Sunday variety show

Frank writes...

I was out on Sunday and spent my day doing a little bit of everything. First off, as soon as I arrived I learned that earlier in the day Zach and Good Nick spent some time fighting with the 453 and voila, they were able to get that balky vestibule ceiling panel out!

Among other things, it turned out to be a two-man job to force the thing loose. But now it's out (and it will be easier to get back into place).

The result is that there's now clear access to the car's attic, quite possibly for the first time since 1945. That black air tank is the equalizing reservoir.

I spent some time doing more sanding and Bondo work on the 18, and also did some grinding on a piece of steel that will be used in a spot where the car needs brake linkage components replaced, but I didn't get any photos. It wasn't that thrilling to look at. But hey, we need your help - the 18 fund is empty and could use money, even just $30 or $40, for paint and supplies. Click here to donate, and thank you!

Meanwhile, with Richard's help I also went hunting in some of the museum's archive files for photos to go with an upcoming historic article that should appear on the blog within the next couple of weeks. It will be another company history using material from the Scalzo Collection so you know it will be good. Hint: it's a company from which IRM doesn't have any equipment. Actually nobody has any equipment from this company, its rolling stock is extinct. So that should narrow it down. Or not.

Speaking of Richard, not long after I arrived, Good Nick and I ran into him working on Charles City Western 300. This was pretty interesting: he was working on the car's headlights, which are unique at IRM in that they are carbon-arc headlights. Here we see the locomotive's headlight on and shining on the inside of the door of the barn. Nick is on the ground.

And here's the headlight after it was switched off and opened up. The upper electrode is fixed while the bottom is on a pivoting arm. This has a spring that pushes it up, against the fixed electrode, but there's a coil that pushes it down. Thus the lamp reaches a point of equilibrium where the current (via the arc) is enough to keep the electrodes apart. Richard sourced new carbon rods and was trying one out. The results were not entirely satisfactory but the alignment isn't great, so that may be the issue. More experimentation is called for. In the meantime, the headlight works fine with its old components. It's a stitch to see in operation; it makes a big clunk when turned on, rattles a bit while it's lit, and emits noticeable amounts of smoke. It's amazing an engine built as late as the 300 was fitted with these.

Then I helped Zach move some North Shore "Silverliner" seat frames from Barn 4 to the PFE reefer in Barn 11, which is currently home to a variety of things. He was working on finishing installation of the seats in the car and also made a lot of progress on the end windows built a few years ago.

Then I took a look at some of the other items that were donated along with the Van Dorn photos previously posted. There was a box of small wooden molds, mostly for making pins of different sizes tapered at both ends. It wasn't really obvious. There was also this printing plate, apparently for letterhead, though nothing specific to the Van Dorn company itself. It looks like an early Milwaukee Electric interurban off to the right there. Also, ships. Who knew.

Let's take a stroll over to Barn 3 to see what's new. What's new is that a lot of progress is being made on the new freight car display on track 34. I believe that Bob Albertson is heading up this work. Behind the Russell plow, IC side-door caboose, and the B&O wagon-top boxcar is the Santa Fe stock car, which is now lit up and open to the public. This may be the first time we have opened a boxcar or similar freight car for walk-throughs, I don't know.

Inside, the car's walls are lined with display boards discussing the role of meat packing and the Union Stockyards in the development of Chicago and its railroad network. This is an important story to tell and I think that the overall effect, and the professionalism of the exhibit, is terrific.

Here's an example of the display boards. I think they're quite good, with a mix of photos and text, informative but not too technical. All we need now is a taxidermy cow in the middle of the car.

And next to the stock car is our FGEX reefer, acquired about five years ago from the Mad River &NKP Railroad Museum and now in the later stages of a very nice cosmetic restoration. This car, too, will be opened to the public and will explain the vital role of refrigerated railroad cars in the development of the stockyards. I believe that the interior exhibits in this car are now being worked on. The IC side-door caboose will also be open for walk-throughs. Its displays appear to be complete, or mostly complete. This entire exhibit is exceedingly impressive and really raises the bar, I think.

Back in the car shop, it was pointed out that the two spare trucks for the Toronto CLRV have finally arrived from Canada. One has been brought into the heated "lean-three" section of the car shop so that it can be partly disassembled to have its wheel-and-axle sets sent out for regauging. When the CLRV was designed back in the 1970s it was intended to be marketed to U.S. streetcar operators too, so the trucks are designed to be easily regauged to standard (and in fact a handful of CLRV's briefly ran in Boston as a demonstration). So by next year, if all goes well, the CLRV may be on live rail at IRM and possibly even available for regular service.

As usual, there were other projects afoot. Nick was working on repairs to 4000s, Zach spent the day mostly working on the 757, and Richard and Joel were helping out with various things. Thomas and Greg spent much of the day switching freight cars in the south yards, putting the cars from the demonstration freight train back into their indoor homes for the winter. Late in the afternoon I happened upon this tableau, wherein Joel on the 604 and Thomas and Ashton on the 4 seem to both be working on their respective cars' trolley poles.