Museum Showcase

The Saturday of our Museum Showcase Weekend was a great success.  The weather was perfect, there were lots of visitors and members, and a good time was had by all. 

 Frank, David, and myself were the crew on the three-car wood train.  I had planned on just running two cars, but the boys talked me into it, and on most of our trips all three cars were nearly full, so it was certainly the right thing to do.

 I was too busy to take as many pictures as I'd like, as often happens.  Fortunately, our friend Chuck Amstein was there, and he'll be sending us plenty of better shots of everything.  It's an annual tradition.  The Museum's first car, Indiana RR #65, was operating.  It was temporarily disabled when the shoe became dislodged from the pole, but that was soon fixed by the Car Department's mobile SWAT team.

And the Zephyr was operating in revenue service, after the FRA inspection was completed.  Here it is alongside the 309; the next time we see it, it will be running on the CB&Q mainline to Galesburg!

The 1268, 1797, and 1808 were also operating.  I didn't get a chance to ride the wood L cars, but others did.

 After dark I served as conductor on the 65, until going dead.  Dan Fenlaciki was the motorman.  Night time operations are always an enjoyable experience, especially when I don't have to do all the work of putting everything away afterwards!

And we got to talk to lots of people, including a few old-time members we don't see very often.

Watch for more posts about this subject!


Frank adds...
 
As is often the case with Members Day, there were a lot of unusual things happening.   At left, some of the museum's oldest interurban equipment meets some of its newest at 50th Avenue.  It's always neat to operate into the 'L' station just for a change of pace!









Unfortunately this was the best photo I was able to get of CRT 1797's passenger service debut, though I'm certain others got better shots.  It operated along with trailer 1268 for a couple of trips in the late afternoon and another nighttime trip.  What a beauty!





Indiana Railroad 65 lost a trolley shoe out on the railroad so some Car Department workers had to go out with tools to rescue it; fortunately, like many traditional Midwestern interurbans, the car carries spare poles on its roof so they just needed to swap out the pole!  After it returned, volunteers rolled a baggage cart up to the car's baggage door to unload the tools and parts.  Here (L-R) Greg Kepka, Joe Stupar, Gwyn Stupar and Charlie Strong roll the cart up while Dan Fenlaciki in the car gets ready to hand out the tools.  Just like the good old days!




Late in the afternoon the wood cars got shunted into Station Track 2, which is rare mileage for these cars.  David is seen ready to board just before the cars headed west back out of Station Track 2 to return to the barn via Station Track 1.




Just before dinner the museum's oldest trolley bus - actually the oldest operating trolley bus in the country - made a couple of trips.  Chicago Surface Lines 84 is seen here spotted at Central & Depot alongside the UP turbine.




  
I wasn't able to ride the 1797 during the day but David and I were both among a gaggle of Car Department volunteers who managed to clamor aboard for a nighttime trip.  It's hard to believe the transformation this car has gone through in only two short years, courtesy of Tim Peters and Frank Kehoe.  It was a fun end to a fun day!