Simms Collection - Indiana Streetcars, 1940

This category includes examples from several Indiana city systems, with nearly all of the photos dating to 1939-1940.

FORT WAYNE STREET RAILWAY

Car 500 northbound at Spy Run Ave & Lawton Ave, May 19, 1940 [ed.: house is still there]

Car 530 northbound on Spy Run Ave at Baltes Ave, May 19, 1940

Car 543 on Spy Run Ave bridge

Car in front of the traction terminal, May 19, 1940

GARY RAILWAYS

Car 1

Car 1 at the end of the line in Valparaiso during the last month of service

Car 3 [ed.: car 19 is on the right, so this might be the March 19, 1939, fan trip]

Car 9 at Oakley & Sibley in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 9 at Oakley & Sibley in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 9 eastbound at Oakley & Sibley in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 16 at North Broadway Loop

Car 18 at Sibley St and the NKP, June 8, 1940

Car 19 on its CERA fan trip, March 19, 1939

Car 19 on the March 19, 1939, fan trip, likely on Broadway

Car 19 on the March 19, 1939, fan trip at the city limits

Car 51

Gary & Interurban 101, Broadway in Gary, 1909

Gary & Valparaiso 1 (later Gary Railways 1) at Kuhlman in 1924

HAMMOND WHITING & EAST CHICAGO

Work car 7 in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 70, 62nd & South Park at the back of the station, May 26, 1940

Car 74 in front of the Hammond shops, June 8, 1940

Car 74, Hohman & Indiana Avenue in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 74, Hohman Ave shops in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Car 74, Hohman south of the South Shore Line in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Chicago Surface Lines 6207 on Hohman in Hammond, June 8, 1940

Chicago Surface Lines 6207 on Hohman in Hammond, June 8, 1940

INDIANAPOLIS RAILWAYS

Car 144, end of the College-Broad Ripple line, September 15, 1940

Indianapolis car with trolley bus following

SOUTH BEND

Car 216 at Madison & Walsh, May 30, 1940

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We Have Liftoff

Frank writes...

Sunday was a day for a significant step forward toward getting the 36 back into service. Since we found a couple of broken leaf springs in the trailer truck two years ago, we've been planning to pull that truck so we could replace the springs. Various circumstances, almost all of them surrounding the construction work on Barn 4, pushed back this work.

But Sunday was the day! On Saturday, after inspection work on CTA 22 was completed, the guys brought the 36 over to the pit, pulled the kingpins, and removed the top rod from the trailer truck end. Above, shortly after I arrived, the guys pulled the car out of the barn and positioned the jacks. The main workers on this project, from start to finish, were Nick, Greg, and Brian.

The first thing was to jack up the car and remove the truck. That was the easy part. Above, Nick brings over some chains to lift the truck off the rails while Andy helpfully offers his usual mixture of folksy anecdotes, homespun wisdom, and unsolicited advice.

With assistance from Joel, Greg ran the forklift and, using the fork extenders, carried the 36's truck over to track 43. We didn't have time to start the work of removing the body bolster so we can extract the leaf springs, but that will happen soon.

In the meantime, Brian and Will brought the shop truck - a CTA 4000 motor truck - over to roll under the car. This is where things got a little complicated: it turned out that the center bearing on the shop truck was higher than we wanted, and that meant removing shims from under the shop truck's center bearing. But of course the bolts were rusted, so they needed to be heated (hence the torch set visible in the below photo). This job was done by Jimmy and Will, after which Joel used a large hammer to persuade the shims to detach from the center bearing casting. This all took a little time, but the work progressed steadily. A huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who helped, including Nick, Greg, Brian, Joel, Jimmy, Will, and Andy.

Once the center bearing on the 4000 truck had been reinstalled minus its shims, the 36 was jacked up a bit to clear the truck's brake rigging. Above, Brian is over to the right "conducting the orchestra" consisting of Nick, running the jack at the left, and Greg, running the jack on the other side of the car. Then, we pushed the truck under the car, lowered the car, dropped in the king pins, and voila.

The car is still at an angle, but that's not a big problem for low-speed switch moves, and we hope it won't be like this for very long anyway. As soon as we have time, we'll remove the bolster keepers from atop the 36's truck, lift off the bolster, and remove the leaf spring packs so we can get the springs replaced. Fingers crossed that before long, we'll have all four of our "serviceable" wood cars cleared for service again.

I was busy with the 36 project the whole day, but in other news, Sunday marked 100 years to the day since the 714 first entered service on the North Shore. Zach and his crew marked the occasion by posting a nice sandwich board up at the depot and running the car along with the 251, which recently had some air compressor wiring work done to return it to revenue operation. It sounded like all went well.

In the evening, it was time to wrap up the winter's work on the 460. Nick, Steven, Brian, and I took the two rebuilt doors over to the car, hoisted them up, and screwed them into place. Thanks to Steven for taking the above photo, showing Nick and yours truly upstairs and Brian downstairs installing the side door. I'd like to do a little more futzing with the train door to get it to seat a bit more comfortably, but the car is now ready for service.

Simms Collection -- Illinois Miscellany

Many pictures in the Illinois miscellany category have already appeared in the Scalzo collection, so most of those are omitted.

CHICAGO & INTERURBAN

"Chicago & Interurban Traction Co.
at 79th & Halsted St.  Chicago, Ill."

CHICAGO AURORA AND DEKALB

Cars 21 and 22, probably at Bliss's Woods siding

DE KALB  SYCAMORE  & INTERURBAN

EAST ST. LOUIS

ELGIN & BELVIDERE

#201 at Marengo after abandonment

EVANSTON  RAILWAY

"Evanston Ry. Co. #3
At Downtown Evanston, Ill.
Sept, 1935
Photo by Edward Frank, Jr."

"Evanston Ry. Co. #5 & #10
At Central & Bennett Sts.
Evanston, Ill.
Sept, 1935
Photo by Edward Frank, Jr."

"Evanston Rys. #6
Central St. & Crawford Ave."

KEWAUNEE & GALVA

MIDLOTHIAN & BLUE ISLAND R.R.

"Midlothian and Blue Island Railroad

Operated on 1 1/4 mile track along 143rd from Midlothian RR Sta. (CRI&P) to Midlothian Country Club (Cicero Ave.) by the club for convenience of golfers.

Only car, built by Cummings about 1921.  Blue color."

ROCKFORD & FREEPORT RY.

ROCKFORD BELOIT & JANESVILLE RR.

Simms Collection -- Milwaukee Electric

Most of the TM collection consists of fan trip pictures.  We'll start with those.  

They all appear to be on the Milwaukee Northern route.  I'll need help with the specific locations.

Port Washington?

Brown Deer

Port Washington

The Menominee and 1129 were built to this design.

A two-car train of center-entrance city cars.

Funeral Car 1000

And finally, a smoking car.  Yuck!