In Memoriam Mitch Markovitz

With a heavy heart we must report the death of Mitch Markovitz, an extraordinary artist and great friend to all who knew him.  It was only three months ago that the Museum held an exhibition of his work, and Mitch gave a fascinating talk about his life and work.  We'll add more information as it becomes available.

Simms Collection -- Miscellany

 Just a few odds and ends from the vast Simms collection....

DENVER & INTERMOUNTAIN

D&IM #23  at Denver   (Std. gauge)

Same as #25, which is preserved as seen here.

DENVER & INTERURBAN

(Note: the Denver and Interurban is not to be confused with the Denver and Intermountain; the Interurban ran on 11,000V AC with larger, heavier cars than the Intermountain.)

M-153

M-157

DENVER TRAMWAYS

#309

(3'6" gauge)

OKLAHOMA RYS.

#53
Suburban car

#225
ex-Ft. Wayne-Lima car



COLUMBIA PARK AND SOUTHWESTERN

#9
ex-Vera Cruz, currently preserved at Ft. Smith

Enjoy the Finest

This car card was recently fixed up and reprinted by a print shop we work with. Wait a second, where have I heard that name before... hmm... nope, guess I don't know anyone named Pixley.

Thomas Day 2

Frank writes…

What can I say about Day Out With Thomas that has not already been said? The weather Sunday was warm and sunny, and the event seemed to go off without a hitch.

I signed up to run the 3142; here's our trusty 169-series car ready to leave the yard. But oops - I forgot to bring my run number tag. Fortunately, Zach, who was running the 144, came to the rescue.

The run number tag he procured for me had a familiar name scrawled on the back!

Here's a sharp-looking lineup, and in chronological order, no less. Zach and Randy were on the 144, while Jeff O. and Joseph were on the 4391. Jeff F. was my lunch relief, much appreciated as always. We also had a visit from Jeremy, an old Seashore volunteer now living in California.

After the service cars were back in the barn at the end of the afternoon, the guys did some switching to reload the 'Liner into Barn 7. Here's a sight to warm the heart of any Highwood aficionado.

The 354 was taken on a test trip around the streetcar loop and passed with flying colors, from what I'm told. I don't think I'd mentioned this, but the 354 started experiencing the same "frog striking" problem at South Junction that the 18 did, and at about the same time. Fortunately, the track repair that was put into effect a few weeks ago seems to have done the trick for this car, as well. Depending on volunteer time and inspection schedules, the 354 may again be making occasional appearances in service.

Thomas Day 1

The first day of Thomas was busy as usual.  I didn't get a chance to take many pictures during the day, but in the morning here he is ready to start pulling the train.  I note that he seems to have a new paint scheme.

I was the conductor on the 4391.  While waiting to go into service, I noticed this historic flag in Barn 7.  The Museum has been putting up various patriotic displays in honor of the 250th anniversary of our nation.  And I must admit I wasn't familiar with this particular flag, although I remember reading about John Paul Jones as a youngster.  

You can learn something new every day at IRM.

And here's the required crew picture: Jeff Obarek and me.  Operations went smoothly all day.

And among other things, the Electroliner made a stunning display on the ladder track.  

The main reason seems to have been so that new ballast could be dumped on track 71.

Property improvement never stops.

And of course, Thomas tickets are still on sale!

Simms Collection - Pacific Electric Wood Cars

The Pacific Electric collection is large, but I'll start with the wood cars, which are fairly limited in number.  There is little information on these prints.

246

952     West of Sierra Vista    3-5-41

979

995     LA 8/41

1054     Temple City

1430  12-42

00151

00195 --  Weed Burner

Puzzles Everywhere

Today, let's see how good you are at solving yesterday's puzzles.   

To begin with, Tim spent much of his time carefully cutting out this piece of wood.  What in the world is this for?

Next, we see Fred and Steve solving the electrical problems at the east end of the 306.  This is much less puzzling the second time you do it.

There's no puzzle about what I was doing -- installing the second beam on the 319.

But wait, something seems to be missing!   What could it be?

Aha, the air hose.  Much better.

Finally, we see Tim putting together the slats on the floor for the 268.  It's a giant jigsaw puzzle.

And the kingpin is inserted through this hole in the magic piece we saw earlier.

Our final puzzle: what mysterious masked figures arrived on Thursday and were quickly led into one of the storage barns to hide until Saturday?  Hint: tickets are still on sale!

Union Pacific M35 Update

Many thanks to our indomitable investigative reporter, Gregg Wolfersheim, who sends along this update of his recent progress on Union Pacific doodlebug M-35.

In spite of having to help on another project, some progress has been made in the vestibule of M35. Here is the left side all in tan paint. The ceiling panel with its platform light is also in.

The center ceiling panel was partially sanded and painted. However, the next day much of the paint looked like the hide of an alligator. So, I proceeded to totally strip it to bare metal. It was interesting to see what was below the tan and earlier gray primer that I applied earlier. Some sort of box car red, Pullman green and finally black.

This was after everything was removed, leaving only the bare aluminum.

Meanwhile, Jack has been creating a side door in the wood shop. This is the early stages of it.

Last week he finished it by glueing it together and putting it overnight on the clamping table.

He also finished making  windows for the rear door. This is the lower sash.

Wednesday Snapshot

This will be brief.  I didn't get any pictures of what the others were doing.  But I managed to install one of the new third rail beams on the 319.  I hauled it over to the car on a wagon, and raised it into place using an old car jack.

... which you can see sitting on the fan.  The fan makes it all possible!

One down, one to go!

Simms Collection - Utah Interurbans

The Utah interurbans, of course, are best known for their garish paint schemes which seem to have been inspired by the camouflage on WWI warships, but which were meant to avoid collision with civilian automobiles rather than German torpedoes.  I'll present them here more or less in geographical order, north to south.

UTAH-IDAHO CENTRAL

UIC 503   Logan, Utah

UIC 504   Near Hyrum     6-17-44

UIC 512   6-16-44    Mendon, Utah

UIC 515   Wellsville, Utah     6-16-44

UIC 517

BAMBERGER

Bamberger 323     North of Lagoon    6-18-44

Bamberger 324    North of Lagoon     6-18-44

Bamberger 325   Farmington, Utah    6-18-44

SALT LAKE GARFIELD & WESTERN

SLG&W 503      Salt Lake, Utah

The SLG&W is probably best known for its open trailers, used for the busy excursion traffic to the Saltair pavilion.  Three of them have been saved in poor condition.

 

SALT LAKE & UTAH

SL&U 601-702     Granger

SL&U 608      Curtis, Utah

SL&U 751     at Payson     Sept 1939   (GK)

This car alone of those pictured has been preserved and restored to excellent condition, and is occasionally operated at Rio Vista.