How to Spend Big Money on Railfanning

While visiting my wife's relatives in her hometown, I learned that one of the local controversies was the city's decision to spend something like $650,000 buying up some bottom land along the river to create a park, the sole attraction of which is the old C&EI trestle across the Kaskaskia River, still in use by the UP.  So I decided to get their money's worth by taking a few pictures for you.  We never saw anybody else using the park, and I hope you appreciate getting these expensive views for free!   

Tuesday Report

If you're getting bored with pictures of the same old third-rail beams, you're not alone.  So am I.  But these are the last ones for the foreseeable future, I promise you.  They're going to the 451, which is being restored for operation soon, as you may have read elsewhere.

Anyway, last week the new wood was jointed, cut, and glued.  On Tuesday it was crosscut to length, the notches were cut on the big bandsaw, and all the holes were drilled, as seen here.

In more exciting news, the famous Transport Extravaganza is coming up soon!  This is, we are told, the largest antique car show in Illinois, and it's right here at IRM next Sunday, August 2.  Among other attractions, the three-car CA&E wood train will be operating, probably the oldest operating cars in the show.  Be that as it may, I went over to 8 to fill up the oil in the compressors.  We still don't have trolley power in 8, so I wasn't able to test the brakes, but I'm sure it will be in operation.  Don't miss it, and tell your friends!

In Barn 8, I happened to run into my old friend Steve Smunt, who is continuing to make good progress on restoring the interior of the 277.  It can be lonely there, we can tell you.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the rear vestibule; taking pictures is difficult in such a confined space.  But he's doing a great job!

And then I checked the compressors, and all is well.  Be there on Sunday!

Jack continued working on the 109, and Gerry was welding up the pilots for the 306.  But I didn't get any pictures.  Tim, of course, continued his work on the 1268 -- here he is rebuilding the bench seats.

And last but not least, the third-rail beams got a first coat of primer on most surfaces.  Next will be preparing the shoe assemblies and scraper cylinders for installation.

And after that project is done, I'm sure there will be other things that need to be done.  There always are.

But you'll read about it here first, we promise!

Return to the 451

Frank writes…

It’s been a few months since we made any progress on the 451 - time-sensitive projects such as inspections, prepping the 321 for Villa Park, and public operations took precedence. But the 451 is still very much a priority.

Sunday was a slow day in the car shop, as several of the regulars were in Pullman working the IC MU exhibit there. The weather was also very hot and muggy. But I spent much of the afternoon needle-chipping in the 451. Above, the “before” picture of the #2 end of the main compartment.

And here’s the “after” photo. The odious job of needle- chipping the ceiling is now complete. Of course, we still need to finish needle-chipping the walls - that’s the next task - and wire-wheeling it all to get it ready for paint. Want to help? I've got good news! With temperatures as hot as they are, I got the okay to move the department's portable A/C unit into the 451. We can now cool down the interior of the car, to some degree anyway, making it one of the nicer places at IRM to work on a hot day. As far as you know. Anyway, if you think you might be interested in helping move the 451 project forward, drop me a line and I'll give you some specifics.

In other news, Richard, Brian, and Joel were out, and conducted some repairs to the overhead over at Electric Park. Joel was running the 431 for Take the Throttle trips while Mikey ran the 3142 and, later in the day, the 144 in regular service.

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 this 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!