Back on Home Rails

Frank writes...

We come to you today not from Union, but rather from the Pullman neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. This weekend was Railroad Days in Pullman, and in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the electrification of the Illinois Central Railroad suburban line, there were some unusual festivities.

The highlight for me was that IRM sent the last surviving set of 1920s IC MU cars, motor car 1198 and matching trailer 1380, to Chicago to participate in the celebration. This was the first time these cars have left IRM grounds since they first arrived back in 1972, and a lot of planning and effort went into making it happen. The cars were on display at Millennium Park Station on Thursday, where there was a presentation made by the head of Metra, and their next time on display was this weekend in Pullman. After this weekend, they'll head back to Union. In the above photo, you can also see South Shore car 3, but more on that later.

My daughter and I drove down to Pullman to see the sights as visitors. The display cars were on the west side of the 111th Street platform of the Metra Electric line. It was really cool to see the IC MU cars back on home rails and in their element. Above, motor car 1198 was facing south in proper IC fashion. I think the last time an electric car from IRM's collection left the property was the "Ali" film shoot some 25 years ago; does that sound right?

NICTD, for its part, took their car 3 - part of the original order for Sumitomo interurban cars that replaced the old "orange cars" back in the early 1980s - and painted it back in as-delivered colors. This included broad orange and maroon stripes as well as fully lettered letterboards. The car looks very sharp!

Here's the inside of car 1198. The Railroad Days volunteers were bringing groups of attendees through the cars, while a few of our volunteers were there to talk about the IC MU cars and answer questions.

There were a bunch of these very nice exhibit boards displayed throughout the 1198.

Look who's escaped from IRM! It's Zach, in full IC uniform, and Nick, our current and erstwhile presidents, respectively.

Inside of South Shore 3, the railroad had removed half the seats and put up some nice exhibits. In one half of the car there were various "3-D" displays like thsi large steam engine model.

And then in the other half of the car were display boards about the South Shore, which of course was electrified at high-voltage AC prior to the IC electrification, but which changed to 1500V DC in the 1920s and began running over the IC into downtown Chicago to provide a one-seat ride from northern Indiana to Randolph Street.

There was also a very nice neighborhood fair-type setup in the park just east of the station, next to the Hotel Florence, where a variety of nonprofits had tents set up. And the CTA Historic Fleet even brought a fishbowl bus, on which they were giving rides. Steven, who volunteers regularly at IRM working on buses, has a "day job" with the CTA and was there helping the bus crew. My daughter and I dutifully went for a ride. I snapped the above photo of the interior, however I forgot to get an exterior of the bus. But you know what a bus looks like, you've seen them before.

Monday Mailbag

Now that Thomas is over until next year, it's time for some more pictures of progress in the car shop.

I bought the wood for two more third-rail beams and started putting them together.  These two will complete the set for the 451, and all of our CA&E cars will have a complete set except the 453, and that's far in the future. 

The woodworking seems to go faster each time, but for some reason the glue and paint don't dry any faster.  Maybe if I had a really big oven....

Be that as it may, a lot of progress is being made on the interior of the Michigan Electric 28, as seen here.

The front compartment is getting finished.

And then the smoker has been cleaned out.  As you can see, the floor is going to need some serious rebuilding.

And soon they plan to start unloading the main compartment.

Another important part of the Michigan Electric car is the Peter Smith coal stove, which will be located in the front compartment.  It's been nicely restored and repainted.

This stove came from a North Shore car, and the stove itself is correct, but the upper door was a North Shore type, which wouldn't be correct for Michigan Electric.

Luckily, we can replace it with a Peter Smith door, which will be historically accurate.  

Ah, much better!  Fritz just finished restoring it.

And by the way, Norm reports that good progress is being made on the next two volumes of his history of the Michigan Electric.  So that's something to really look forward to!

Across the walkway, the floor of the 1268 is being completed rapidly. 

And finally, among other things the 306 crew are continuing to rebuild the electrical system.  I didn't get a picture, but they were carefully checking the resistance of each grid element.

Measuring small resistance values is a real challenge, and if you'd like a lecture on this subject from a retired physicist, just let me know!

And as usual, many other things were going on at IRM that I didn't get a chance to cover.

In Memoriam Ken Spengler

We are sad to report that longtime IRM volunteer Ken Spengler died yesterday. In more recent years, Ken was mostly active as a volunteer at the Strahorn Library. During the early 2000s, Ken worked with Craig Wagner for a number of years in the Electric Car Shop to completely restore the interior of the 972 and repaint the car's exterior. Ken was also well known to the traction modeling community, where he was very active. He will be missed.

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!