Time for painting

I was able to make it out to IRM on Sunday for a rather warm and humid day in the low 90's, yet still a productive one. Much of the afternoon I spent on a couple of trips to the Sherwin-Williams store in Crystal Lake, accompanied by Frank Sirinek and with additional help from Rod Turner, to get a match made for "Indiana Railroad orange" using that company's industrial enamel paint. What we ended up with was close, if not identical, to the original sample, so I painted a small patch of it onto the 205 (below) to compare with our sample. The color may be slightly off, but in that case we'll have a reference to work from and should be able to get it spot-on the next time we go back. In the meantime, we have a gallon of paint that I can start to put on the car as a first coat. Exciting stuff - it's been a while that I've been hoping to start turning this car orange!
Another example of painting progress sits just two cars down from the 205 on track 73. Chicago Surface Lines 9020, the only surviving Chicago streetcar trailer, is getting some fresh red and cream paint courtesy of Frank Sirinek and Dan Fenlaciki, as seen below. Once this car is repainted it will make a great companion to CSL/CTA 460, displayed next to it and repainted by Frank a few years ago. Unfortunately no cars were preserved that ever hauled trailers in Chicago, so the 9020 will remain a static display piece.
After this I sauntered over to the shop, where Joel Ahrendt (below left) was working with Greg Kepka on putting a fresh coat of paint on the roof of the 160. Even the indefatigable Nick Kallas (below right) stopped by to help hold the ladder in place! I helped Joel for a bit with painting the roof on the car, a job which he was able to complete before dinnertime.









And now make sure you take a deep breath of that fresh air because we're about to take a voyage from the realm of clean electric traction over to the odiferous land of internal combustion! First, the Diesel Department fired up the museum's Alco RSD15 (below left) for the very first time on Sunday. Former AT&SF 841, it is currently in LS&I/GBW paint. Note the expectant onlookers gathered around for the show, which turned out to be fairly impressive, as Alcos often can be. And at below right, yet another newly-acquired bus was spotted. This one, a former CTA fishbowl, was roaming the property under power and is apparently getting some new windows installed.