Monday, April 18, 2022
Spring Has Sprung
Thanks to our intrepid freelance photographer Bill Wulfert, who was out on Saturday and grabbed some pictures of truck work being done on the 3142. During annual inspection work, it was found that one of the leaf spring binders had cracked. So that truck was pulled out and the car is temporarily on a shop truck. There's a reason we take annual inspections seriously!
This shop truck is interesting in its own right - it's one of two identical trucks at IRM that were originally fitted to an Intramural Railway car from the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The Intramural Railway, built at about the same time as the South Side Rapid Transit, was electrified from the start, making it the first electrified elevated railroad in Chicago - or maybe in the country. I believe that it used "locomotive cars" pulling several trailers, and as far as I know these trucks were trailer trucks.
Built by Gilbert!
ReplyDeleteThe shop truck, that is. But as far as I know there was no connection between the Gilbert Car Co. and A.C. Gilbert, the famous pole-vaulter and magician. Or was there?
My old friend Les Ascher wanted me to point out that besides marketing American Flyer trains, Erector sets, magic kits, chemistry sets, and so on, Gilbert also sold atomic energy labs that included things like Geiger counters and cloud chambers. Those were the days!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.myflyertrains.net/AF_Catalogs/D1579/AF_catalog_page8.htm