Cars 409 and 451 Arrive

CA&E cars 409 and 451 arrived at IRM today and were quickly unloaded. We now have this down to a science.

Here are the two cars as they were transported over the highway on dollies.

We had a large crew out today. Let's see how many I can name from memory: Nick, Stan, Julie, Joe, Charlie, Tim, Greg, Mike Alterio, Jeff Obarek, Frank S., Mike Stauber, Pete Pedersen, Henry, and who am I missing?

The 451 was unloaded first. Here one of the drivers is controlling the steerable rear dolly as the other driver backs the carbody into position. Silk Road has all the right tools for the job.

Here is a visual comparison of two types of trucks. The 409 (L) has a standard (for 1923) MCB-type truck with large GE 254 traction motors. The 451's truck (R) was built in 1945 and features a cast steel frame. The wheels are smaller and so are the motors.

After the unloading process was done, the 431 was brought up to act as a locomotive, since we don't have a good adapter coupler. Here we see IRM's first CA&E steel car train in motion!

The 451 will require some serious roof work.

Then it was time for the 409. I didn't take many pictures; it's pretty much the same operation. Chuck Amstein was there and taking a large number of pictures, so we'll post those when I get them.

And here is the 409-431 train. To the right, we look down the aisle through both cars.






CA&E car 460 and the South Shore line car 1100 are scheduled to arrive on Friday, and we'll unload them then. And that will be it! I think we will all be relieved when this whole process is completed.

Update: For a much more detailed description of everything that had to be done, you'll want to read (on the IRM Yahoo list, members only) Joe Stupar's account here.