Trolley Pageant Recap

The 309's activities over the weekend have already been well cataloged, but I figured I would just write down an overview of the July 4th Trolley Pageant. This year's Pageant was a little different that the past ones, with the cars in a different order. The event was organized by Bob Heinlein with the help of Rod Turner and many others who greased switches, did car inspections, served as ground men and operated cars. The Pageant started at 1:08 and lasted for an hour, almost to the minute. The parade was led off by CTA 4391 and IT 415, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of streetcar service on the CTA and the Illinois Terminal, respectively. The "order of battle" was:

CTA 4391
IT 415
CNS&M 749 - 251
CNS&M 714 - 160
CA&E 431
CA&E 309 - 308
CRT 1808 - CER 1754
CTA 4290 - 4410 - 4412
CTA 41 - 22
SEPTA 55
CSL 1374
CSL 144
CTA 3142
SS 68
IT 101
IT 1565
CE 4
WEPCO L7
CNS&M 229
WEPCO L4 - CNS&M 604

I used the occasion to take photos of some of the equipment in the parade to add to the museum website; cars whose irm.org Car Dept photo albums were created or enhanced are linked above. Virtually the entire fleet that took part in the parade was photographed by Adam Robillard and can be seen here. A few photos of the preparations for the parade are above, including a shot of 1808 coming out of Barn 8, 229 sunning itself in Yard 6 while 714 and 431 wait in the wings, and an "only at IRM" shot of the 4391 and 415 with the Broad Street Subway car between them. The photo below shows the view in Yard 8 during prep for the parade. Only in Union!And finally, I'll leave you with a photo taken during revenue service on Saturday of the Hicks Car Works blog team - left to right are myself, Randy Hicks and David Wilkins.