Iliupersis

Frank writes...

I wasn't at IRM on Sunday per se - instead I was in Noblesville, trying to do my part to help out. A few of us from the car shop drove down to pick up some spare parts and other things. It was a very interesting, and sobering, experience to see a museum that has been there in Forest Park for 50 years at the end.

The property wasn't as busy as it sounds like it had been earlier in the week. Other than our group, and some ITM volunteers who were on-site, the only outside groups present were the Kentucky group that has acquired NKP 587 and some young guys from a group that is working to move three of the Indiana interurban car bodies. Here we see a couple of cranes, which were inactive for the day, behind the ITM shop. In between them is an automobile car (similar to our Rock Island auto car) from which the Kentucky guys were unloading tubes.

Of course I had to go on a tour, particularly of the traction collection. The last time I was at ITM was in 2001 and honestly, other than the changes during the last couple of months, not much had changed. This is the CRANDIC steeplecab, originally Detroit United, which has been sold though possibly as a parts source.

Out in the parking lot, next to the scrapping area (which was littered with remnants of 4000s and other railroad equipment that has been cut up or dismantled in recent weeks), was the tarped body of the Lafayette Birney. Supposedly this car, too, has been sold.

Inside the barn, the Flagler car was on the west track at the door. The space in the foreground was occupied by the NKP Mike until a few days ago.

Next to the former site of the steam engine on the east track was this Wheeling & Lake Erie wooden business car, which I believe has been sold to an organization in Ohio. Behind it was North Shore 172 but it was so shoehorned in that I couldn't get a decent photo.

The southern half of the barn has three tracks, with the middle totally disconnected. On this track sits Union Traction 429, shown here. I'd been told that its condition was pretty bad but, upon personal inspection, it's actually in rather good condition. With new tack molding and canvas the roof would be fine and there's hardly enough rust on the car to even rough up the finish of the paint. This car is one of three being acquired by a local group and they do intend to keep it indoors and, hopefully, restore it.

The interior of the car is in very good condition, with various fixtures stored in bags. At some point in ITM's history some work was done to backdate this car to as-built condition, with the toilet shown in its original position at the rear of the car rather than towards the baggage end, which is where the Indiana Railroad put it when the converted the car to one-man and flipped it end-for-end.

On the west track, down from the Flagler car, was Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern 81, built in 1902 and the oldest surviving Jewett interurban car. It's certainly deteriorated, particularly at the ends, but overall the body was actually fairly solid and one side was even pretty nicely cosmetically restored. It has been bought by the same group as the 429.

Next to the THI&E car and on the same disconnected track as the 429 was this Delaware & Hudson wood car, which I believe I was told was a pay car. It's pretty unusual; with its arched roof and end windows it almost looks like an MU car. I'm not sure whether this car has been bought or not but it appears mostly complete so hopefully it doesn't get scrapped.

Out behind the barn, next to the automobile car, was this tank which I believe is off of the fireless steam engine the museum had. I read that the locomotive was moved to Hesston for preservation but I think they forgot part of it.

One car which nobody seems interested in saving - and for good reason - is Indianapolis Railways 153. This is the last surviving electric streetcar from the Indianapolis system (though not, contrary to some reports, the last piece of equipment from the system) and is arguably the most modern "standard" streetcar preserved from before the PCC development period. Its body was acquired by ITM in 1972 and at the time it was in pretty good shape, as bodies go; ITM even did a nice cosmetic restoration. But they put it in a spot where a forest soon grew up around the car and it was largely forgotten. Today it's badly rusted out and, worse, the body is very badly racked (wracked?) with the front left corner of the car "sinking."

This is an unfortunate end for an historic car, but that's how it goes sometimes when there's not enough indoor storage space.

IRM is home to a Louisville & Nashville diner, L&N 2726 "Galt House," and here's a sister car: L&N 2728 "Cross Keys Tavern." This car appears to be in good condition, from the outside anyway, and I was told has been acquired by a museum in the south for preservation.

Also out behind the shop was this GP9, which was originally Union Pacific but has been run at the museum as ITM 200. This is one of a number of pieces of equipment which ITM is moving to either Kokomo or Logansport in an effort to restart their tourist train business. I think they'll still be on leased land and running on someone else's railroad, so best of luck to them with that.

South Shore trailer 205 was stored in the yard alongside the barn. This car has been sold but I believe is to be used as a parts source. If that's true it will leave only one extant South Shore 200-series trailer (not including our own car 40, which was rebuilt from trailer 213 in 1938), the one at East Troy.

Here's the Twin Branch Railroad electric (formerly battery) locomotive from Mishawaka, up near the front of the museum on public display. I believe this has been purchased by an individual collector. I looked under it to try and find motor information and was intrigued to discover that it has WH 908 motors, the same type as the diminutive Phelps-Dodge mining locomotives preserved at a couple of western museums. This Twin Branch engine was 250 volts, though, so I guess it stands to reason that it would have motors designed for 250 volt operation.

A Milwaukee Road F7B unit, complete though not operational. Supposedly this has been purchased for preservation.

Union Traction 437, the other surviving UTC car besides the identical 429, stored up near the front of the museum. As you may be able to tell the body of this car is a little twisted as well. It's been acquired by the same group as UTC 429 and THI&E 81.

Out in the yard was the tender for NKP 587, already loaded on its trailer and ready to ship out.

During the afternoon this ex-Navy boxcar was moved around by a truck a little bit and parked under (actually kind-of "in") a tree in the yard near the steam engine tender. From other sources online I believe this is one of the cars ITM is moving to its new site up north. Also on the list to be kept by the museum are most of the ex-Santa Fe Budd coaches.

A walk around the barn revealed this planning calendar with a heartfelt message.

More words of wisdom scrawled on the walls of the shop: "Not working safely is like a towel box with the most important part missing. It's useless!" I can only imagine that at one point this made a little more sense.

It's hard to conceive of the countless stories and backstories that are being lost as ITM dissolves, and of the immense number of hours put into the place by its volunteers over the past half century which probably now seem to many of them to have been for naught. An odd thing struck me as I was standing outside the barn: I looked in the ballast and, of all things, there was the little plastic tip off of a Muriel cigar. Old-timers at IRM likely recall that at one time these plastic tips were ubiquitous in the gravel back behind the electric car barns, as it was Bob Bruneau's cigar of choice. And I was struck by the notion that at one time IRM, too, was shoehorned into a plot of land owned by somebody else next to a railroad that we didn't own but to which we had a strong attachment. But people like Bob and a hundred others made the decision nearly 60 years ago now that if we ever wanted to survive long-term we needed to control our own destiny. And that meant owning our land and owning enough of it that we could grow. If they hadn't made that decision - if they'd dug in, signed another lease in North Chicago, tried to entrench - then IRM may have ended the same way that ITM did.

But enough morbidity. When we arrived, one of the things that we inquired about was the overhead wire, and we discovered that it was still available for sale. So we set to work (along with some much-appreciated help from William, one of the guys with the local group getting the UTC cars) cutting down the overhead wire and rolling it up into spools to take back to IRM. It's 00 wire, light for our main line but good for yard tracks or for extending the "double-track" section of the trolley bus line for the rest of the route. There was about a mile, starting from just outside the museum gate and going down the hill to the park entrance. Above, the view towards the top of the line.

By the middle it was starting to get overgrown. This was the museum's trolley line and I don't know if it ever saw too much use by mainline railroad equipment. With ITM not having operated any electric cars since the late 1990s, this line had largely fallen into disrepair. In places the overhead wire had sagged to within about 8' of the ground (though it was long since de-energized of course).

Down towards the bottom of the line it was pretty overgrown. Here Nick walks down the tracks; note the rail in the bottom right corner. It took quite a while to cut down and collect the trolley wire but we did, and it will be put to very good use in Union.

As we were getting ready to leave, this gentleman was leaving with a 4000 motor truck on a trailer.

One last forlorn "Save Our Trains" sign along the fence line near the front of the museum property.