Even more Happy Holiday Railway

Frank writes...

I unexpectedly had the opportunity to head out to IRM on Sunday, so that was a treat. I got to see the new Happy Holiday Railway setup, spoke with a couple of the event stalwarts like stationmaster Nigel and pianist Bob, and checked out progress on the property. Included in this was the IHB speeder shown below, which is back in its usual spot behind the depot after a year-long restoration that I believe was done by the B&G Department.

I arrived mid-afternoon and didn't have anything specific in mind to do, but Nick Espevik was planning on taking out the 4391 to supplement the streetcar service being held down by the 3142. I had fortuitously thought to bring along a uniform so I joined him as conductor.

I didn't get any exterior photos of the 4391 before darkness fell, but if you don't know what the car looks like then you need to spend more time at IRM and/or work on your Googling skills. Above, a shot taken during a pause at Central Avenue. What could be more inviting than a warm streetcar on a cold night? Nick explained how the Car Shop guys were recently able to get the car's heat working. Most heat is supplied by the "heat dump," by which the conductor can flip a switch at his station that moves louvers under the car to redirect heat from the resistors into the car instead of out into the atmosphere. Since this doesn't generate much heat when the car isn't moving, there are also auxiliary heating elements to augment the system. Right now the "heat dump" louvers are just set to send heat into the car, but the motors that move the louvers are being worked on and once that's done we will be able to control the heat in the car just like St. Louis Car Company intended.

Greg Kepka rode along on a trip or two and snapped this photo of the car with a load of passengers. People seemed to enjoy the ride, but after dusk it really hits you how dark most of the streetcar line is. There's just not much of anything to see out the windows, at least not with the reflection from the interior lights. Oh well. People certainly enjoyed the warmth and the comfy seats!

And here's yours truly hamming it up in the little conductor's booth on the Hornet. There's no cushier job on the Surface Lines!

As usual, our volunteers and staff went all-out on decorating the property for HHR. The diner was strikingly lit up, as were the depot, 50th Avenue, and Schroeder Store. Several of the display barns and larger trees were also strung with lights.

Finally, when I was on my way onto the property I ran across this unusual tableau just north of the Electric Park streetcar line stop. CTA S-329 has gone through some pretty radical career changes over the course of its existence. It was built in 1904 as a Metropolitan-West Side elevated car but in the 1950s it was cut down to just a frame and was thereafter used as S-329, a flat car in CTA work service. IRM got it around 1999, I think, and a couple of years later it was taken off of its trucks and placed on the east side of Electric Park as a footbridge spanning Boot Creek. I believe the idea was to put in a pumpkin patch of the far side of the creek and use the S-329 bridge for access but I don't think that ever happened. It remained there for the next 15-odd years, increasingly overgrown, until sometime in the last couple of months it was removed and cut into manageable pieces to be sent out for scrap.