Saturday report

Frank writes...

As previously described, the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend went well. The crowd was a bit light, possibly because of the 90 degree heat. We were able to get the cars out of the barn right around 10am, as shown above.

The two service streetcars, the 4391 and 1374, were delayed going into service because the Track Department was working on something at Depot Street. We ended up going into service via the connector track and South Junction to avoid this, though I wasn't able to get any photos of this "rare mileage" move. By going around the streetcar loop and then up the west wye to 50th Avenue, we effectively wyed ourselves twice, thus keeping the train facing the same direction.

Later in the day we got into a nice rhythm, with electric departures at :15 and :45 and steam/diesel departures at :00 and :30. Besides us, the CTA 2200s, the steam coach train, and the diesel-powered caboose trains were running on the main line. This 30 minute offset between electrics meant that we weren't both in 50th at the same time. But early on, before the steam engine and caboose trains were up and going, there were a couple of "meets" on the 50th Avenue east track. Above, the 2200s are fittingly signed to meet the CA&E at Forest Park.

A subsequent meet resulted in the woods and 2200s reversing themselves, and to get us out of the way for the 'L' cars to depart we did another rare mileage trip, this time to the west track. This track was designed to be a gauntlet track, so that both narrow (elevated width, i.e. CTA, CA&E, and North Shore) and wide (railroad width, i.e. South Shore and IC) cars could use it. But the narrow-width track was never put in, so elevated-compatible cars like ours face a wide gap between car and platform that we don't want passengers to have to jump. Anyway, while we were briefly stored on the west track the 1630 passed us going into service.

My father brought out a couple of bulkhead ads. The CA&E woods all have clips and retainer bars on the windows in the smoker/main compartment bulkheads for hanging these posters, which usually advertised events to which you could get on the CA&E. The 308 got an ad for the Villa Park Flower Show.

And if you ever wanted to learn about the Canary Islands, don't worry, the 309 has you covered. Note that these lectures were held at the "Chicago Natural History Museum - formerly Field Museum of Natural History." I guess that re-branding didn't take!

After five full trips and a "Jefferson Street Shuttle" trip, it was back to the barn. My father moved the 36 and 319, which are running Monday, to the connector track and I ran the 308 and 309 into track 84 up to the 150. Here the 308 waits for the "Brookins Special" switching with trolley buses in the background. A Chicago Marmon and the Seattle thing with the LED destination sign were in operation during the day.

Over in the car shop, Thomas, Joel, and some of the other guys were working on North Shore 160. One of the car's motors has had its string banding fail so one truck will get two newly-rebuilt motors so that the car can go back into revenue service for the first time in four years. It was pointed out to me that 160 is one of the ever-shrinking group of cars at IRM to have never been off its trucks since it was in regular service. It came out to Union on its own wheels in 1964 and hasn't needed to have its trucks pulled... until now.