Today was our Chicago and North Western extravaganza. It turned out to be remarkably cold and wet for late May, but that's the way things go. Still, there were a lot of people around for the festivities. Railfans are not easily discouraged.
Here's the groundbreaking ceremony for the North Western Historical Society's archives building. It had to be held under a tent, and as you can see there was an overflow crowd. Dave Diamond was speaking as I wandered by. The society is still in the fund-raising mode, but they've made an agreement with the Museum to construct an 8,000 square foot archive building along Central Avenue. The front of the building will look like a North Western ticket agency.
All of the trains today were being pulled by North Western locomotives. These two, parked on the wye, are not actually part of the IRM collection but are being stored on our property for a while.
Down by the station, it looks a lot like Wheaton, although the CA&E and C&NW didn't share the same track, of course.
The 4160 is idling here; it later pulled a demonstration freight train which I missed.
The coach train is pulled by this SD-40.
And behind it is our North Western combine. Behind that were coaches from somewhere else, I forget. Some island or other.
Phil Hehn is enjoying his job.
And then the bilevels come into view, pulled by the 411. Just like the good old days!
And the fans are lined up to get pictures of the next North Western train to pull in.
I always like to take pictures of other railfans taking pictures of other railfans....
And the caboose train pulls in, with the RSD-5 on the head end. It's easy to be a North Western fan for a day when you've got lineups like this.
Most of the day I was trying to diagnose a problem with our Illinois Terminal car 277. Nick Espevik was a great help, and at least we have the problem narrowed down. We got to the point where we decided we need to drop the contactor box cover completely, which will have to be done over the pit. Joel and the guys should be able to get to this soon. But I didn't take any pictures of this process.
In other news, the 1754 is falling apart. As you can see here, the end of the car just fell to the ground while nobody was looking.
But Tim decides to ignore that and work on the roof instead.
And there were several other projects in action that I didn't get a chance to photograph. The new door for the 213 has been turned over so the other side can be finished.
And outside the shop, Dave and Jerry install a new sign in honor of Bob Bruneau.
Finally, at the end of the day, I did some work on preparing patterns for new axle bearings for the 309. Tim gave me some excellent advice which will make the process much easier. I took the parts home to work on them there, and I'll have a report on that soon. So stay tuned!
the American Flyer S gauge flat car was one of the cars that carried all sorts of loads for
ReplyDeleteAC Gilbert. The prototype was a Northwestern flat car. And it scaled out to just the right size! At one time the railroad was owned by its employees; one of the few to do so!
I am glad to hear that the C&NW Historical Society will have a building on Main Street, East Union.
Ted Miles
Randy, the issue with the 277 was solved. It wasn't in the back of the group (it was hard to remove and put it back on though). So the car will be all happy again.
ReplyDeleteThat's good news. So what was the problem? Inquiring minds want to know.
ReplyDeleteRandy- Overload trip finger not making contact, appeared to have been bent. It's in the box at the end of the group toward the reverser. In the circuit, it's "after" the reverser acknowledge contacts but "before" the 7 and line switch coils.
ReplyDeleteR. W. Schauer
OK, that makes sense. I had looked at the overload relay, and it appeared to work correctly. 8A was picking up, and I thought that must be past the overload, but I guess not. I expected only interlocks between 8A and 8E. Thanks.
ReplyDelete