot to knock any burrs off the edges of the bars. Following this work to smooth off the commutator, the comm itself is ready for testing, though there are a couple of other things we need to do first - not least of which is refilling the pump with oil! Thanks to Steven for the above "action shot" of yours truly.

Although I've brought my daughter out to IRM plenty of times for rides, this was her first time accompanying me on a "working" day. She seemed to enjoy herself. Here, she emulates my work on the air compressor, accompanied by her saying "fix, fix fix! BAM, BAM, BAM!" Yep, that pretty well sums up the recent maintenance history of this air compressor.

Anyway, after I finished with slotting but before the guys arrived back to instruct me in the finer points of commutator raking, it was over to the 18 to install some new advertising cards. Many thanks to Tim, who set us up with his printer, and Jim, who picked these up and brought them out to the museum. These are reproductions, of course, but they're printed on Mylar that's about the same thickness (and pliability) as the original cards. In theory, these should last pretty much forever without warping or suffering any water damage.

These are all circa-1950 designs, a definite improvement over the ones that have been in the car, which are mostly a mixture of 1970s/1980s ones that came with the 18 and 1920s repros that were printed by American Slide Chart for ARM a few decades back.

But we need your help!

It turns out that with the recent work on the CA&E steel cars, including casting new third rail beam parts and building new beams, we're out of money! The CA&E steel car restoration fund is at zero. We've printed extras of the car cards shown below for use in the 451 when its interior is complete, but we'd like to get several additional designs with more "local flavor" scanned, digitally restored, and reprinted. Please consider a donation to the CA&E Steel Car Fund to make this happen!

For a limited time only, you can sponsor one of the car cards shown below. These nice Mylar cards cost $30 each, so for every $30 you donate, email us and let us know which design(s) you'd like to sponsor. We'll put your name on the back of your card for when it goes into the 451. And, of course, any larger donations to support the purchase of paint for the upcoming repainting of the 451's interior are also very much appreciated. Click here and scroll down to Electric Car Restoration - CA&E Steel Cars to donate online, or just mail a check to the office with IRM as the payee and "RCAESTEEL" on the memo line. Thank you!

Bromo-Seltzer

Campbell's Beans

CBS Sunday Evenings

We'll call this "Chesterfield-F"

...and this one "Chesterfield-M"

Circus Peanut

Hill's Nose Drops

Lucky Strike

Red Cross

Solo Bob Pins

Trip Down South to Find PCC Parts

 Steve Iversen has been hard at work, going far to find parts for IRM PCC's.  

Shaker Heights 81 is a PCC in poor condition, privately owned near Dover, Ark.  But the owner has allowed us to acquire parts we need, and Steve went there recently.  He reports:

Today I got just about everything I think I can get off the Shaker Heights 81 by myself.  I removed both front and rear windows, since they are identical to the ones on the 4391, so now we have spares!  I removed the trolley pole and base along with the Ohio Brass retriever.  I also removed the battery tray, marker lights, and dash lights.  The battery tray and light sockets are needed for the Kansas City 755.

I wasn't able to get the MG set off because I don't have a fork or skid loader.  The Little Rock Birney is in the way.  The owner of the property is working on getting a crane so that we can lift the car off its trucks.  Most likely this will not happen until January.  I'll bring everything except the trolley pole and base up to the Museum sometime next month.

It's great that we are able to get parts we need, and that we have someone who is able and willing to go the distance to get them.  You too can help, from the comfort of home!  Donations are needed now to the KCPS 755 fund.

The Fix Is In

Walkover seat replacement is a complicated process, and the parts are heavy.  But I needed the exercise.

For the seat that we saw last time, which had been removed, the first step was to separate the back from the frame.  The back, like all of them in the main compartment, was professionally recovered many years ago, and they're all in excellent condition.  So I carried the seat out to the platform, removed the back, and carried the heavy cast-iron frame out of the car and to the ground.  Then I brought a replacement frame (originally from car 300) from storage to the 309, and put it more or less in place as seen here.  It's several inches into the aisle.  Then I managed to fit the back between the levers.  It's easier to insert and tighten the screws on the inside end of the back when there's more room between the seat and the wall.

Then the frame was moved into place, and carefully attached to the wall and the aisle bracket.

Finally, the arm rest was attached with a dozen screws, and the cushion put into place.  With some lubrication, it moves back and forth just the way it should.  Then I sat down to test it.  Whew!

And you know this has to be the same seat because the L7 hasn't moved.  I believe I have just three more to do in the 309, and several months to do it.

Meanwhile, back in Barn 4, the 306 team were hard at work.  Here Steve Keller and Fred are checking the electrical connections to the controller.

They also checked the alignment of the various parts of the pilot.  Here we see Gerry checking part of it; not shown are John and the others.

The Pennsy tool car looks great, at least the exterior does.

In the distance we see the 1268 and the 65.

Tim continued working on the 1268; these are seat cushions he assembled today.

He's usually moving too fast to be captured on camera.