A new year

Frank writes...

What better way to ring in the new year than with a trip out to IRM? I made it out to the museum around lunchtime to find that I was the only one in the car shop. You'd almost think people had been staying up late the previous night. But no matter; I spent a few minutes cleaning up some materials I had left around the 205 over in Barn 7, then adjourned to Barn 8 to spend some time on LSE 150. The weather was unseasonably warm Sunday so I took the opportunity to put some brown primer on the belt rail on the left side of the car. Requisite before-and-after shots:

These cars had a tile red stripe along the belt rail, so this primer will make it easier to paint that one once warmer weather comes. Then a second coat of orange, some touch-up, and the basic paint job on the left side of the car will be complete.

By the time I was done with this, Sunday regulars Greg Kepka and Richard Schauer had shown up. We wandered over to the Hoffman bus garage where they showed me recent progress on some of the buses and trolley buses, including the recent acquisitions from St. Louis. Several buses have been jacked up and put on blocks pending installation of new tires, giving the garage the look of a pretty disreputable part of town. However this will be a big step forward. Richard pointed out that one of the tires removed from Twin Coach Model 40, which was owned by St. Louis Public Service and retired way back in 1947, had a "AA War Tire" stamp which indicated that it was produced during rubber rationing in World War II.

Then it was over to Barn 13. A few weeks ago, someone removed the tarp from Shaker Heights Rapid Transit 18 (aka Shaker Heights 1218), so we decided to try and tidy the car up a bit. The cardboard covers that had been taped over all of the sharp corners and protuberances were removed and the interior was straightened. The car looks pretty good for having spent six years under a tarp.

Right now we're just hoping to reassemble the car to make sure no parts are lost. It's an interesting artifact. One thing we noticed was that the trolley retriever is an Eclipse, which I believe is the only example of that particular type in the IRM collection. Some cleanup was also done with the help of diesel department volunteer Jeron Glander.

So that was about it for the day. The only other interesting thing I noticed was that four rebuilt traction motors for the Electroliner have been delivered (above). Exciting times for the North Shore fans, no doubt about it!