Van Dorn Catalog

We'd like to extend our thanks to Jay Scott, who has donated a small stack of original Van Dorn coupler catalogs to the museum. Unfortunately, we don't know what year this was issued. Overall, it's a very interesting piece from the company's marketing department. Enjoy!

Click here to return to the W.T. Van Dorn Collection

Heavy Lift Department Update

Many thanks to our friend Paul Krot, who sends along an update from the IRM Heavy Lift Department!

The Heavy Lift Department's CNW tool car is receiving some long overdue cosmetic maintenance.  Pictured from left to right are Jeff, Steve, Ralph, Crystal and Paul behind the camera.  We are looking at having this car finished by the end of July and have the wrecker’s boom idler flat in for work as soon as the space is vacated. [Ed. - this is a very historic car, one of only a couple of survivors of the 1936 City of Denver train that was jointly operated by the UP and C&NW. More history here. IRM's two ex-CofD cars are rare examples of cars built in UP yellow and brown, before they switched to yellow and grey.]

I found this “vintage” ad while doing more cleanup inside the tool car and found it pretty amusing.  It may be in poor taste to share but I thought I’d throw it out there.

Take a Step Back...

Frank writes...

...back in time, in this case. You've read about Monday's news, but what about Sunday's news? Those suspicious characters with day jobs who were alluded to in yesterday's post (ha ha) are guilty of taking too much time to get their photos posted, so you'll just have to make do with yesterday's news tomorrow. Or something.

Sunday was the last day of Day Out With Thomas 2024, and once again I found myself going in circles. Fortunately, it was aboard a streetcar, in this case the 3142. Above, our two operating CTA streetcars are ready to leave the barn in the morning.

And here's the 3142 in Yard 7. Everything went smoothly, the crowds were happy, the weather was beautiful - what more could you want? I ended up doing 30 trips around the car line, so I certainly kept busy.

Someone else keeping busy was Joel, who spent the day inspecting the 308! As with the past few years, we've scheduled the CA&E wood cars to operate for Vintage Transport Extravaganza. But we need three cars to handle the crowds, and with a broken leaf spring under the 36, we're short a car. Enter the 308, which of course still has its motors out for repair - but is serviceable as a trailer, or "coach" as the CA&E called them. A huge thank you to Joel and to our switch crews for bringing the 308 over to Barn 4 on Saturday night and extracting it Sunday evening. I helped couple it up to the 309 and 319 and run it back to Barn 8, but managed to forget to grab a photo - oops. You'll just have to join us on August 4th for the 308's first time carrying passengers in more than five years.

Thanks, too, to Bob Olson for sending along some additional news photos! First, this is the crew that brought the 213's door over to Barn 8 and hoisted it up into the 213. You saw "the rest of the story" in the Monday update. L-R that's Jimmy, Greg, Brian, Richard, and Zach.

Below, Marcus and a younger Track Department volunteer I'm afraid I don't know are in Barn 3. Our hardworking track volunteers have finished the complete rebuild of track 34! This was a marathon of a job that took a few months. Next comes some Buildings & Grounds work, so the freight train isn't coming back into this space quite yet, but this is a huge step forward.

That folks! Below, Bob on the left, Marcus, and ____ (help!).

Are You Busy?

Weekday operations resume their usual peaceful character, now that Thomas is over.  Monday was another relatively relaxing day at IRM, and given a choice, I was able to run the 431.  Everything went well.  We had two school groups visiting, and they chose to take the same trip at noon, so the car was jam-packed with kids, but everyone had a great time.  Later in the day, Harold stopped by with some of his friends, one of whom got to run one of the trips.  It helps to be friends with the boss!

But the problem is that we need more weekday operators during the summer.  We would really like to have two cars in operation on weekdays, one mainline car and one streetcar.  Our visitors deserve no less, and we need help.  Obviously, that's not possible for most of you who have to work for a living, but retired people such as myself and college students on summer break could make a big difference in improving our visitors' experience.  And if you don't already know how to operate these cars, here's the oldest joke in the book:  we'll TRAIN you!  If you can drive a car, you can run a train.

(End of public service announcement)

I didn't have much opportunity to see what was going on in Barn 4, but over in 8 Fritz and Pete were busy installing the new sliding doors they've made for the 213.

This is really an interesting car, and it would be great to make it operational.

More Thomas

Another day of Thomas went well.  A lot of people put in a lot of effort to make these four busy days a success, and I certainly can't begin to list them all.  A great deal of thanks is due to everyone who helped; most of them spent a lot more time on Thomas than I did.  One sad note: our old friend Larry Stone was planning to fly in from Nevada for a second weekend, but his flight yesterday was cancelled due to the airline computer snafu, so he had to stay home.

Just a few more pictures:

Meanwhile, deep in the mysterious caverns of Barn 4, a few of the regulars continued on their chosen projects, trying to avoid being dragooned into picking up trash or something.  Here Tim was getting ready to apply numbers to the 1808.

Bill was cleaning the group covers.

And Ed was working on parts for the Cleveland PCC.

Last names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Thursday Update

                           We know there's trouble and turmoil these days, everywhere you look.

  But you don't need to lose your head.  Or whatever.

Anyway...  at IRM the rest of us are still at work.  Here, for instance, we see Tim painting rattan seats.

And here are more interior trim pieces ready for installation in the 306:

John was working on wiring:

And he wanted to show off the soldering iron he's using.  Probably older than the car itself.

One of our main projects right now is replacing the upholstery in the three CA&E St. Louis cars.  I was working in the 451.  New seats have been received and are still in their plastic bags.

It turns out to be much easier to remove the backs from the frames that rotate.  The seat frames that are set against the bulkheads are more challenging, but it can be done.

And after some work I was able to get all of the remaining seats out of the smoker.    Since the main compartment has just as many stationary seats, and I now have the necessary tools and experience, it should take just part of another day.