A warm day on the Holiday Railway

Frank writes...

I was out at IRM on Sunday myself, though unlike my father I was working in the car shop and not helping with Happy Holiday Railway. Some of this post will duplicate what he observed nevertheless. It was a warm day, with highs in the mid-50s, and as it turned out they were actually running the air conditioning on the bi-levels used for the HHR train.

It was beautiful weather. The boarding area was a North Western fan's dream, with the C&NW F-7 and matching bi-level set loading alongside Barn 9 and across from those the C&NW SD40-2 with the two C&NW C44-9W locomotives behind it. This photo was taken just before trip departure.

When the train arrived from its trips the scene was a little different, with the previous trip's riders disembarking and the following trip's riders queuing up. Hey, that conductor looks familiar.

Over in the Electric Car Shop the priority for the day was replacing the failed air hose under the 309's platform. Greg Kepka (above) has much more experience than I do with this kind of job so he was invaluable in finding a new hose and installing the old ends. Richard Schauer was also dragged in to help when we ran into trouble with the old balky hose clamps.

And here's the final product, ready to go under the car (minus the caps on the ends, which were put in just to test for air leaks). We reused the old hose clamps at one end but at the other we ended up using more modern bands. Anyway, after this I grabbed some wrenches and pipe dope and installed the hose under the car, so the 309 should be back in service - not that it will be needed anytime soon. There were others working in the shop as well; Richard and Doodlebug Bob were working on the controls for one of the metalworking machines while Thomas and Good Nick were rebuilding a door engine for CTA 4410. They managed to get the door working perfectly by the end of the day in an effort that involved cutting various new gaskets and cleaning quite a bit of sludge out of the door engine mechanism. Scott Greig was also out and rebuilt a Knutsen 5B retriever for stock using parts from a couple of non-working retrievers.

I also took the opportunity for a walk around the property before the last HHR trip returned at about 6:45. The big pine tree south of the diner annex is always impressive all lit up.

And speaking of impressive, this was my first gander at the Schroeder Store since it opened. It sure is impressive! It seems like a long time ago that this thing was sitting west of Spaulding Tower, not much more than a large pale yellow eyesore. Dave and his B&G crew have done a spectacular job of resurrecting this structure.

The interior is no less impressive. We're in danger of appearing professional here!

Johnnie and Madison have been instrumental in disassembling the stores in the baggage cars up by the depot and reassembling them in the Schroeder Store. Johnnie is responsible for transferring over all of the computers, point-of-sale equipment and networking equipment, while Madison did quite a bit of the display and arranging work. New sales counters are on order but until they arrive the old counters from the baggage cars by the depot are still in use, as shown.

Speaking of the old baggage cars up by the depot, the venerable E.D. asked me to pass along a public service announcement of sorts: namely that there are no plans currently to scrap any of the four cars next to the depot. While current thinking is that this equipment will be removed from the site next to the depot, at least some and quite possibly all of the four cars will be retained for the museum's collection and/or for use as storage cars.