I had a couple of hours to spare downtown, so I went to the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society) at Clark and North. It contains all sorts of Chicago-related material, and there are many different sorts of displays celebrating Chicago's proud history of crime, vice, corruption, violence, bigotry, exploitation, and things like that. But my main interest, of course, was in the railroad equipment.
There are just two pieces of equipment in the collection, but they're both uniquely historic. It's fortunate that they're now safely housed in a climate-controlled environment, and should last forever. The lighting, as you will notice, is dim. So you had to be there.
The Pioneer is the first locomotive to operate in Chicago, on the Chicago and Galena Union, by far the oldest surviving Baldwin engine, and the only one built during Matthias Baldwin's lifetime. It was also perhaps the first locomotive selected for historic preservation. It's been modified over the years, and ran under steam occasionally until 1948, so some modifications have been made. But the basic design is unchanged.
The Pioneer is the first locomotive to operate in Chicago, on the Chicago and Galena Union, by far the oldest surviving Baldwin engine, and the only one built during Matthias Baldwin's lifetime. It was also perhaps the first locomotive selected for historic preservation. It's been modified over the years, and ran under steam occasionally until 1948, so some modifications have been made. But the basic design is unchanged.
To the left, perhaps you can make out some of the drop-hook valve gear, which uses double eccentrics, mounted outside the main rods.
This is a view of the truck, with the bottom of the cylinder; you can see the two cylinder cocks with the control rods. The frame is on either side of the boiler, attached with heavy angle brackets. You have to see it to believe it.
The cab is open for visitors, with signs explaining some of the controls. Several parts are missing, but they were probably replacements anyway. For the 1948 Railroad Fair the C&NW built a replica four-wheel tender, and it was displayed at the Villa Park CA&E station for many years, but it has disappeared.John H. White wrote a small book about the history of this locomotive, which they used to sell at the museum but it's no longer available. I'll dig it out and update some of the history. It's a fascinating story.
And then there is South Side Rapid Transit car #1, the first rapid transit car in Chicago. It was built by Jackson & Sharp in 1892 as a trailer to be pulled by steam; it was electrified in 1897 with the new Sprague MU system, and that's the period to which it has been restored.
The car is open to the public, but carefully arranged to avoid wear and tear. The car was preserved by the CTA until about five years ago, then given to the CHM for public display.
Some plexiglass boxes were cleverly designed to keep people from sitting on the cross seats.
The motorman's cab.
The chain-driven reverser is mounted under the longitudinal seats, which have been removed here so you can see the mechanism.
The compressor. The car seems to have retained all of its electrical equipment.
The motor truck. It's completely dark under the car, and I couldn't see what I was about to take a flash picture of, so I'm not even sure what the equipment mounted just over the truss rod might be. Help?
Update: My old friend Tom Hunter sends along this picture (slightly cropped) of the South Side car when it was in storage at Wrightwood. It's in much nicer quarters now!
Update: My old friend Tom Hunter sends along this picture (slightly cropped) of the South Side car when it was in storage at Wrightwood. It's in much nicer quarters now!
5 comments:
looks like an electric horn maybe, but an odd location??
The car is indeed electrically complete; I believe the only components missing are the motor pinions. It's the only surviving car with original Sprague MU control, basically a large K-controller driven by a pilot motor mounted in the canopy over one platform. If memory serves it has a Plexiglas panel over it too, but it isn't well lit and is easy to miss if you're not looking for it.
1) I have a distant relative who operated the Pioneer, Sam Wheeler, Sup't of Power for a division of the CNW and I have a pix of him standing in front of it.
2) Regarding the dummies. They were built and displayed at a lot of CNW towns as part of their centennial. There were two, the Pioneer and a "400" diesel unit. Later they were sold. The Pioneer went to the Erie RR and later was supposedly put on display at the Hoboken Ferry Terminal. This last part I have not been able to verify and anyone who has better info, I would love to hear about it. I also have a cc of RR Fair correspondence regarding its operation in the fair with reasonably good reports which indicates that it received some work in the shops before being operated. The "400" was sold to the MoPac, and, so far, that's where the trail ends. Pictures of both dummies are in the exhibit about the Railroad fair in the Special Exhibits, aka Art Train, car at IRM. As a side note the filming of the CNW centennial film scenes using the Pioneer (not under power) were filmed on the CNW track on the west side of Geneva which was still rural enough back then to give the right look.
I gave SS #1 a good looking over before it left Skokie Shops, and I concluded that those odd things above the truss rod were air vents.
A couple of other notes...the car currently has M23 brake valves that were added by Skokie in 1962. In service it had M1 valves. Also, the compressor motor was enclosed in a wood box, which is missing today.
Thanks for the comments, everybody!
1) I too noticed the controller up in the ceiling of the front vestibule, but what you see must be the back. There was nothing to take a picture of.
2) Ray, if you could get this picture to me I'd love to scan it in and post it. And when I find time, I'll dig out White's book and maybe do a little book review.
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