Monday, June 23, 2014

Summer Day on the Railroad

Frank writes...

 Sunday I signed up as motorman on the wood train.  It was a quiet day; there wasn't much of a crowd despite the weather being pretty nice, in the low 80s and sunny though with some humidity.  My conductor was Mike McCraren, shown below boarding passengers for one of our trips.
The cars ran well though a few minor issues cropped up.  The most significant was that one of the armrests on the 309 came loose, but between trips I was able to take it over to the car shop and effect a quick repair.  We also need to look at a baulky take-up spring on one of the 309's retrievers.  Each retriever has two springs, a "catcher" or take-up spring which simply keeps the trolley rope taut and a powerful retrieve spring that yanks the pole down if it dewires.

 "Doodlebug Dan" Mulvihill went for a training trip with us later in the day, after which I needed to leave early - fortunately our indefatigable crew caller Jim West came to the rescue and took the 308 and 309 out for the last trip of the day.  Thanks, Jim!
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 25, 2014 at 2:39 PM

    Frank,
    Do you think that anyone is going to run a train of steel C,A & E cars this summer?

    It would be nice to show off all that new paint that the museum has put on them since arrival at IRM.

    Ted miles
    IRM Member

    ReplyDelete
  2. Randall HicksJune 26, 2014 at 4:21 PM

    Ted, just because you asked, we have decided to schedule the steel cars for several more operating days this summer, starting this Saturday, June 28. It looks like we still need a motorman, though. Then they'll be making two trips for the Pageant on July 5, and the next day after that is July 12. And so on. So log onto the webcam!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joel AhrendtJune 26, 2014 at 4:55 PM

    I'll swap out the retreiver with a different one, and leave it for the repair guy to get to.

    ReplyDelete

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