Monday, August 6, 2018

Extravaganza!

Frank writes...

Sunday was the 28th Annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza, and as usual it was a great event with a lot to see. There were something like 500 cars and other vehicles on display, plus we were running a full schedule on the railroad. Dispatcher Dan Buck did an excellent job of keeping everything moving like clockwork; for most of the day there were four trains on the main line (two three-car electric trains, the Zephyr, and the steam train), an 'L' train running shuttle trips out of 50th, and three streetcars on the car line.
It's not often that we run three-car CA&E wood trains in revenue service, and usually when we do it's for the Trolley Pageant or Showcase Weekend. But last year for VTE we just had two-car trains on the railroad and they were turning customers away, so we figured the capacity was needed. And we were right! The train was 36-308-319, with the 309 left behind since we're trying to limit its use until we can get its motor armature bearings replaced (you can help!). When we left the barn it was overcast but the sky mostly cleared by noon.
I was conductor on the wood train while Greg Ceurvorst was the motorman. You may note a slightly unusual destination sign... that's an homage to Geoff Thorne and his crew at Acton Depot who are working on London Underground Q-stock cars. When we first went into service we left on our first trip from 50th Avenue, but after that - once the 2200s went into service as the shuttle train - we ran through Station 1 for the rest of the day. The other electric train on the main line was a three-car train of 4000s, with Bob Opal running and Thomas Slater conductor.
We ran a total of six trips and the first five were very full - certainly more people than we could ever have fit into two cars. The Zephyr was turning people away most trips and I heard that even the steam train had to turn away some customers on one trip. Overall it was a great crowd and I think that the vast majority of visitors went away happy. It was also great to see the railroad running so smoothly; thanks to Dan and all of the operating crews, trains were leaving right on schedule and we had several running meets at Johnson Siding.
One problem we had was crews: we just didn't have enough people sign up. Besides motorman Greg, I was the only crewman on the CA&E train. So in order to have all three cars open I had to draft people as car hosts. Victor Humphreys helped out for our first trip and Mark Hoffman for our second. For the following three trips, Blake Bushue from the Steam Shop (on the right in the above photo) served as car host and watched the passengers in the 36. His help was invaluable - thanks Blake! Jeff Calendine from the Steam Shop, on the left in the above photo, was going to help with a trip too but by the time of our last trip the crowd had died down enough that we only needed one car open.
With four trips on the main line, each train ran hourly which meant we didn't have much time between trips. I barely had time to snap a photo of some of the cars arrayed behind the depot.
What a nice looking train! The B&G crew recently spread some gravel on the old bookstore car site and set out some baggage wagons, so that makes for a nice display. It was a hot day, with temperatures in the 90s in the afternoon, so walking across this pad was kind of like our own little slice of Orange Empire. But I digress. The only hiccup in operations was in the afternoon when the sub dropped, but Richard sped over there and got it reset in less than ten minutes. It was a reminder that this was a much more common occurrence in the old days; even 10 or 15 years ago I feel like the sub would drop out (at least once) on more special event days than it didn't. Nowadays it's a rare thing.
We put the train away at around 5pm. For more destination sign silliness, during the last couple of trips the 319 wore a destination sign which is a favorite of our friend from the mountain states, David Wilkins.
At the end of the day I found the 68 on the pit, where the crew was working on rebuilding some brake linkage parts. The car does run but isn't quite ready for revenue service, however Joel and the other car shop guys are working to fix that.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Frank,
    Thank you for your compliments. Sunday's operation were a real team effort, and I'm grateful to all the train crews for their diligence and patience. When everyone works together, we can accommodate hundreds of happy customers on our five mile single track railroad.
    I agree completely with your comments on the need for three-car electric trains. Because the design of our railroad pretty much precludes headways of less than fifteen minutes, we need to provide the extra capacity so our customers aren't turned away from riding. Frankly, I was surprised to see the steam train with only two coaches and a combine. The steam train is so popular, we could have used one or even two more coaches. Of course, as you mention, we have trouble finding crews for all these trains. Incidentally, Sunday was a good demonstration why the railroads quickly abandoned the use of articulated fixed-consist trains: the Zephyr was overwhelmed by the crowds. Of course, this is not the worst problem a railway museum can face.
    I join you in the shout out to all the folks who tracked down and resolved our power failure. You can imagine the feeling in the pit of my stomach as I contemplated a railroad with two stalled electric trains full of passengers and a steam train returning to a blocked west station entrance. Fortunately, the delays were minimal and, as far as I could tell, the customers were understanding.
    Again, thanks for you kind words. Dan Buck

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  2. Please explain route of the 50th St shuttle. thanks in advance

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  3. I really enjoyed car hosting on the CA&E wood train. If you ever need help again and I'm not in soiled clothes, feel free to ask for my help again. I'll try to sign up for some days in advance too.

    Blake Bushue

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  4. Sure; 50th Avenue shuttle service, when we run it, involves a train departing from 50th Avenue, heading up the west leg of the wye and west from the museum property to Jefferson Street at the west end of the railroad. Then the train just retraces its route eastbound, down the west leg of the wye and back into 50th Avenue. It usually works out to be about a 15-minute trip.

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  5. I saw that the Northern Illinois Fire Museum will be moving into your campus. As long as an agreement can be worked out in which both parties are happy, this seems like a really nice idea.

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  6. The 50th ave shuttle offers a shorter mainline ride. Generally the Dispatcher will turn the mainline trains at the west switch, so the shuttle actually goes past some scenery that the other trains don't see. Additionally, during these hot days, the A/C on the 2200s is welcome. We do try to have one power supervisor on the property especially during the busy days. As well as, having at least one car shop person, not working a revenue train to cover any other issues that might arrive. So saying, the car shop ended up relieving the service carline trains, so that we didn't have to take any of the street cars out of service for lunches. We then added the open car when we could to help relieve the amount of people.

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  7. I also heard about the Northern Illinois Fire Museum potentially moving to IRM. Apparently their plan is to build a replica Chicago-style firehouse on the Main Street scene. That sounds really cool. But "really cool" to us civilians doesn't necessarily translate as a good idea to the regular IRM volunteers. So Frank and the rest of the crew......is this actually going to happen and what are your thoughts?

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  8. My thoughts are, don't believe everything you read on RyPN!

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  9. As the Conductor on the Steam Coach Train last Sunday (VTE) let me add a few comments. We actually turned back passengers on our first TWO trips. Each of the 3 other trips were filled over 3/4 capacity. We had all three cars open. Two RI coaches with 100 pax each and the ATSF Combine with 42 pax capacity. Why did't we add a coach? (We did have one available.) WE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH CREWMEN!! Our train crew was exactly 1 conductor + 1 trainman. Because of the backing movement I could not leave the last car. I do not like carrying cars D.I.C. because all train doors must be left unlocked and people wander[force] their way into the unprotected cars. Also we need to listen / smell / feel our ancient equipment for problems. Even during the 11 minute delay when we were holding Johnson Siding [the power outage] it was necessary for us to act to keep our guests cool, calm and happy. And with a crew this small we also had to turn back several pax in wheelchairs. All were handled by the air conditioned Zephyr (Thanks Jim.)

    Solution--Simple: WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEER TRAIN CREW & CAR HOSTS!!!!!

    IRM is a strange museum in that more people want to work in the craft shops than play with the trains.

    Every week, during the operating season, our beloved crew-caller sends out an e-mail to the operating department et.al. begging for members to volunteer to keep running our trains and streetcars.
    To help Please contact our Crew-Caller, at:
    Jim West
    IRM Crew Caller
    630-690-6898 Home
    630-776-1981 Cell
    westjl@core.com
    jwest@irm.org
    crewcaller@irm.org

    TNX

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