On the Move Again

Today started off with another huge switch move, involving inter-departmental cooperation between Car, Diesel, and Track. The 319 was moved over to the heated shop in Barn 2. The locomotive for the first part of this move was the 431, and here's a close-up of the adapter coupler.

Here, then, is another unique train. Although the 319 and 431 are from the same railroad, and will soon have the same paint scheme, they never normally operated together.

Part of this switch move involved pulling the 966 out of Barn 2 for the first time since the barn was built, we believe. This Milwaukee streetcar was acquired for parts; its EIB trucks were placed under the 354 many years ago. It now sits on freight car trucks, and hasn't seen the light of day since 1976, when the barn was built over it, as I recall.

Due to the heavy use of salt on Milwaukee streets, the underframes on these cars rusted out badly, and the floor heaved up over the truck bolsters, as seen here. The 972 had the same problem, but this was fixed several years ago.


The 309 and 321 lived in Barn 2 many years ago, from 1984 to about 1992, so this is like old times, a little. It was an awful place to have to work, dark, crowded, and dreary. The facility has been vastly improved since that time. There's still a few relics of my stay there. These wall lockers were in the smoker of the 321, and the lightning arrester cabinet beside them was fastened to one wall. The lockers are empty, and I might have good use for them again.

Let's see if I can summarize the switch move: the 319 went where the 749 was, the 749 went where the 68 was, the 68 went where the 409 was, the 409 moved up into an empty slot, and the Twin City PCC moved into 8 where the 319 was. Thus Frank will be able to do serious work on it, towards getting it into operation. And there was a lot more switching in Barn 2; I have no hope of getting that right, so see the Diesel department blog!

And here is the 319 on its way into Barn 2: passing (L) the Burlington 504, and approaching (R) the roll-up door on track 52.

Finally, it's placed inside the shop alonside the 451, in another IRM re-creation, this time of the Wheaton paint shop.

Al Reinschmidt was out today, and helped with stripping some more window frames, as seen here.


I installed the latch on one of the recently repainted windows and put it back in the car. And removed two others to take back to the shop.

And I installed the refinished seat back seen last time. Ah, that's much better! The cushion was removed to take home, so it can be done next.

I can't say enough about how much work was being done on the 451 today. There were at least four different guys taking turns needle-chipping the sides, and work was also being done on the motors and various parts of the end platforms, by Charlie Strong and others.

To the right, we see Dan Fenlaciki needle-chipping the sides, and behind him a new member named Kevin something. Sorry, I should have written it down. Then there was Eric Zabelny and and several others. And there were at least two other needle-chippers going on Diesel Dept. projects, so it's really loud in there!

And finally, here Jeff Obarek is putting a first coat of primer on the roof of the 451 with a roller. It looks great!

All in all, we're making progress in full parallel, with the field taps in. So hang on tight!

Update: Gwyn Stupar sent along a link to her Flickr stream here, which has lots more pictures, mostly of the 749 (natch!). And also her site for wedding and other event photography here.

Update: and Dick Lukin was working on the 451 on Saturday; one of the side doors was taken to the shop, where he removed the hinges and wire-brushed them, then the window frame.