Changes to the Neighborhood

Frank writes…

Sunday was the last day of steam operation at IRM for the year; there was also a “horn blow” over in Electric Park, with various people over there tooting their own horns thanks to the hardworking air compressors in ComEd 4. I’m not sure whether that was really a public event, as I hadn’t read anything about it in advance. But closer to home, right in the Barn 4 Electric Car Shop, a major reshuffling has been afoot.

Above, we're at the southeast corner of Barn 4, in the new addition, looking west-northwest. On Saturday, the guys moved Michigan Electric 28 (visible at left) and Cleveland 4223, which is behind it, one spot further east. Both cars will end up one more berth to the east - the 28's long-term home will be where the photographer is standing - but, as you can tell, more stuff needs to be moved out of the way first. But don't get used to this view, because it's about to change.

About an hour later, we're over at the northeast corner of the building looking at the 28, the 306, and CA&E 460, which is on the pit for its annual inspection. But something's missing...

You guessed it - Green Bay & Western 109, the occupant of the east berth on track 42 since May of last year, has moved on. It was switched over to its new home in Barn 3, where it will serve as a display piece and as classroom space. It does look pretty snazzy out in the sunlight. Many thanks to the folks on the switch crew who made this happen! Everyone is glad to see the car moved to public display where it can be enjoyed by our visitors. Stay tuned for news on what will take the 109's place.

One of my projects for the day was working on the two brackets for the 453 we received from ECTM, as noted last week. Here they are.

And here's the first bracket installed on the car. It's the vertical angle-iron piece running top-to-bottom down the middle of the step well; you can probably see the nice new hardware holding it in place at the top. Unfortunately, we ran out of the correct type of bolts, so we'll need to install the second bracket next time. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Mikey, Jimmy, and Drew, who were indispensable in this installation project.

On the other side of the car, here's an action shot of Mikey using a hand sledge to drive the remnants of the old bolts out of the holes. Those bolts had been torched off and had then rusted in place, so driving them out was quite a chore. Jimmy (who also took turns at the sledge) holds the light while Drew looks on.

Another task I had was cleaning up around the 451. The car will be moved over to Barn 8 for a little while to allow a high-priority project into Barn 4 (again, don't touch that dial - all will be revealed in time). Many, many thanks to Richard, who helped me load baggage racks from the car onto shelving in the "lean-three." And thanks to Zach and Drew, who helped me install two of the four newly built third rail beams for the car. Above is the first...

...and here's the second. Whew! The motorized pallet jack that my father picked up a few years ago was extremely helpful with this job. The last two beams will wait for next time.

And finally, I went over to the 18 after dinner and took down the signal bell cord. That allowed me to remove two of the leather straps that need replacing - one was essentially hanging by a thread and the other had parted entirely, and was held together by tape. You can see one of the straps that's still in good shape at the top left of this photo, for what it's worth.

Appalachian Narrow Gauge

During a recent trip out east to visit children and grandchildren and so on, we were able to spend a night in Rockhill, Pa.  And due to clean living and fantastic luck, the EBT was running a nighttime charter special.  Now I'm certainly no O. Winston Link, and I didn't have the time or resources to set anything up, so what you see is what you get.  But being able to watch this at night, and listening to the sounds echoing in the dark off the hills, was an unforgettable experience. 

Farther south, along the Blue Ridge Parkway there's a short stretch of narrow gauge logging road that was rebuilt many years ago.  There's no rolling stock, but it's interesting to explore.

That's All, Folks

Frank writes...

I had to make a quick trip out of town this weekend, but the 309 and 319 were in service both days, and by all accounts things went flawlessly.

Thanks to Fred, our Saturday motorman, and Zach, our Sunday motorman, who took the above photo of the 309 and 319 headed back to the barn at the end of the day. The conductor in the doorway is Andy O. (no, not that Andy O., a different Andy O.). These were the last scheduled operating days of 2026 for the CA&E wood cars, so until 2027, we'll see you in Barn 8!

In other exciting news, when our latest bus arrived last week from Pennsylvania, it was accompanied on the flatbed truck by some CA&E parts. As shown above, in a photo Richard sent, the folks at the Electric City Trolley Museum sent us a pair of stepwell brackets from the 453 that turned up there. The truck hauling our Covington bus happened to be a handy conveyance, so here they are. Many thanks to Mike, Ron, and everyone at ECTM who located, identified, and shipped these!

Showcase Showers

Frank writes...

Dire weather forecasts called for rain all day Saturday with up to 2" of rainfall, which would have washed out Showcase Weekend. As it turned out, though, things weren't nearly as bad as predicted.

When I arrived at about 10:30am, the light rain had just stopped. I had planned not to start running the 18 until 12:30 or so, but with the rain holding off, Zach switched the 4391 out of the way and the decision was made to take the 18 out. We got out onto the car line at about 11am.

My conductor for the "day shift" was Chris Buck. We ran right up until dinnertime with the Matchbox and - for a time - the 144 also running on the car line. As is often the case on Showcase Weekend, there were some rarely seen trains on the main line, though I failed to get any photos of them. The heavyweight train was running, with BNSF 9400 on the head end and a terrific-looking consist that included the Inglehome, Villa Real, Galt House, and a few other cars. The Zephyr was also out for its only full operating day of the season, and the caboose train sported Milwaukee Road X5001 on the tail end in the IRM regular operations debut of that "office caboose." The 309 and 319 were scheduled, but due to the rain, they were replaced by the 431 and 460.

And here's a crew photo - thanks to Steven for taking this! The rain started back up in the early afternoon, but it was only drizzle or light rain, and we discovered to our satisfaction that the roof on the 18 doesn't seem to leak - at least not with this quantity of rain. We also carried a charter group from the Northern Ohio Railway Museum, which owns the other car of this series that's currently in museum operation, Shaker Heights 12. 

The rain stopped again in time for the BBQ dinner at 5:00. Above, the assembled congregation at the pavilion is entertained by an odd switch move including the Shay flanked by its coach-caboose consist on one side and the ex-C&NW Ohio crane on the other.

There were a lot of puddles all over the property, but really no flooding per se. The track just south of the Barn 9 North stop, though, had water nearly up to the top of the rail head. Fans claimed that the flanges of the cars were creating wakes. Above, after dinner it was time to light the lights. The 1374 was taken back to Barn 7 and the 3142 came out to join the 18 for the evening shift. Steven Jam was my conductor after dinner.

There had been trolley bus operation during the day and after dinner one of our newly acquired CTA buses came out and started making trips around the property. Richard, Steven, and the other bus guys have been reapplying the correct red and blue decals to this bus, which arrived in plain white paint.

Here's the 18 all lit up at Depot Street. Note to self: try and get the destination sign light circuit working. The car stayed in operation until sometime after 10:00; many thanks to Zach, Mikey, and Steven for keeping the car in service and ensuring it was put safely back in Barn 7 after I signed out! Thanks also to Harold and Andrew, the daytime and evening dispatchers respectively.

Here's the 460 at 50th Avenue; by this time, light rain had restarted. These cars really look terrific at the lit-up 'L' station. Greg pointed out how evocative this is of the image of the 460 at Wells Street on the back cover of the Shore Line bulletin "Cooperation Moves the Public."

And at the end of the night, "night bus" service was provided by the London Routemaster. As always, a great time was had by all.

Sunday Report

Frank writes...

The focus for me on Sunday was, again, the 451.

I spent a while needle-chipping and managed to effectively complete that task inside the car. The only areas of metal not already chipped are a couple of sections along the advertising card racks, which I want to leave intact so that there's some sample of the original paint color left. Next up: wire wheeling.

Richard (left), Greg (right), and Nick were working more on the new bumper for the end of the 268. Additional progress was made in heating it and bending it to the correct arc.

And pest that I am, I persuaded Richard and Greg to help me out with the 451 while the torch was out. The car only has a rope guard fitted at one end because the one for the other end was pretty badly bent when we got it. Fortunately, Richard and Greg - with some assistance from Bob, who happened by - were able to figure out how to get it restored to the correct arc shape. Nick snapped the above photo of Richard providing the heat while Greg and I do the bending.

Voila! I need to wire wheel and prime the areas that were heated, then paint the thing black, but after that it's ready to put on the car. Thanks also to Nick and Greg for helping me move the two third rail beams for the 451 off the bench in the wood shop and out into the barn. And finally, after dinner, Nick, Steven, Greg, and I made progress on repairs to the 600V switch in Barn 8.

This coming weekend is Museum Showcase Weekend, and all sorts of interesting operations are planned. Make sure to come out and join us - you don't want to miss out!

Friday Brief

Friday was a quiet day.  Most of the time it was just Tim and I in Barn 4.  Here Tim is spraying the rebuilt springs for one of  the bench seats in the 268.  This is in the west part of the barn.

And back behind the 451, I was stripping the wood molding strips for the interior.  

Outside, I was able to catch one of the steam guys disassembling the 1630's tender.  You can just see his head above the truck; he was running the crane by remote control.  I didn't want to bother him, of course, so I don't know his name.

And here's another set of bench springs in the shop being cleaned up.  Just like truck design, these have a combination of leaf springs and coil springs to provide a smooth ride.

And the many of the wooden strips for the 451 have been stripped, but there's more to do.

The Hall Closet

Everybody needs closet space, but in most electric railway cars that's hard to come by.  In many cars the toilet compartment doubles as a closet, but in cars without one there's usually no closet space at all.  But the last order of CA&E cars included five cars (451-455) with a small storage closet.

Anyway, here's the closet on the 451 with the door removed.  Inside, on the left you can just barely see the big ice breaker pole, the coat hooks, and the third rail slippers are on the floor, with various other things.  The door itself is only about 14" wide.  Don't open that door, McGee!!

But it needs to be stripped, so here it is on the operating table.  

And later, after some work with a heat gun, scrapers, and steel wool, it's down to bare wood.

Meanwhile, the other weekday projects continued.  Here Gerry is working on assembling the pilot for the Fox River 306.

And Jim is grinding some of the parts into shape.

And John (not shown) is making great progress on assembling the electrical controls at the east end.

Another project I need to work on is stripping the paint from the wooden molding strips attached to the ceiling of the 451.  

Tim is back from another cross-country bicycle ride, and he was working all day on woodwork for the 1268, but I didn't get any pictures.

Finally, over in Barn 8 Steve Smunt continues restoring the interior of the 277.  The rear vestibule is rather cramped, and so when I stopped by he was unable to open the door.  But looking through the window, you can see that most of the interior is now in white primer.  He's making good progress.