Sunday, October 31, 2021

When You Need Air

From yesterday we have something a little different to report, going back to our main responsibility, the CA&E wood cars.  The 36 has been out of service for a while because its compressor was making a loud knocking sound, and that obviously has to be addressed.  There are lots of various Car Dept. projects going on, but this has risen into the active queue, and today we were able to drop the compressor and start working on it.

In the morning, I switched around the cars in Yard 8, so I could couple the 36 to the 309 and run it over to the shop.  The 36 still has functional motors, and can be operated in tandem with a car that has a working compressor.  The brakes work just fine -- the only drawback is that you can't blow the whistle, so I just shout "Toot! Toot!" whenever necessary.  There's a child in all of us.  I hope.

Anyway, here it is on the pit lead.  Look closely.  Can you see what's missing?


If you answered "the truss rod" you are correct.  It had to be dropped in order to remove the compressor.


Joel got the forklift, and with Dan Fenlaciki helping we got the compressor off the car and onto the ground.  We also had help from Fred and Nick E.


The first step in fixing the compressor is to clean it up before it is moved into the shop.  Here Dan is blasting it with the power washer.



I appreciate all the help on this project.  It won't be first (or the last) time they've given me the air!

Of course, a lot of other things were going on in the shop.  I even had a chance to put some more paint on the saddles for the 714.  And here is the newly rebuilt end of the 2872.

But that's all I had time to take pictures of.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Saturday B&G Report

Thanks to Dave Diamond for sending along this Saturday activity update from the Buildings & Grounds Department:

Progress on the property today Saturday. Setting the ICRR centennial stone [from 1951]... The stone was obtained last year from a family in Peoria, IL and sent out for professional cleaning by the same company that cleaned the war memorial years ago. That's Tom Opolony on the backhoe and Al Choutka helping with the pick.






Friday, October 29, 2021

Friday Report

Not many pictures today, but that's mostly because we were doing much of the same things you've seen before.  But good progress was made.

First of all, here's the spindle sander up in its new location on the roof booth scaffolding.  I really appreciate the work that other department members did to get it up here.  But they cleverly located it in a dark corner, where one of the big overhead lights had burned out.  Luckily Tim knew what to do and helped me replace it, so now we have plenty of light in this area.  Fiat lux!


The spindle sander was very useful for improving the fit of all the saddles at the #2 end of the car.  One saddle remained to be made, and all of them needing trimming, but after a few hours all of them were ready for painting.  I put a coat of primer on the surfaces that will be caulked to the roof (or to each other), and after a finish coat dries they should be ready to install.


And then I started making saddles for the #1 end, as seen here.  Three out of the total of eight for this end are well along.


Tim spent the day working on the new blocking for both ends of the 2872.  Here's one which is in some stage of completion, though I can't say exactly which.  This reminds me of having to replace the floor at the #2 end of the 308 about 20 years ago.  But that's so long ago, we hadn't even started this blog yet!  So there aren't many pictures from that distant era.


Other than that, there didn't seem to be a lot of activity.  But I'm sure tomorrow will be different!

Thursday, October 28, 2021

On to Berlin!

 Buzz reports exciting news from the car shop today:

Tim and John had the Berlin sander going today. Tim was making a wood base to fit behind the anti-climber of the 2872, re-using beams from the old barn lumber we have. The used wood, possibly containing nails, was safer to run on the sander so as not to damage the planer blades.


 And here is a link to video of the machine in operation.   If you look closely, you can see how the sanding drums are oscillating back and forth in the axial direction.  This machine has a lot of mechanical motions.

Progress on 1702

 As you may have read, the Car Dept. is planning to resume work on our IT line car, 1702.  Gregg Wolfersheim sends along a couple of pictures of some restoration he did on this car a few years ago:

Here's what 1702 looked like in July of 2017 on the #2 end.

Here it is in August of that year after I rebuilt the windows and refinished the door. New siding was installed, along with the catcher bracket. The door on the #1 end was rebuilt the year before. Currently a door post is being replaced.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Taylorville Railway Light Heat & Power Company


The Taylorville Railway Light Heat & Power Company
by Stephen M. Scalzo

Editor's note: Even many Illinoisans may not be familiar with Taylorville, Illinois. It is a city of about 11,000 people near the center of the state, roughly 25 miles southeast of Springfield and 25 miles southwest of Decatur. In 1910 it had a population of around 5,500 people. Taylorville also happens to be where F.M. Hicks died.

The idea of building an electric railway line in Taylorville, Illinois was first talked about by the Christian County Electric Railway, which was organized in October 1889 to issue $100,000 in stock. However, that company remained only as a dream on paper and nothing was ever done.

The Taylorville Railway Light Heat & Power Company (TRLH&P) was incorporated on February 15, 1908, and capital stock totaling $150,000 was sold. Property for the carhouse and power plant was purchased on the south side of Second Street at Webster Street and construction began immediately. The construction contract for the trackage and overhead was awarded in October 1908 to the Chicago Installation Company for $61,800. However, it was not until November 1908 that actual construction began on Second Street. It was decided to build south and west from the powerhouse, in dirt streets, before tearing up the pavement in the downtown area for the trackage. The company also considered constructing a 21-mile line on the old Nokomis-Taylorville wagon road through Johnson, Bear Creek, and Greenwood Townships in Christian County, with an initial capitalization of $1,000,000; however, no action was taken.

Construction of the first part of the system, the south end of the line from the power house to the square, started during the early part of 1909 and was completed during April. The powerhouse equipment, which was a 225hp engine that drove a 200 kilowatt generator, was delivered in March 1909. On June 29, 1909, a newly received motor car and two trailers from St. Louis were operated with electricity provided from the powerhouse. However, the car did not work properly, and the electric motor in the car was returned to St. Louis for repairs. During July, a horse was used to pull a trailer on several trips to the race track to handle the crowds. After the motor was returned in August and a four-panel switch board was received and installed in the powerhouse in October, regular service began on October 19, 1909 from the downtown square to the south end of the line. However, on October 25, the streetcar was again withdrawn from service for a short period until a schedule was issued. In November, a new streetcar was purchased from the American Car Company to replace the first secondhand car. However, later that month service was again suspended, this time to await a new engine for the powerhouse, because a single engine could not furnish enough electricity.

In March 1910, another new streetcar arrived. Construction of the system to the northeast and a south extension began in April. The south extension to the entrance gate of the new Christian County Coal Mine number 58 in Hewittville was opened on May 26. It was believed that a streetcar could be used to pull a railroad coal hopper car from the mine yards to the city heat plant, but it was discovered that the railroad cars could not go around the short curves on the trackage. Thus, two specially built coal cars were purchased and used to deliver coal from the coal mine to the company's power plant.

Master mechanic Mack Vaughn stands next to car 104 in front of the carbarn c1918 

Construction on the northeast line proceeded after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad gave permission for the tracks to cross their line, and on September 6, 1910, that section was opened for service to within two blocks of the E.Z. Opener Bag Company mill plant on East Elm Street. The system was four miles long, with two streetcars providing 30 minute service for a five cent fare. In downtown Taylorville, the tracks circled the square. Streets were being paved and on August 16, 25 arc lights located on the poles for the overhead wire were turned on to light the streets. Gradually the wooden poles in the downtown area were replaced with steel poles as required by the franchise.

On August 1, 1912, the Central Illinois Public Service Company (CIPSCO) purchased the Taylorville Gas and Electric Company (the other utility in Taylorville). That company had been formed in 1905 with the consolidation of the Taylorville Electric Company and the Taylorville Gas and Electric Company. That company had been purchased by the national Heat Light and Power Company of New York in 1909, and was a profitable company, paying a 5% quarterly dividend on both common and preferred stock.

The TRLH&P was just a marginal operation and never paid a dividend on their stock. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, the company only had a surplus of $438. CIPSCO purchased the TRLH&P in October 1912, and the two local power plants were closed during 1913. Also in 1913, a new car barn was constructed on CIPSCO property on Second Street. The original wooden streetcars were replaced by steel Birney streetcars on July 13, 1919. By that time, the system was earning only $21,864, with 520,000 riders. During April 1918, the fare was increased from 5 to 6 cents, and during 1921, fares were increased to 8 cents. The city continued to grow beyond the reaches of the current system, but expansion never occurred. By 1925, automobile usage was causing passenger usage on the system to decline. During the summer of 1925, CIPSCO announced that it was going to petition the Illinois Commerce Commission for permission to abandon the streetcar system. On September 8, 1925, the city council granted CIPSCO a bus franchise until July 1930, and CIPSCO relinquished its streetcar franchise when new paving assessments were announced.

One of the Birneys, captioned as "either 127 or 128," in service in Taylorville, possibly with the powerhouse in the background

The streetcar system was operating at a loss. On September 17, 1925, the company began tearing up the tracks on the northeast line from the downtown square and replaced that section with an expanded bus route. That action was taken because the city wanted to pave the streets on which that trackage was located before winter. The city also wanted to widen the streets around the downtown square, so plans were announced to replace the remaining streetcars when new buses were received. However on October 7, 1925, buses abruptly replaced the streetcars on the remaining trackage when the generator that supplied the electricity burned out. CIPSCO instituted bus service on a figure "8" route through the city. The two Birney cars were transferred to CIPSCO's streetcar system in Joliet.

This article was edited and laid out by Frank Hicks. Thanks go to Richard Schauer and Ray and Julie Piesciuk for making this article by the late Stephen M. Scalzo available for publishing.

Taylorville Streetcar Roster

#? - secondhand single-truck motor car purchased June 1909*

#? - secondhand open trailer purchased June 1909, gone by 1912*

#? - secondhand open trailer purchased June 1909, gone by 1912*

#? - secondhand double-truck motor car purchased October 1910, ex-Peoria Railway 101-112 series car built 1891-1893 by Laclede Car Company for Central Railway

104 - single-truck deck-roof car bought new from American Car Company order #852, November 1909, delivered March 1910**

127? - single-truck arch-roof Birney bought new from Cincinnati, July 1919***

128 - single-truck arch-roof Birney bought new from Cincinnati, July 1919***

*These three cars are recorded as having been purchased from St. Louis but it's possible that they were purchased from a dealer in St. Louis and were actually ex-Chicago cars. Dates of sale match with Chicago Railway 4074, a single-truck car built in 1886 by Stephenson for North Chicago Street Railroad as a trailer and motorized in 1895; and two trailers, Chicago Railways 2663 and 2719, both built by American in 1892 for the West Chicago Street Railroad and initially used in cable service. This is conjecture and cannot be proven, but photographic evidence seems to support an ex-Chicago Railways/CUT car being part of the Taylorville roster.
**Different newspaper accounts just days apart in March 1910 both describe the arrival of a new streetcar, but no evidence of a second car (other than American-built 104) has been found. This may be a newspaper error.
***These two cars were part of a 10-car order by CIPSCO, numbered 125-134, with other cars provided to Anna-Jonesboro, Charleston, Mattoon, and Paris. The two cars assigned to Taylorville, possibly 127-128 or 128/132, are thought to have been transferred c1925 to Joliet and renumbered 151-152.

Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the Taylorville carbarn located on the northwest corner of 2nd and Washington; capacity of four cars noted.


Monday, October 25, 2021

Rainy Sunday

Frank writes...

While the weather on Saturday was spectacular, on Sunday it rained incessantly. I don't think I saw more than a dozen cars in the parking lot at any one time, and honestly I'm surprised there were that many. But there was still a crew working in the car shop, of course.
First off, a huge THANK YOU to new volunteer Nathan, who put a coat of finish paint on the final ceiling panel for the 18. This is a big help. Next time I'm out, hopefully I can cut the circular hole for the ceiling ventilator into this panel and then hoist it into place. Then the lap strips get screwed in place, the ventilator registers get installed, and the ceiling should be complete again.
I spent much of my time working on more surface prep on the exterior of the 18. Most of the rusty areas that were needle-chipped last weekend got wire-wheeled and, where necessary, hammered flat. Then an initial coat of "structural Bondo" was applied to several areas of the car. Here's that spot on the rear bumper that was pictured last week. More Bondo will be necessary before it's ready for sanding, priming, and painting.
The usual crew was out, with Greg and Zach mostly working on making sawdust as part of the 757 side door project while Nick and Joel were working on the 415, I believe. But the whole group, the four aforementioned guys plus Nathan and myself, got together and got the spindle sander hoisted up onto the "roof booth" scaffold platform. This will greatly facilitate the task of sanding and shaping the 714 "lobster trap" components.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Switch Move Saturday - Updated

Many thanks to Joel Ahrendt for sending us some photos of a big Electric Car Department switch move that happened on Saturday. The primary impetus for this was to put the 453 in Barn 13, where its current ugliness will be hidden from public view (though we're hoping it returns soon to the "land of the living on 600 volts" for continuation of restoration work), and also to bring Illinois Terminal 1702 closer to the shop, because the current plan is to resume the restoration work on this car that was stopped some 30 years ago. I wasn't there so I'm not certain what order these happened in.
Here's a telephoto shot from South Junction, with one of the CTA 6100's on the left, ComEd SW1 15 in the center, and what I believe is South Shore 19 - our only opening-window stretched South Shore car - on the right.
Here, North Shore 763 and CA&E 453 have been spotted on the lead to Yard 15.
The "Menominee" emerges into the sunlight for the first time in probably a year or two. It was recently revealed to me that research suggests this is not the 1135, as long though, but actually the 1136. But it's still the "Menominee."
Here's the 1702 on the connector track, near where the "power change" from the diesel switching the south yards to ComEd 4 switching Barn 6 took place. The open platform end of the 1702 was rebuilt back in the 1980s by Bob Bruneau, so this end of the car looks very nice.
Detroit Street Railway 3865, our resident Peter Witt, also emerges during the switch move. This car looks perfectly nice, but we don't have enough barns open to the public to keep it on display.
ComEd 15 tows CSL 4001 out of the barn at left-center, while on the right you can see Detroit 3865 behind TM flat car E58.
And here's a whole lineup of electric cars not normally on public view: South Shore 19, CTA 6125 (or 6126, I have no idea), CSL 4001, and DSR 3865, with a couple of railroad cars in the mix for good measure.

UPDATE: Bill Wulfert has also sent in a bunch of photos he took of the switch move. Thanks, Bill!

From the tack molding up, she looks terrific!




The "deck" on the 1702 is beautiful. It's just the "house" that needs some work.



The Detroit streetcar company is almost universally known as Detroit Street Railway or Detroit Street Railways, but to be absolutely semantically correct, DSR actually stands for the Department of Street Railways (of the city of Detroit).



And finally, a quick update photo of Met car 2872 over in Barn 4: