Happenings Around the Museum

Frank writes…

Sunday was a day for miscellaneous projects and items on the “repair list,” the list of minor defects and problems reported by operating crews. I spent some time futzing around with a seat on the 309 that isn't throwing correctly, but determined that it will need to be disassembled so the faulty part can be fixed or replaced. Most of the "repair list" items for the 309 did get marked off, not because of anything I did, but because my father has been fixing things as he went along. I also helped Mikey, Joel, Steven, Will, and Zach lift a rebuilt grid box into place in the Class B and worked with Zach to switch the CA&E cars around so that the train at the door is now 319-309 rather than 319-308-309. Thanks, Zach! I didn't get photos of any of this work, but I did get pictures of some other random activity around the museum.

A DC Line Department crew consisting of Greg, Steven, and Jimmy was up at the station moving hardware from an old wooden line pole over to a newly placed steel pole. This is part of an effort to repave the west berth of the Station Track 1 platform, giving it nice concrete edges to match the east berth. The new steel line pole also has two of the old-style street lights mounted instead of just one.

The edge of the platform has been dug out alongside the tracks. Don't get off the train if it stops here - that first step's a doozy!

Greg pointed out something neat, namely that you can see where the original ground level was in this area. We have always known that the depot and the area around it was significantly filled in by IRM in the 1960s, since the ground was so low, and Greg is pointing to where you can see the nice black topsoil underneath the sandier fill.

Here's Jimmy, who needed to detach a now-unneeded guy wire and decided to ascend the pole the old-fashioned way, by using boots with big spikes in them. Some of the IRM old-timers were known for regularly clambering up line poles in this fashion, but of course we haven't used this gear for many years except as a curiosity.

Midway through the afternoon, a few of us trekked out to the volunteer entrance to welcome a couple of new arrivals. First in was this thing, a 1940 Railway Express Agency delivery truck built by International. A couple of IRM volunteers bought it after it spent seven decades or so slowly sinking into the mud on a farm in Kansas. The body is actually in pretty decent shape, notwithstanding the surface rust. If the guys can fix this thing up, it will make for some great photo ops.

The REA truck still has its last license plate from before it was parked, dating to 1950. The engine has catastrophic freeze damage, which may be what retired the thing.

Hot on its heels was CTA bus 3177, shown here. If you'll recall, earlier this year the bus departments acquired this ex-FAA/National Airport aircraft tug through federal surplus. And here's why: so we can use it to tow around buses. This particular bus has been in indoor, off-site storage near IRM, but now that the Bourne Transit Building is complete, it and the other buses stored off-site have returned home.

And finally, a moment of levity over in Barn 4 at the end of the day as Richard heats a metal plate with a torch. He and Greg put a couple of gentle bends in this rather beefy piece of metal so that it can be used as the end beam for the 268, visible behind Richard. Later in its life, as CRT 1268, the car was fitted with an anticlimber; but for the 1910s target date of its in-progress restoration, it didn't yet have the anticlimber. So, new steel for an old look is the order of the day.

Thursday Brief

 We have another brief report on what was happening on Thursday.  I finished cleaning the old paint and rust from the last of the scraper cylinders, and installed it on the final beam for the 451.  The car still needs three shoe assemblies, which will require new castings to be made.

And here it is with a coat of primer.

My other task was to finish stripping the paint from the partition door between the smoker and main compartment in the 451.  It needs to be sanded down on both sides, and should then be ready for painting, whenever that starts.  I noted that whereas the smoker side of the door had four layers of paint, the main compartment side had only three.  They must have repainted the smoker alone at some point.

John continued installing the switches in the electrical cabinet of the 360.  And finally, Jack was making a new door, which looks great.

Switching 13

Many thanks to Steven, who sent along photos of some of the Saturday switching to finish the "loading" of Barn 13. With Barn 15 complete, the steam-road equipment formerly in Barn 13 has been redistributed, meaning that pretty much all of Barn 13 is electric equipment.

Here we are in Yard 8. The 2600-series CTA car on the left is about 20 years newer than the 2200-series car on the right.

This is over in Barn 13, I believe, with the New York subway cars on the left and the CTA 6400s on the right.

Here's the New York cars being switched around at South Junction.

The M1 was also involved in the switch move. It lives inside, but had to be left outside overnight while the switch move was in progress. Since rain was forecast, it acquired some tarps on its rather porous roof for short-term protection.

That's more like it! The 453 was moved around a bit.

Knoxville 419 moved from Barn 13 up to Barn 8, where it will go on public display for the first time in (I think?) 10 years or so, since it left Barn 7.

This car is an excellent candidate for cosmetic restoration, if I do say so myself. Maybe one of these years.

Tuesday News

Tuesday was rather lonely -- just John Sheldon and I.  Several of the other guys are on vacation or had other plans.  But we always have plenty of productive things to keep us busy.

John was working on the interior wiring for the 306.  This is the resplendent main compartment.

Here he is installing the wiring for the various circuits at the #1 end.  Because it was so heavily modified by Shaker Heights, almost everything on the 306 has needed to be replaced or rebuilt in order to be historically accurate as a Fox River car.  This has been a long, intensive restoration.

Meanwhile, I need one more sleet scraper cylinder for the 451.  After some work, I managed to free it from the old beam.  It's quite rusty, of course.

With some work, it's much improved, but more work is needed.

The more important project is the interior.  I'm stripping the partition door.  The old paint may be faded, but it's still very hard to get rid of.  And there are four layers of paint to remove.

Sunday Report

Frank writes…

My focus on Sunday was doing more needle-chipping in the 451. I know, this is getting pretty repetitive, but the good news is that the end of the needle-chipping is in sight.

I completed most of the #2 end bulkhead, as shown above, as well as about half the remaining window posts in the main compartment. Once I do the remaining posts, the only areas left to chip will be the top bulkhead panel (after I trace the car number) and a few sections of advertising card rack. I may leave those rack sections in place, though; even if we overcoat them, it preserves some of the original paint. I'm thinking it over.

During one of my breaks, I happened upon Richard, who was testing out the newer of the two Janesville buses in advance of Bus Day next month. He gave me a lift over to the new Bourne Transit Building at the south end of the property to see the progress there. The most exciting thing to me, I'll have to admit, was our old friend, air compressor wagon AX545. Dan has removed the wheels, and he and some of the other shop guys have started removing the fragments of old solid-rubber tire and cleaning up the cast wheels. These will be shipped to our good friend Paul, on the west coast, who knows of a company there that can put authentic replacement tires on the wheels.

Remember, this work is possible thanks to the generous support of readers like you who donated to the AX545 project! Interested in supporting more of these random one-off projects? Click here for our current get-rich quick scheme fundraising effort.

Of more general interest, Richard had just finished putting up quite a bit of pallet racking. The Bourne Building is capable of holding buses five lanes wide if you park them closely (and we do), but the back half will hold four lanes plus quite a bit of parts storage.

The building isn't full yet, but Richard and his crew are working hard at shifting buses around and loading them in. This unusual lineup features the aforementioned Janesville "no fuss bus" flanked by a CSL White, the older of the Janesville buses, and the Indianapolis trolley bus.

After dinner, I finally installed replacement flag brackets on the open car. It arrived in 2009 with makeshift flag brackets that Trolleyville had fashioned by taking pieces of conduit and beating them flat at one end. Besides looking stupid, these weren't large enough to hold a normal flag "stick." So, here are some legitimate brackets, displaying flags honoring both countries the car has called home. Notes for motormen: first, the flags are in the same location as the handles in a clearly labeled bag, so feel free to use them if you like; and second, per flag code, it does matter which goes on which side! The flags are marked L and R.

Simms Collection -- More Kodacolor

We just have a few more of these yellowed Kodacolor prints to look at, I promise.  The first few are interesting because they show a fantrip with Crandic 120 -- which, as everyone should know by now, was actually our first car, IRR 65, in disguise.

And then, some CA&E trains crossing the B&OCT at Forest Park.

Two wood cars, headed by #30, I think.

Earlier steel cars, headed by 417.

And finally, four St. Louis cars. headed by 456.

Wednesday Work Wrapup

Wednesday was another busy day for the Car Dept.  Over in Barn 8, Steve Smunt was working again on the rear vestibule of the 277.  Unfortunately, none of my pictures were worth posting, but he's making good progress.  Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

In Barn 4, one of the major projects is the Michigan Electric 28.  The front compartment has been mostly restored, and work is now concentrating on the smoker.

Several people are working on this, under the direction of Norm Krentel.

I put a first coat of black on the last two third-rail beams.

Tim continues recovering the bench seats with rattan.

Meanwhile, the 460 was holding down passenger service:

Finally, we have another "WHAT IS IT?" quiz.  This was found among the collection of old ME 28 interior parts.  It's about 4" wide.  None of us could say for sure what it might be.

Answers will be judged by our panel of experts, all of whom have 50+ years in this business.

Good luck!

Simms Collection -- Yet More CSL

More Chicago Surface Lines photos from Al Simms.

As before, reader comments are in italics.

#1       Argo, Mar. 1934
C&J and CSL 5508
Karl Pearson

      #2         5-26-40
South Chicago & Keefe

#3
25th and Laramie

#4         Halsted & Congress
1940

#5       State & Randolph

The next group need to be viewed through rose-colored glasses, or something.  They are all Kodacolor prints, with processing dates in 1949 and 1950.  None of them have any notes.  I don't have the tools or the talent to fix the color, unlike at least one of my competitors, so WYSIWYG. 

#6

#7
Looking across the Wabash bridge towards the Wrigley Building

#8
4323 W. North Ave.

#9

#9

#10

#11

This last one is not CSL, of course; it's a couple of Met cars at the Forest Park diamonds:

#12