Death of a Museum

I happened to be in the Noblesville area a couple of days ago and was able to walk around the grounds formerly occupied by the Indiana Transportation Museum in Forest Park.  The remains of ITM create an almost surreal atmosphere that these pictures can't really capture.  

It is difficult to grasp just how much garbage litters the site.  Almost anywhere you look there is refuse of every conceivable sort.  The city has a daunting task ahead of it.

Here there was an inspection pit, which now appears to be a backed-up sewer.

The tracks beyond are no longer in gauge and are unusable.

The Crandic engine was removed from the site while I was there, and will be scrapped for parts.

Update: It's no secret where it went, so here it is on its way out the gate, lettered "4 Bob Harris".

This was the northern access to the main line:

An entablature from Indianapolis bears an uncanny resemblance to a tombstone.

The body of the mule car, or what's left of it, now sits outside.

Some of these pictures remind me of Mount Union.  Trees are growing in the storage yard.

Some of this equipment will be preserved, but I doubt anybody knows for sure just what and where.

Doodlebug Report

Gregg Wolfersheim sends us another report on the Union Pacific M-35.  He writes:

I've been involved with other museum projects this year. Also, I've been hired part time at IRM to take care of several areas for the general manager on a part time basis. Now that the operating season has slowed down quite a bit, I'm able to get back to Union Pacific M-35. During a few rainy days last week, I was able to get the rest of the carlines on the roof. They come as a kit with 3 parts:

This is a carline assembled on the floor. Some fitting is required before the 6 wood screws are put in to make this whole.

Then it is installed between the 2 steel ribs. We're looking across the car in this view.

And here we see it clamped in place. A hole is drilled following the hole in the steel. Then a 3/8's bolt is applied. The wrenches are on the bolt and nut in this picture.

In this photo we see the last one installed as we look towards the front of the car. Ongoing work is adding the rest of the bolts (13 total per carline) to the 3 that were initially put in place. As the weather gets colder, more work will be done in the heated shop!

Finishing Touches

Tuesday is usually relatively slow, but there were several things in progress today, perhaps because of the nice weather.  And in many cases, we're putting some finishing touches on projects that have been going on for a while.  We'll start with what's happening with the Electroliner.

Jorge from Avalon was working on the articulated joints on the C unit which is now in Barn 4.   He started early in the morning and had the bowl on the east end completely welded up quickly.   He then started grinding it down smooth, as seen here:

When done, it looks like this:

After working on the west end, it turned out to be worse than expected:

So he went back to Avalon and will make some more parts.  He plans to come back later this week and finish up.   Then we can start to put the train back together.

Several volunteers were at work on their projects.   This is the new floor for one end of the 1754.   It looks like Tim has a hand in this.

Pete is working on various parts of the Class B.

The 50th Avenue station is being repainted by B&G.

And as promised, I relettered the 308's interior.

The lettering is now more accurate than it was before.

Then I did some painting on the 36 and 308.   They both had various parts that needed a new coat of blue.  On the 36, for instance, all of the side doors had some parts that were still red, which are visible only when the door is open.  So all of these were cleaned up and painted blue.  I guess I didn't take any "after" shots, but it's easy to visualize what it should look like.  

 And then I collected some tools and clothes and so on that I'll need for an upcoming road trip with the guys.   More about that when it happens.

Say, were you thinking about taking friends or family for a delightful trip on Happy Holidays Railway this season?  Stop thinking, and do something.  Ticket sales are going briskly, and some trips are already sold out.  Don't say we didn't warn you!

Pumpkin Day Report

Courtesy of Chuck Amstein, here are photos from yesterday's Pumpkin Train event.  Saturday was stormy much of the day.

And here's his video.