History of CA&E 409

 

HISTORY OF 

CHICAGO AURORA AND ELGIN

409

Photo by Frank Hicks - July 4, 2010

The magic name "Pullman" conjures up, for most people, visions of luxurious long-distance train travel in heavy, well-appointed parlor, dining, and sleeping cars.  While the company certainly did concentrate on main-line railroad operations, it also had a significant presence in the electric railway field which is not as well known.  And since Pullman was by far the largest and best-known carbuilder in Illinois, the Illinois Railway Museum has acquired an extensive collection not only of steam railroad passenger cars, but also of 19 Pullman-built electric cars, ranging from a tiny four-wheel streetcar and wooden rapid transit cars to later steel interurban cars, an experimental aluminum car, and modern rapid transit cars.  (Not to mention an entire Pullman Library!)  The subject of this article is one of the steel interurban cars.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Formed in 1905 from several smaller companies, the Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad consisted of two divisions: the Chicago division, operating the heavy third-rail line from downtown Chicago to the Fox River cities, and the Fox River division, with a lightly-built side-of-the-road interurban line from Yorkville in the south, up through Aurora and Elgin to Carpentersville.  The period immediately after WWI was a difficult one for the railroad industry as a whole, and the electric railway field in particular.  Wartime inflation, rising wage costs, and rapidly increasing automobile usage caused the company to go bankrupt, unable to meet its bond interest payments.  The resulting reorganization is too complicated to go into here, but basically the company was split into two parts, corresponding to the two divisions, since the Fox River division was definitely weaker.

Dr. Thomas Conway was a highly-regarded professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, who had had an interest in electric railways for many years.  His 1908 doctoral thesis was entitled "The Traffic Problems of Interurban Electric Railroads", and he began providing consultant services to interurban lines in 1916.

A group of Philadelphia-based bondholders in the AE&C sent Conway to Chicago to safeguard their interests in the AE&C bonds.  Conway believed that with the proper investments in new equipment and upgraded track, the Chicago division could be made profitable.  A new company was organized: the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad Company, and on July 3rd (ironically enough) of 1922 it took over the third-rail lines of  the Chicago division of the AE&C.

Immediate investments were made to upgrade the third-rail main lines and improve running times, but perhaps the most noticeable development was the introduction of new steel passenger cars.  Although the industry had been building steel interurban cars for almost ten years, the AE&C was still running a fleet of wooden cars (of which IRM has a nearly-complete collection!)  Conway's associate William L. Butler was in charge of designing the new cars, and the nearby Pullman Company was chosen to construct them.

Builder's photo - Pullman Co. - Bill Volkmer collection

Among other things, Butler and his group undertook experiments to develop more comfortable seats and more convenient stepwells for the new cars, using a group of men and women of all ages chosen from the families and friends of the employees.  

Conway believed in publicizing the new improvements, and several publicity photos were widely published at that time.  

Demonstrating the new stepwell design - Bill Volkmer collection

Bill Volkmer collection

Besides their steel construction, the new cars had some mechanical and electrical improvements over the previous wooden cars.  Tomlinson tight-lock couplers replaced the Van Dorns used on the wood cars.  They have the advantage that they can be uncoupled by a switchman standing to one side pulling a chain, whereas with Van Dorn couplers it is necessary to go between the cars to pull a pin.  And there are no loose links to get lost or stolen.  Ordinarily the two types of cars were never coupled together, but a heavy adapter coupler could be used in emergencies.  Each steel car carried an adapter in an underseat compartment.

The control system was updated to C-165 controllers with closed transition, which are not compatible with the C-6 controllers with open transition used on the wood cars.  As a result, the steel cars have two jumpers over the train doors, one for traction power and the other for the buzzer circuit.

While the Pullman cars had a new control system, some of them, including the 409, were equipped with earlier DB-131 contactors taken from wood cars, in order to save money.  We believe that it was about this time, for instance, that the 308 was converted from a four-motor to a two-motor car, losing one of its contactor groups.  Of course we don't know, but it's possible the 308's contactors wound up installed on the 409!

Builder's interior photos at Pullman -- Krambles-Peterson Archive

Upon delivery, the new Pullman cars took over much of the main-line express passenger service.  They also seem to have been often used on the Geneva-St. Charles branch while that lasted.  All twenty continued to operate until passenger service was stopped without warning on July 3rd, 1957.

PAINT SCHEMES IN SERVICE

1. Early Red

Entire body was red; doors and window sash were brown; gold lettering with black outlining.  Sunset Lines herald is common.  Roof color is not certain.

Photo by Wilbourne Cox  Krambles-Peterson Archive

2. Maroon ("Coffee and Cream")

Body and window sash were maroon, except for the letterboard, end windows, and window sills, which were cream; doors were light brown or tan; gold lettering with black outlining.  Roof color is not certain.  Cars appear to usually have had the Sunset Lines herald on the sides.

412 at St. Charles, Oct. 30, 1937

Photo by Al Johnson   Krambles-Peterson Archive

Pullman cars appear to have been often used on the Geneva-St. Charles branch.  This picture was taken one day before service ended.

3. Blue ("Early American")

There were at least two versions of this paint scheme, although we have not found a picture of the 409 in particular in the earlier one.  The body was mostly a dark blue, with light grey along the windows, and red striping.  The end windows and train doors were red.  Roof was a light grey.  Most of  the Pullmans appear to have a grey stripe along the bottom of the side.  Sunset Lines herald was common.

Bill Volkmer collection

In the later version the roof was black, and there was no stripe along the bottom of the sides.  The Sunset Lines herald has generally disappeared by this time.

409 leading a three-car train at Lincoln St., Wheaton  Oct. 24,1948
Photo by Henry Stange    Krambles-Peterson Archive

4. Final Red 

Ends, doors, and sides below the belt rail were bright red ("Pimpernel Scarlet"), windows, posts, and letterboard were a light blue-grey.  Yellow lettering with black outlining.  Roof was black.  The vestibule interiors were the same red as the exterior.

409 westbound at Villa Park, June 26, 1957
Photo by Bill Janssen  Krambles-Peterson Archive

This photo is just one week before service was stopped without warning on July 3rd.  At this point operation was continuing on a day-to-day basis while court battles raged, which is why the train is running as an extra, I would surmise. 

REBUILDING

The Pullman cars appear to have operated with little change, other than paint, until the 1950's.  They then started to be put through the shops one by one for rebuilding as necessary.   The 409 was shopped in late 1956, but the only major change appears to be that the original wooden window sash were replaced with aluminum sash.  As a result, the final red paint scheme is the only correct one for the car in its current configuration.  At some point, the original seats were replaced with newer ones without headroll, as seen here, but we don't know when that happened.  In any case, the car is preserved and restored as it was at the end of service.

Current interior  (RH)

PRESERVATION

After final abandonment of the CA&E was approved in late 1961, the remaining cars at Wheaton were put up for sale to museums, except for the St. Louis cars, which were retained in the hope that they might be bought by a rapid transit organization.  The steel cars had a much higher price than the wood cars due to their greater scrap value, so only three of the steel cars were selected for preservation.  The Illinois Railway Museum and Seashore each selected a Cincinnati; Gerald Brookins selected the 409,  the only Pullman car to be preserved.  All of the other cars from this series went to scrap in 1962.

In April 1962 the 409 was made up into a train with six wood cars and left Wheaton for the last time on its trip to Olmsted Falls.  It was painted in a red and white paint scheme based loosely on the CA&E maroon paint scheme, and operated for many years in occasional passenger service at Trolleyville.

Joe Testagrove collection -1966

Joe Testagrove collection -1966

In later years it appears to have been repainted with the white changed to light yellow.

Gerald Brookins died in 1983, and for several years the Trolleyville operation continued with volunteers doing much of the work.  The Brookins family continued to oversee the operation.  But in 2002 the family decided to sell the property in Ohio and move to Florida.  It was necessary to find a new home for the Brookins collection.

A volunteer organization was formed with the name "Lake Shore Electric Railway" to provide a way to preserve and operate the collection in the Cleveland area.  The plan was to locate it near the lake shore in downtown Cleveland, and the CA&E cars would be operated occasionally for excursions on the Greater Cleveland RTA system.  The 409 was moved to Cleveland in 2006 and stored in a subway tunnel on GCRTA tracks, but never operated in revenue service.

ACQUISITION BY IRM

The overall success of the Lake Shore Electric project had always been contingent on substantial investment by the city government of Cleveland, which never happened.  By early 2009 the city's financial crisis had destroyed all hope of this possibility, and the decision was taken to wrap up the LSE project and dispose of the collection.

The 409 and several other cars were sold to IRM, and they were moved to the Brook Park shop building to prepare them for shipment to Illinois.

409 at Brook Park, Cleveland   Jan. 17, 2010  (RH)

More than a dozen volunteers made journeys to Cleveland to prepare the cars for shipment, and the 409 and 451 arrived at IRM on Jan. 20th.

409 at Union, Illinois    Jan. 20, 2010  (RH)

The 409 was repainted and lettered in the authentic end-of-service CA&E paint scheme in time for the Trolley Pageant on July 3rd, 2010.  Since that time it has been used in passenger service on a regular basis, with occasional interruptions for minor mechanical issues.

409 in operation in 2017 (RH)

409 in operation in 2022 (RH)

MECHANICAL  SPECIFICATIONS

Car Body:

    Length:            56'10"

    Width:              8'8"

    Height:            13'2"

    Weight:            103,000 lbs.

    Seats:                56

    Trucks:             Commonwealth 7' wheelbase

Electrical:

    Motors:                4 GE 254, 140 HP each

    Controller:           2 GE C-165

    Contactors:        12 DB-131

    Reverser:             1 DB-409

    Field Tap:            1 ME67

    Line Switch:        1 ME160

Brakes:

    Motorman's Valve:        2 M-23

    Triple Valve:                1 U4A

    Compressor:                1  D3F

    Feed Valve:                  1 WH C8

    Governor:                    1 WH type J

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Art Peterson who supplied the photographs from the Krambles-Peterson archive.

Photographs from the Bill Volkmer collection  and the Joe Testagrove collection are taken from the website of the late Dave Mewhinney.

Technical data are taken from CERA bulletins B-5 and B-105 (or personal observation!)

Information on Thomas Conway from CERA B-140 by Ronald DeGraw.

Friday Brief

Today's report will be brief.  Mostly I was working on the next third-rail beam.  I started by drilling the vertical holes.  Since this beam will not have a sleet scraper, there will be several holes through the beam that are open to the rain and weather.  What's the best way to paint the holes to protect the wood from rot?

Frank suggested plugging the hole at the bottom (I used duct tape) and then filling the hole with paint.  Let it sit for a while and soak in, and then make a hole in the tape to drain most of the paint out of the hole.  This seems to be working pretty well, and with care it's not too messy.  Most of the paint can be collected in a can and reused.  By the end of the day the entire beam had a first coat of primer.  I wish now I had taken more pictures.

Arrow points to the hole that hasn't been drained yet.

Work continues on the 28.  Fritz was working on the hot-water heating system, to at least make it look functional.   

Speaking of functional, I'd hate to have to actually couple something into this perfect paint job!

Of course, Tim was working on the 268.

And finally, the 109 now has an authentic lettering job on its letterboard...

on both sides.  Nice!

M35 Update

We're glad to get an update of recent progress on our Union Pacific doodlebug, the M35, from project manager Gregg Wolfersheim:

My time is usually spent working on the Green Bay car, however, I try to spend a few hours each week on the doodlebug. Recently I found a door striker for the partition between the engine room and smoker compartment. The car was missing this item since we acquired it in 1975! It is shown all shined up and mounted. To the left is the Peter Baker heater in silver.

I've been slowly needle chipping and cleaning up underbody components. This is the fuel tank, mostly in primer. I made a tracing of the contents lettering so we can put it back on after the salutary coating of safety red.

This is the forward end of the fuel tank. The old filling valve and gauge were located inside this compartment. The UP converted some of their gas-electric cars to burn Butane in 1940, our M35 being one of them. We have switched it back to gasoline because this is what the replacement engine was set up for. Presently there is a RoiLine model 1850 inside which we acquired from Sperry Rail in 1977.

One of the pipes for the cooling system was quite corroded from being wrapped in insulation. If you look closely next to the union, there is a black dot on the pipe. That's a hole big enough to put a pencil into! The challenge now, is to replace this pipe. Every fitting is rusted tight after 70 years, so some heat will be required to loosen them up.

New Door News

Most of today's report concerns doors, as it happens.  In the morning I spent a few hours sorting parts, but nothing worth taking a picture of.  However, I did bring out the door lock assembly I made a while ago for locking up the 451, which it will need once it moves out of Barn 4.  Maybe it should have a more authentic shade of red.  Sorry.  

 

Work continues on Michigan Electric 28.  Here we see the interior of the baggage compartment, which is being assembled and painted.

And here's the impressive front door.  No solicitors.

But inside, Fritz and Rich were working on hanging one of the side doors for the baggage compartment.

And next door, work proceeds steadily on the interior of the 268.

Here Tim is finishing up one of the sliding doors.

And also, Gregg and Jack were working on the Green Bay car, but I'll let Gregg give us the details.

I believe the train door for the 460 needs the right shade of red paint, but is otherwise ready to install.  One of the side doors (southwest) needs some work, and I got it off the hinges, but it's too heavy for me to get out of the car by myself.  I'm hoping some of the younger guys can transport it into the shop for me.  That's enough about doors for today.

So I spent some time on the next third-rail beam.  It was cut to length, the notch was cut, and I drilled the horizontal holes.  This will probably be a "summer" beam, with no sleet scraper, but it still needs holes to be authentic.  The vertical holes will come next.

Steady Progress

Frank writes…

There were three of us working on the 451 for much of the day on Sunday, so a lot got done. Many thanks to Ashtin and Joseph for all their hard work!

The MVP for the day was Ashtin; before I arrived, Ashtin got Joseph set up wire-wheeling baggage racks and then grabbed his own wire wheel and attacked the smoker. Joseph made great progress on the baggage racks, while Ashtin completed wire-wheeling pretty much all the wall and ceiling panels in the smoker that had previously been needle-chipped. There are still a few edges we need to address, and we want to lightly sand the Masonite panels under the windows, but the smoker is most of the way toward being ready for paint.

I spent most of my time in the main compartment, needle-chipping more of the ceiling and wall panels. At one point, Ashtin and I took a break and went over to the 453 to compare the Futura lettering artwork that Buzz has painstakingly recreated to the original lettering still visible under that car's paint. The verdict: it looks great! Before too long, we hope to cut vinyl masks so we can spray the lettering onto the 451. After all that, Ashtin spent a while needle-chipping the partition between the main compartment and smoker. After dinner, Greg helped me to make progress on removing the partition door, though we still need to detach it from the floor. And I was told that the Saturday guys had installed the air piping from the air compressor to the tanks. We still need to add drain cocks and air gauges before the car can be pumped up, but rapid progress is being made.

As usual, there was plenty of other work going on. Joel was hard at work cleaning out the old "roof booth" area of the barn, moving spare parts out of the newly usable air brake room, and generally moving and sorting parts. Greg and Jimmy were out making overhead wire repairs at the west end of the railroad. And Good Nick was working on the "small" substation, shown above. I briefly helped him remove the breaker, pictured on the cart. It will be replaced by the newer and more advanced model shown last week.

Do you know an 'L' car that is having an identity crisis? Or maybe there's a trailer in your life that can't even settle on what decade it is? Never fear - a stay in our restorative facility will help make that tired car look and feel as good as new. Make your appointment with Doctor Tim today!

Friday Report

Friday was a relatively quiet day in the shop.  I spent most of the day working on the 460 door, Tim was painting the 268 again, of course, and Gregg and Jack were painting the 109.

The 460's train door is nearly finished.  It's mechanically complete, and mostly just needs more paint.  Here's the outside surface -- pretty much ready to hang a headlight on.

On the inside, I installed the new steel plate that Gerry made to replace the old one.  It turned out that the frame was not quite square, so although he made the plate to the correct dimensions, it still needed to be ground down in order to fit.  Gregg helped me with that, and also with installing some bolts.

Now I just need to match the paint.

Here's a small part of what Tim was doing on the 268:

And down at the other end of the barn, the B&G guys were installing part of the trolley wire bridge which will enable us to run cars under power through the open door.  Just like downtown!

Update on That Coach in Barn 4

Our intrepid reporter on all things Coach Department, Gregg Wolfersheim, has somehow found himself marooned in Barn 4, the land of electrics. Fortunately for absolutely everyone involved, though, he's not at a loss for news, because he's found a passenger car there - and it's even actively being worked on! He has sent us the below summary of recent events.

Here is the west door back in place and painted.

The inside. New molding was used to hold the bottom panel in place. The old molding was split from being nailed in place.

This is the ceiling collar for the stove pipe. I needle chipped it first, then polished it up.

The collar back in place. It now matches the other one at the east end of the car.

Awhile back, Jack made the molding that goes over the single sash. Here it has been applied, and is getting painted.

The finished product. The other side is partially done. We're trying to have a contractor make the longer ones for the double sash arches. Hopefully they will show up soon.

And, a final shot of the west end of the car. The overhang has been painted. The lower sections are next, with the railings and platform to follow in black.