Odds and Ends

First, Art Peterson sends us a couple of in-service shots of cars that we've seen as bodies in earlier installments of "Diners and More".   We have a nice shot of an Aurora 50-series Birney at the carhouse; for some reason, the car doesn't appear to be lettered at all, so its number is a mystery.  Perhaps this was taken just after delivery.   And then a picture of Chicago and Joliet Electric #227.   

He has also offered to search for in-service shots of cars now at IRM.   Some of these are better than others, and I've taken the liberty of adjusting the exposure, contrast, shadows, etc.  See what you think.   We might be able to supply more of these for your viewing pleasure.

In color, you would of course see that the 749 is in the attractive maroon and orange paint scheme.  I still do not understand why anyone would think dark green was an improvement over this, but that's just me....

Finally, Nick Kallas politely asked me to remind you again about Bus Day -- that's tomorrow!   Ray's latest update mentions that we're inviting any private owners of vintage buses to bring them out to the Museum for display.  So that may be an added incentive to come on out for Bus Day.   As it happens, I own a vintage bus that I recently restored to its as-built red paint scheme.   But I think I'll leave it home.

Diners and More, Part 6

More interesting photos sent to us by Art Peterson.

All Images Copyright by the Krambles-Peterson Archive

For our next installment, we'll start with some very nearby items.  First, the body of Aurora Birney 87 on a farm along Wagner Road, between Batavia and Warrenville.   Taken Feb. 5, 1966 by Tom Desnoyers.  We've posted pictures of what happened to #85 before.  It's in the CA&E Photo Album, just scroll down.

Then there is the body of Chicago and Joliet Electric #228, a Stone and Webster design, sitting in an auto graveyard in Rockdale.  Photo c. 1956 by Johnnie Williams.

This body was still in existence as recently as 2001.   Photo by Art Peterson.

A couple more pictures of the Kankakee and Urbana car, taken in Urbana Oct. 7, 1961 by George Krambles.

 Farther away, an interurban car body from the Jamestown Westfield and Northwestern, in Jamestown, NY.   Taken in 1967 by W. McCaleb.

And finally, a PEPCO box motor near Bellrose, Oregon.   Taken June 11, 1956 by George Krambles.

Wednesday Report - Updated

Time for a report on another productive Wednesday.   No matter how early I get there, the contractors are already at work.   Today they finished up most of the work on raising and tamping both tracks along the Central Avenue extension.  In the morning, it looked like this:

This next picture shows how the tamper can be moved from one track to another.  It raises itself up on its turntable, and is rotate 90 degrees by hand.  Loose rails are laid over to the other track, and it rolls north until it's centered over the north track, then jacked up, rotated, and set down.  Pretty clever.

And now the north track is being tamped.

Don Bosan-Bruno was out again, and helped on several projects.   We started by replacing the leaking cut-out cock for the whistle at the #1 end of the 36,  Don sends along a couple of pictures of the process.

This is starting to get me angry.

Parts being reassembled in the shop.

And as assembled in the car.

   It took quite a while to take all the plumbing apart and put it back together again, but when we were done, the leak was fixed.  At least it's fun to test!   In the picture, the new parts are not blue.  

Lorne continues to work on installing newly repainted parts in the Cleveland PCC.

After finishing the whistle project, we started stripping the controller cover for the #2 end of the 36.   You can see how the paint was badly alligatored, for some reason.  We started using a heat gun, then switched over to just wire-wheeling all the way down.

And when this was done, Don gave it a first coat of primer.

 Buzz shows off the Pullman ladder for the Ely he will be restoring soon.

But more impressive is this:

Where are we?   Gosh, this is actually the Lean-3.   Buzz and the others have been cleaning it up in preparation for ARNFEST, the annual meeting of old machinery enthusiasts.  Among other things, our ancient jointer has been moved and partly disassembled:

The visitors will include some babbiting experts, who will be pouring new bearings for the jointer.  On Saturday, remind me to bring over four motor bearings for the 309.   Do they offer bearing repair while you wait, I hope?

  

 Victor shows off some Bondo repairs to the wagon-top boxcar, on one badly rusted panel.  They're just touching up a few minor details before final painting can be done.  This isn't his only current project; they're also starting to install tack molding on the Pennsy bobber.  

One thing that had been bugging me for a while is that when the 319 was painted back in 2010, the Armstrong window-wiper mechanisms weren't masked off, so parts of each wiper were red.  It should be entirely black.   

So Don and I decided to fix this.  The wipers were masked off, and Don sprayed both of them with gloss black.

After being sprayed: (photo by Don Bosan-Bruno)

It's a big improvement, if you know what to look for.  Pay no attention to that destination sign in the window.

Rebuilt and cleaned-up Kevin sign for the 308.   This one dates back to 2001.

And by the end of the day, both tracks, at least the parts being done at this stage, have been raised, tamped, lined, and cleaned up.   I just can't wait for the paving to start!

Diners and More, Part 5: Michigan Electric

More interesting photos sent to us by Art Peterson.

All Images Copyright by the Krambles-Peterson Archive

For our next installment, we'll concentrate on the Michigan Electric.  I have some old friends who occasionally express a mild interest in this line, so here goes.  With one exception, all of these pictures were taken by George Krambles on Oct. 18 and 19, 1959.

It seems that nearly all of the cars identical to our #28 were originally preserved as bodies somewhere in Michigan.   This is #26, near Albion.  

And then a couple more of #31, the Silver Diner in Parma:

And ten years later, a photo by W. McCaleb:

Next, an unidentified box trailer near Leslie:

A Kalamazoo city car used as a diner in Martin:

And a Lansing city car, used as a shed on a farm near Leslie.

Hanging By a Thread

From the Bill Wulfert collection, we have another interesting set of slides:

On November 6, 1994 our C&LE box motor #640 arrived from Ohio where it had been converted into a Diesel locomotive by its second owner, American Aggregates (Bob Bruneau: "American Aggravates") for use in a quarry.  Bill was on hand to photograph the unloading.

This is one of the Taylor MCB trucks on which the car sits.

The body was unloaded at the south end of Barn 9:

When the 308 arrived two years later, it was unloaded at the same location, but using a different system: two rented cranes lifted the carbody from the trailer and placed it on its trucks.

Now if you have any questions about the 640, I'm afraid I probably can't answer them.  All I can do is advise you to be patient....