One of the items on our IRM deaccession list that has been missing a photo is the infamous Illinois Terminal tower car. Bruce Moffat recently posted a couple of photos of this thing, taken by Ed Mizerocki, on Facebook and he's kindly allowed us to re-post one of them here.
This thing was infamous for a couple of reasons. First, it had been abandoned on some siding (or maybe even in the dirt) along the IT somewhere when museum members found it. We contacted the IT to ask if they would donate it, but they didn't even know it still existed and insisted they didn't own any tower cars. So, considering it abandoned property, our guys went down with a truck and claimed it.
Once it was put into use at IRM, it became notorious for tipping over. As can be seen in this photo, quite possibly taken in early 1966 a few months before the first car (IT 415, seen in the background) ran, the thing was very tall and narrow. I believe it had clamps to clamp it to the rail so that tipping wouldn't be an issue, but evidently those were finicky or maybe they were just forgotten sometimes. Once North Shore 604 became available, the tower car quickly fell into disuse. Supposedly it was sold, but I've never been able to figure out to whom, and my best guess is that it no longer exists.
UPDATE: Many thanks to Paul Schneble, who points out that a 1983 roster of the Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication (IMOTAC) published in Andrew D. Young's book "Trolley to the Past" includes an IT tower car in their roster. It seems highly likely that this is where IRM's tower car went. It wasn't still at IMOTAC (by then ITM) in the 2010s, nor - as far as I can remember - in the late 1990s when we acquired the 308, so it may have been disassembled by that time.
I recall reading about the tower car in an early issue of Rail & Wire. Almost any tool or equipment available was put to work back in those early days!
ReplyDeleteTeed Miles, IRM Member for 20222