The blue cars were supposed to run today, and I was ready to be a trainman. But it was dark and cloudy, and drizzled on and off during the day, so Jim West and Bob Opal decided to run 4000's instead. The weather should be much better for the Transport Extravaganza tomorrow.
Two long-time friends of ours from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum were visiting: Bill Fronczek and Bruce Wells. Norm and I talked to them for a while about various subjects., and we looked at some of the cars from Trolleyville. They've been here several times before over the years, of course.I spent some time working on replacing a couple of parts in the 319's air system, and looked at the 321 again.
Many of the Car Department regulars went to East Chicago today to help get several South Shore cars ready for movement. They had been stored at a steel mill there, and are being transferred to East Troy. This may be the last time interurban cars travel on their own wheels over a regular railroad, so I'm hoping somebody will send us some pictures!
Here are the window frames from Elgin & Belvidere car 208, that Bob mentioned below. These are removable storm sash for winter use, since there's no way to raise the window.
Finally, Henry Vincent brought out the open car, Veracruz #19, for some training trips, and then revenue service. I got qualified on the car along with several others, and it should be running again tomorrow.I had to leave early to go to a cocktail party, but I plan to be running the 308 and 309 all day tomorrow, along with hundreds of antique automobiles and other vehicles on display. You won't want to miss it!
18 comments:
CSS&SB cars are going to East Troy? Wasn't it they who scrapped some perfectly good 1-50's? Please tell me these cars are not meeting the same fate. o.o;;
Seriously though, how many cars are there being moved?
It is the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, please. We haven't used the Arden name in almost 20 years.
Art Schwartz
Five SS cars, I think.
Art:
Sorry, I'm just behind the times. What's a mere twenty years?
Just remember Randy, 8 hours bottle to throttle!
I don't beleive that East Troy scrapped any 1-50 cars. They did scrap several cabooses as well as the Green Bay wood interurban body.
I know that at least one of the 1-50 cars from East Troy is now in South Elgin at FRTM.
John C
They have drastically rebuilt several SSL cars at ET. Hopefully these will receive historical treatment and indoor storage they have enjoyed over the years.
And... as you watch the cars leave Gary... so fades the last of the dream to restore or demonstrate historic interurban service in NW Indiana
I would expect similar treatment to the cars as the current cars have seen, ie changes to accomodate the lower voltage, pantographs removed and poles installed, different paint scheme, and basically "adaptive re-use"
East Troy considers itself an electric tourist line, not a museum operation.
JC
John C, they did indeed scrap two of their three 5-50s. Last November about fifteen of us went up there and stripped the 28 and 35 down to the frame...when we got done they looked like a plague of locusts had gotten to them. The bodies went to scrap in Milwaukee about a month later.
There's a number glass from the 35 about ten feet from me right now.
The "plague of locusts" has long been an IRM specialty.
And let me remind everybody that we're not here to bash East Troy or anybody else. Thanks.
I notice a lot of work went into the new CA&E Cars (including painting). How come the Veracruz car wasn't repainted in Veracruz colors before being released?
Tim Lesniak
Warehouse Point
Okay I must have missed something. Where did these E&B storm sashes come from?? The E&B body in Union?
As far as I know, a decision still hasn't been made about how the Veracruz car will be painted. It was heavily rebuilt by Trolleyville so it's not really original, though it somewhat resembles its as-built appearance.
The sashes were stored in a local barn. They're certainly from an interurban car, and E&B 208 is as likely a candidate as any. We have one single, twelve complete doubles and parts of another, so that matches the 208's side windows exactly.
The 208 was the one which had the "phone booth" cab installed at Wheaton. I've always thought this must be a practical joke by the CA&E shop forces, they would never do anything like this to their own cars!
What do you mean by a "phone booth" cab? Do you mean the kind of cab like on North Shore cars?
No, it's unique. It stuck out onto the front platform -- you have to see the pictures to believe it.
And I now realize I must have made a mistake in counting somewhere. Stay tuned.
I wasn't sure if the Veracruz car was going to be restored back to as built condition. I figured that it would be restored back to original.
Tim Lesniak
Warehouse Point
I've heard a couple of different stories about the "phone booth" extensions on the ends of the 208. One was that it was rebuilt following a bad wreck, the other is that it was done in the final years of one-man service, to move the motorman out of the passenger flow on the platforms. Either way, apparently it was just an experiment, since none of the E&B's other cars were modified that way.
Regardless, I think it looked awful. Cars 207-209 were very attractive cars as built, and I remember seeing a pic of it for the first time and thinking "How could somebody DO that to a poor innocent interurban car????"
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