Feel the Extra Power

I was able to spend a partial day out at IRM on Sunday afternoon and managed to get a fair amount done.  First, I washed down the 205 in preparation for putting the final coat of Indiana Railroad orange on it, which I'm hoping to embark upon within the next week or two.  Dan Mulvihill took the photo below.

Dan also helped retrieve the #1 end pilot for the 36 from one of our storage containers and we brought it back to Barn 4, where I needle-chipped it (as seen below).  It will still need to be wire-wheeled and painted, but it can then be put back on the 36 to make the car's under-floor equipment complete again.

The museum was very busy on the last day of the Thomas event, which was good to see, particularly considering how nice the weather was.  The usual slate of equipment was operating except that the two-car CA&E steel train had been substituted in for the North Shore cars.  Norm Krentel and Jeff Brady were working on Michigan Electric 28 (Jeff is shown below) too.  They're nearly finished on the wooden roof at the east end of the car, which went much more quickly than the roof at the west end.  Once that's done they'll almost be ready for canvas!

But what about the "extra power" mentioned in the post title, you ask?  Well, at the end of the day Dan stopped by to say the Diesel Department guys were bringing South Shore 803 out of Barn 2 for testing.  So naturally I went over to have a look.

After a bit of testing, and tightening down a loose gasket that made a sound like squirrels being tortured every time the air compressor ran, the ComEd diesel towed the 803 out onto the main line in front of the station and released its brakes.  Jamie began notching up the 803 and ran a couple of brief trips back and forth in front of the station - sure enough, it still works, 21 years after its last foray onto the main line!

It's an impressive locomotive, 88' long and rated at over 5,000 hp.  They went for two mainline trips, though they stopped short of Johnson Siding on both.  The wire frogs aren't configured for pantographs so the pans had to be dropped at each frog.  Nevertheless, the test was considered a success and the 803 is now ready to participate in the 60th Anniversary event next weekend.