Down at the Bahnhof

Frank writes...

It was a gorgeous weekend and a beautiful Sunday, with temperatures in the low 70s and a stiff breeze blowing all day. I signed up to run the CA&E cars, which were the scheduled service train. I made sure to arrive early because we had a tour group of about two dozen German transit fans were were stopping at IRM on a circuit through much of the U.S. (they'd flown in from Arizona and were going from here to Minneapolis).

When I arrived, the first job was to switch the order of the trains. The "Brookins Special," the 36 and 319, had run on Monday and were at the door. I stuck them on the connector track as shown and took the 308 and 309 out into service. The Germans arrived early (of course) and so we took the train around the car line and picked them up at Central Avenue for a main line trip. Harold Krewer acted as translator and was helpful in marshaling the visitors while Nick acted as tour guide.

We'd prepared by printing up some double-sided brochures shown above with brief histories of the 308, 309, CA&E itself, and the museum. Many thanks to my sister Esther and her good friend Alison, who is fluent in German and did the translating work! These were appreciated by our guests even though it seemed that most of them spoke English. I didn't get any photos of the tour group because I was operating, but I suppose they looked pretty much like any tour group of American railfans would look. We hadn't realized they were more streetcar fans than anything; they liked the CA&E cars and the trolley buses that were brought out specially for the occasion but had only a passing interest in the 1630. They were most enthused with the four streetcars that the car shop guys brought out. Joel said they were fascinated by the 4391; cars using PCC technology are fairly common in Europe but none use hand controls! The open car, 1374, and the 3142 (which stayed running all day as the regular service car) were also out. A good time was had by all and the Germans departed about 1pm. Nick reported that they admitted they should have scheduled more time at IRM - "well we could have told them that!"

Other than that, it was a pretty typical day on the railroad. Larry Stone was my conductor and did a great job as always. The only trains on the main line were us and the 1630, so dispatcher David Streeter scheduled us out on a 45-minute schedule, with each train making a departure every 90 minutes. That allowed people to go for a ride and get back in time to ride the other train. It seemed a popular arrangement and meant that most of the day we actually had a pretty full train.

It was windy. One of our flags even started unraveling so I brought it home for repair. The crowds seemed moderate, probably not terrible for a non-special-event weekend but not as heavy as I would have hoped given the beautiful conditions. During one of our layovers I walked back over to Yard 8, uncoupled the 36 and 319, and moved the 36 into the barn in the fourth spot from the door next to the 150. We've been asked to keep the mileage on this car down for the time being, so it will still be running for some special events but we're going to try and keep it in somewhat limited service.

Here's a neat view that didn't used to be possible. This was taken while the steam train was out on a trip, of course. At the end of the day we wyed the 308 and 309 and then brought them back over to the ladder track, where I uncoupled them and moved the 309 into the barn on top of the 36. The 308 and 319, which will be the regular service train for the moment, were then coupled up on the ladder track and put on 84 at the door. The cars are scheduled to run on the 16th, which is Chicago Day, and on the following day which is the 17th.

After hours we were treated to the sight of the first-ever operation at IRM of an FP45. Our Santa Fe diesel is finally back from rebuilding work at NRE in Silvis and the Diesel Department guys were putting it through its paces to check everything out. This will be neat to see in public operation!

In other big news, on Saturday evening the car shop guys pulled one of the trucks from under the 160, changed out the motors in that truck (the string banding on one motor had failed), and put the truck back under the car. They didn't finish up until 2:30am but got that part of the job done. Sunday afternoon they were working on hooking everything back up, and when that's done - and the car inspected - it should be back in revenue service for the first time in several years. And finally, the CGW wrecker is being reassembled at last and we are hopeful that within the next week or two we may be able to move Shaker Heights 18 back over to the "land of the living" in Barn 7 and begin doing some electrical testing. Stay tuned!